Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 5)

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Having too many readers: Having too many readers review your Personal Statement is a common mistake. If you're an Apply Point client, consider asking two people besides your two Apply Point advisors (who work as a team) to read your essays. If you're not working with a consultant, you could ask up to four people to read your work but make that the maximum just so you won't be overwhelmed by input.

This is certainly not us saying that you shouldn't have any readers at all. You want eyes or ears on this, especially if they're attached to someone you respect who knows you well. In fact, the top question you should ask them is: "Does this sound like me?" Friends, family members, or a mentor can confirm if your essay gets your personality and best qualities across. That said, send them the edited, polished draft rather than your raw first draft. This way their suggestions and questions won't psych you out because you already have a good idea of what you want to present in your statement.

One more note on having too many readers: Never post your essay in an online forum, such as Reddit. Sharing thoughts and advice on the overall application process online with other prospective students is great, but if you post your essay, you'll have too many strangers giving input and you’ll be vulnerable to plagiarizers. 

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 4)

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Using long quotes: A short conversation you had in an intense circumstance can be illustrative in a Personal Statement. It helps a reader picture the event. But making the point of your essay completely revolve around a long quote of someone else's thoughts about medicine, leadership, integrity, or whatever, makes it their essay, not yours. No literary celebrity, professor, professional you worked with, or dad is supposed to be the star of this show. 

Dwelling on childhood stories: Saying you played lawyer / doctor / businessman as a kid should not feature prominently in your Personal Statement. In fact, we'd skip it: It's not a unique sentiment. Schools don't care how long you've dreamed of taking this step—they care if you have the potential and drive to make it happen.

This doesn't mean that a flashback scene is never relevant. If your mom had cancer when you were eight years old, you grew up fast, and you learned things about the healthcare system and doctor-patient interactions that influenced your professional goals. That is noteworthy. But you need this essay to focus on your recent impactful experiences. Ones that reinforced your interest in this career path and gave you the skills applicable to excelling in a program. 

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 3)

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Staying linear: You don’t need the essay to be linear. Imagine your intro paragraph as the opening sequence of a movie—the most thrilling ones start mid-scene. You want to see an action star in action, not waking up to a buzzing alarm clock. Don't save the excitement for many scenes later. Show yourself there, then explain how you got there. 

Overusing passive voice: Keep most of your sentences active. Passive voice can minimize your contributions and slow down your essay's momentum. Active sentences move the statement forward. 

There is flexibility, of course. Some passive sentences aren't slow-going or unnatural. Take the passive "My research has been accepted for an oral presentation at the National Impressive Conference." vs. the active "The National Impressive Conference has accepted my research for an oral presentation." Honestly, both sentences are fine. Neither goes on too long nor is confusing. Both read as a natural way of speaking—the passive one might be a little more natural. 

There are also times when you'll use passive voice for effect, accuracy, clarity, or flow. Just be mindful of how often you're doing it. 

If you missed Part 1, Click here.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 2)

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Being uptight: A personal essay is more like journalism than an academic paper. You're telling a story, and this one is about you. You want to sound intelligent and respectful but being a bit colloquial makes you appear confident and relaxed. As if to say, "This is who I am. This is who I plan to become." Boom.

Also, a profound statement is often a simple one. We've heard more than one app reader complain about needing to consult a dictionary because an applicant had been over-consulting a thesaurus. Another reason to write less formally: You're going to interview at these schools. (Hopefully!) If you don't speak at all how you write, they're going to be confused about who you really are. 

Getting too poetic: Being a little poetic can show style, but if your point isn't clear, a beautiful turn of phrase is meaningless. One of our mottos is: "Clarity above all things." Leave no room for misinterpretation. The reader needs to see the story how you do. Crisp and untangled writing is also best given the character count limitation and how much you need to share. There is room for imagery but there isn't a lot of room for showiness. 

Spouting off clichés: Nothing says, "I don't think outside of the box" quite like the phrase "I think outside of the box." We also read a lot of first drafts that include "puzzle pieces"—skip 'em, they're going to be in a thousand other essays. 

