*Note: We have limited availability for Single Application Reviews for the 2025-26 cycle—sign up here.
X
Eight examples of great law school personal statements.
Apart from your LSAT score and your undergraduate GPA, the personal statement is often the most important component of your law school application. Step one is choosing your topic—but how do you determine what the best topic is for you?
While brainstorming/topic selection is sometimes the most difficult component of the law school personal statement process, even the strongest and most differentiated of stories (as this one is) often need significant conversations with our clients as we work together putting words on paper.
We wanted to post the below example of a case when a separate diversity statement was not necessary because the personal statement already covered those elements.
A law school personal statement from an applicant who overperformed their numbers.
Please note that this example was published in 2017, and law school admissions develops over time.
“But I don’t have a WOW factor.”
Two examples of great personal statements from 2017.
Here is a personal statement from last year’s transfer cycle we think worked very well.
In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses the phenomenon in law school admissions known as "yield protection," and explains steps you can take to prevent being waitlisted as a result of it.
You can listen to this podcast below, or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
As promised in the podcast, here are some resources for how to choose which law school to attend:
In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses some of the most commonly held misconceptions about the law school admissions process, and how understanding them can help you get admitted.
You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
For today's podcast, a little something different — some advice on resiliency in the face of watching others succeed in the ways you'd like to be succeeding.
You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
In this podcast, Mike answers a few questions from Reddit.
You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
In this podcast, Mike Spivey interviews groups of current law school applicants about their experiences with the admissions process — what has surprised them, how they've handled the stress, what they expect for the future, and what advice they would give to someone at the beginning of the process. The participants are all volunteers from r/LawSchoolAdmissions, and only one happened to be a client of Spivey Consulting.
Here's a link to the blog post Mike mentioned in the podcast: Spivey Blog, The Malevolent Puppeteer.
You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts. Thank you for listening!
In this podcast, Mike Spivey answers more questions from Reddit. First up, he discusses differences international JD applicants might see in their admissions processes with the special considerations of this application cycle. Then, he talks about how to figure out whether a law school is the right fit for you when you can't visit in person — and, for those who haven't been admitted yet, how to write a strong letter of continued interest (LOCI) without visiting.
You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