If you missed Part 1, Click here.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 1)

Writing a Personal Statement is a massive undertaking. In a relatively short document, you’re trying to show the admissions committee who you are and what you value, while simultaneously building a case for why you will succeed in the program and, later, in your career. It’s a lot. But we can help. 

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Trying to include everything: You cannot fit every experience you've ever had into this essay—and hey, that's why you also submit a Resume or a Work and Activities section. Stick to one or two key experiences that prompted growth and reinforced your interest in the program. The Personal Statement is about showing depth. 

Telling instead of showing: The admissions committee is looking for more than a list of your strengths and traits. Not only is that boring, it is unreliable. A good rule of writing is: “Show, don't tell." Listing off your qualities is meaningless if you're not backing them up with real-life examples. Instead of telling the reader, “I am a good leader because I am diligent and organized,” provide a leadership anecdote that will show you empowering your team. 

Similarly, don’t tell the school what you will do in the future without showing them why you are capable of achieving such things. We've said it before: Sharing goals works when what comes before it exemplifies your strengths and abilities. More than what you want to do, what you have done tells us who you are.

Your Law School Application: Create a Brainstorm Document

Before you can begin work on your personal statement, resume, and school-specific essays, you’ll want to create a brainstorm document where you will explore your formative experiences—what you thought, felt, said, and did. While your brainstorm text does not need to be polished, your unfinished thoughts should be organized for greater ease when writing. Putting meaningful experiences into different "buckets" helps a lot. You might have some crossover with experiences technically fitting into two buckets or more—don't worry about that; put them in one bucket, for now, to keep things grouped. Maybe write: "This is also a leadership experience" or "Integrity/Critical Thinking" in your notes.

Bucket 1: A-ha Moments: What meaningful experiences changed your mind about or expanded your perspective on something? Some could be spectacular successes, others, catastrophic failures. Have you learned from a mistake? What skills of yours did you discover in a challenging time? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? (Prepare yourself, we're going to ask those last two repeatedly.)

Bucket 2: Intellectual Curiosity: What experiences have prompted you to seek out additional learning or research? What ideas or issues are you most passionate about? Why? Do you have related academic or professional experience?

Bucket 3: Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: In what meaningful experiences did you utilize critical thinking and problem-solving skills? How did you determine the best course of action? Did you approach something one way at first and then correct yourself? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 4: Leadership Abilities: In what meaningful experiences did you show your leadership abilities? Did leadership come naturally to you, or did you work to get to this place? (Both things are great!) How did you support your team? Did you encourage collaboration or independence? Did you feel supported by your team? Did you experience any pushback, and how did you handle that if you did? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 5: Teamwork and Collaboration: During what meaningful experiences did you work with a team or collaborate with others? Were you working with people unlike yourself? Was there a struggle for balance in the beginning? Any confusion? What did you appreciate about your team members? How did they influence and impact you and your actions? Did one or two team members step up in a way you admired? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 6: Ethical Behavior: Fill this bucket. In what meaningful experiences did you showcase your ability to stand strong and make the right decision? How have you demonstrated your personal ethical code? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 7: Experiences that Reinforced Your Commitment to the Study of Law: What meaningful experiences reinforced your commitment to studying law? Have you known that you wanted to go to law school for some time? What situations let you know that you were on the right track? Was it meeting a judge or lawyer you admired? Was it accomplishing something academically? While volunteering? What did you think of these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 8: Miscellaneous: What experiences have you had that you can't quite categorize? What else should we know about you? What do you think we don't necessarily have to know? Don’t be afraid to expose some vulnerability and use everything you’ve got. You should even include things about yourself and what you care about that you don't imagine will be a factor in an essay. You might be able to weave aspects of your personality or some fun facts into your Personal Statement or school-specific essays to add some color—or something even better.

Your 2025-2026 Law School Application Timeline: January 2026 Actions

It’s never too early to create your law school application strategy! Apply Point's ideal schedule looks something like this timeline. 

January 2026

• Fill out the school applications and Character & Fitness questionnaires available through LSAC. 

• Submit your applications by mid-January, at the latest. Most law schools offer rolling admissions and submitting your application on the earlier side will benefit you.  

• Prepare for and participate in interviews, even if they are optional. Your brainstorming document will continue to be useful here. Interviews are a great way for the admissions committee to get to know you as a person (beyond your application) and for you to learn more about a program’s student experience, experiential learning opportunities, and/or alumni network.

Your 2025-2026 Law School Application Timeline: October Through December Actions

It’s never too early to create your law school application strategy! Apply Point's ideal schedule looks something like this timeline. 

October-December 2025

• Finalize your Personal Statement and School-Specific Essays. This is going to take a while. If you blast it all out in one week, you haven't done it right. Give yourself time for writing, revisions, and re-writing. 

• Update your resume to showcase the results you’ve achieved and impact you’ve had. 

• Follow up with your recommenders to ensure that they have submitted their Letters of Recommendation through the CAS. 

Your 2025-2026 Law School Application Timeline: August & September Actions

It’s never too early to create your law school application strategy! Apply Point's ideal schedule looks something like this timeline. 

August and September 2025

• Create an LSAC account and register for the Credential Assembly Service (CAS).

• Reach out to your recommenders. We'd like you to get three to four letters of recommendation, with at least two from professors who can speak to your ability to thrive in a challenging academic environment.  

• Take the LSAT. 

• Finalize your school list. You want a hearty list of "I could go here" schools and you’ll ultimately want to apply to between 10 and 15 law schools. 

• Move all of your journaled experiences into a brainstorming document. 

• Request your transcripts—and this includes those from schools abroad. 

Your 2025-2026 Law School Application Timeline: Spring & Summer Actions

It’s never too early to create your law school application strategy! Apply Point's ideal schedule looks something like this timeline. 

Spring and Summer 2025

• Be all about LSAT preparation. Take a prep course and/or work with a tutor to prepare for the test. 

• Gain meaningful experiences in both academic, internship/volunteer, and extracurricular settings. 

• Visit law schools of interest, if you’re able, and research law programs to understand their offerings and how they align with your goals. 

• Continue keeping a journal. This is repetitive for a reason—never stop doing this. It is so helpful. 

Your 2025-2026 Law School Application Timeline: "Never Too Early" Actions

It’s never too early to create your law school application strategy! Apply Point's ideal schedule looks something like this timeline. 

Never too early 

• If you haven't connected with us yet, do it as soon as you can. We can guide you on your academic choices and advise you on how to land internships or volunteer experiences that will appeal to admissions committees. 

• Investigate the LSAT. The LSAT is typically offered in January, February, April, June, and then monthly from August to November. Taking it in the summer or early fall of your application year gives you some wiggle room if you must retake it. The latest you should retake this test is November 2025 (for Fall 2026 matriculation). 

• Start a journal. You'll raid your journal for details for your Personal Statement, and School-Specific Essays. Make notes on your current experiences as they happen and past ones whenever you have a moment to ponder them. You can keep a paper or digital diary or even record audio and text notes on your phone as they come to you, and organize them into a document later. (You will eventually want all of your experiences in one place.) 

Prospective Law School Students: How to Spend Your Gap Year

For prospective law students who wish to take a gap year, there are many jobs and activities that will improve your resume, provide clarity on your future career path, and ultimately bolster your candidacy in the application process. We’ve listed a few ideas below:

• Management consulting/investment banking: For future applicants with a passion for business or an interest in corporate law, spending time at a consulting or investment banking group can increase your baseline knowledge, and understanding of the work.

• Policy analysis/research: If your interests are in constitutional or immigration law, working directly in this space can provide you experience with relevant stakeholders, as well as the ability to speak to your future goals more specifically within your law school application. It may also assist you to more strategically select law school programs that will best position you to do the work you love.

• Non-profit work: If you have identified an interest in public interest law or just in gaining professional skills quickly, working for a non-profit organization could be a sound next step. Typically, nonprofits have lean workforces and, as a result, even recent college graduates are asked to work outside their comfort zone to acquire new skills. Further, it is important to note that some organizations like Teach for America have relationships and scholarship programs with select law schools.

• Paralegal/legal assistant/legal administrator: For applicants interested in learning more about working within a law firm, this type of experience will broaden your understanding of the day-to-day life of a lawyer and will also likely show meaningful commitment to both law schools and future legal recruiters.

While it isn’t necessary to take a gap-year between undergraduate and law school, if you do, it is of vital importance to spend your time thoughtfully and productively.  It may seem appealing, in those months after college, to solely focus on LSAT and application preparations.  But remember, admissions committees will be looking very closely. Meaningful and productive work will help you to construct a narrative that will bolster your story as an applicant and positively contribute to your law school class and experience.  

Prospective Law School Students: When to Consider a Gap Year

Prospective law students often wonder if they should take time off between finishing their undergraduate work and applying to law school. While there is no one size fits all answer, the trend shows that many law schools are expecting and even rewarding students who take at least a brief interlude prior to starting school. 

According to ABA data, the majority of 2024 matriculants did report a gap prior to starting law school (65 percent). Among four of the top five ranked law schools by U.S. News and World Report in 2024, the incoming classes showed that between 70 and 90 percent of incoming students took at least one year off before matriculation. At Yale, 89 percent of the Class of 2027 was at least one year out from undergraduate and 46 percent were at least three years out.

While, it isn’t necessary for all students to take a gap year, it can be a beneficial use of time for the following types of applicants:

• Those with a general interest in the study of law, but without experience in the day-to-day operations of a law firm and/or those who do not yet feel comfortable selecting a career path within the legal industry

• Those who have a passion they would like to pursue, who can spend some time in the field to confirm law school is the right next step to help them achieve their goals

• Those who need to enhance the competitiveness of their application with additional experiences and insight into their future goals

• Those who may benefit from a year of earnings prior to taking on the financial burden of law school

• Those interested in working at a firm post- law school, as prior work experience can be looked upon quite favorably by hiring managers

Check back tomorrow as we discuss productive ways to spend your gap year. 

Your Law School Application Resume: Don’t Forget the Basics

Yesterday we posted about the importance of focusing on results in your resume. Here are a few more important elements to keep top of mind while you’re crafting your resume.

Don’t forget to…

Keep it relevant. Your resume should only include experiences from the start of college onward, and should showcase your abilities in critical thinking, problem solving, leadership, and/or teamwork.

Review the Guidance. Some law schools instruct you to “submit a resume,” while others such as Yale Law School, provide unique specifications for your “activities section” submission. Review the school’s admissions page to confirm any instructions including format and/or page limits. If the school does not provide formatting guidance, you should keep it simple. Opt for left-justified text in an easy-to-read font—we prefer Garamond—sized between 10 and 12. 

Use proper grammar. Even the best writers can get worked up about creating resume text. Don’t overthink it. Make use of active verbs to showcase your contributions. Use proper punctuation and the appropriate tense (present for current activities, past for past activities). And do not lean on corporate jargon, rather you will want to ensure that you explain what you did and your results in a way that a classmate would understand.

Your Law School Application Resume: Focus on the Results

In contrast to your personal statement, which should be a deep-dive into a few pivotal stories from your life, your resume should showcase the breadth of your experiences and accomplishments. But remember, it should not merely communicate what you did in each role and extracurricular endeavor; each entry should explore WHY what you did and accomplished was so significant to you and/or your team and/or the organization as a whole. What results did you achieve? What impact did you have? What did you learn?

Law school resumes should include the following components and be no longer than one page:

1. Education. List all the universities you attended (including study abroad experiences) and the degrees you obtained. Include a bulleted list in the Education section of internships and extracurricular involvements you participated in while in college. And be sure to note any scholarships, awards, or honors you received. If you published a thesis, you can include that here too.

2. Work Experience. If you’re applying to law school directly out of your undergraduate studies, you may not have a lot of work experience and this is to be expected. Your work experiences should include summer jobs, internships, fellowships, and/or TA positions that you held during college, as well as any post-graduate employment. Use results-oriented bullets to describe your responsibilities and outcomes, and highlight any progression in responsibility. Elaborate on the impact you’ve had and/or the lessons you’ve learned. Also note any awards and/or honors you received.

3. Additional Information. This section can include significant extracurricular and charitable involvements, languages you speak, as well as any noteworthy skills, certifications, and/or memberships.

Check back tomorrow for additional guidance on crafting your resume.

Crafting Your Law School Personal Statement: Keep it Tight

Over the next four days, we’ll highlight one takeaway daily from Marion Roach Smith’s approach to memoir that will help you craft a strong personal statement. Also, be sure to check out her memoir manifesto.

Keep it tight. Focus only on the experiences, sentences, and words that you absolutely need to support your argument and demonstrate your growth in the piece. You want to go deep, not broad. Adding in additional stories can distract the reader, and potentially lose them. Once you have demonstrated growth and made your argument, your personal statement is complete. Fight the urge to turn it into an autobiography or a resume.

Crafting Your Law School Personal Statement: Keep the Audience in Mind

Over the next four days, we’ll highlight one takeaway daily from Marion Roach Smith’s approach to memoir that will help you craft a strong personal statement. Also, be sure to check out her memoir manifesto.

Don’t forget your audience. Your memoir should hit on universal themes that are relatable to the reader. When you’re writing, and more importantly editing and rewriting, keep in mind how your audience will take in what you’re saying. Did you provide enough detail of the experiences to show growth and to make your argument? Did you provide too much or extraneous detail? Were you vulnerable and honest in your writing? 

Crafting Your Law School Personal Statement: Deploy Details

Over the next four days, we’ll highlight one takeaway daily from Marion Roach Smith’s approach to memoir that will help you craft a strong personal statement. Also, be sure to check out her memoir manifesto.

Think small. Memoir requires that you share your growth with the audience, which can be done effectively by incorporating small details. Smith notes the power of observation for showing the reader your journey to transcendence. She writes, “Never forget about the small stuff and how it reveals the big stuff of life.” Small details also create a relationship with your reader, drawing them into the experience. 

Crafting Your Law School Personal Statement: Structure

Over the next four days, we’ll highlight one takeaway daily from Marion Roach Smith’s approach to memoir that will help you craft a strong personal statement. Also, be sure to check out her memoir manifesto.

Structure. Memoir is created out of three components. Prior to writing, sit down and consider the building blocks of your piece.

1) What is this about (think: universal, e.g., connecting with and empowering your team, trying and trying again to find the right approach to solve a complex problem)?

2) What is your argument (something that you learned based on your experience)?

3) What experiences from your life will you deploy to prove your argument? 

Crafting Your Law School Personal Statement: Lessons from Memoir Writing

A memoir requires more than a recounting of events from your life. Rather, you must show the reader that you’ve experienced transcendence. Marion Roach Smith calls it the “golden rule” of memoir. She writes, “Memoir is not about what you did. Memoir is about what you did with it.” The experience is not the focus or the reason for the writing, just the vessel for sharing a more universal learning with your audience. 

Smith expands this thought when she writes, “Specifically memoir is a promise from me that I experienced something, I’ve given some real thought to it and now know what it is, and now I am going to share what I now know with you. The promise is not that I am going to recreate the experience or make you relive it with me.” 

This approach also aligns with what admissions committees are seeking in your personal statement. From your past experiences, they want to learn more about your potential and character. Show them how a recent discovery helped you evolve, how you’ve refined your abilities in innovation and/or leadership, and/or teamwork. Prove to them that you are ready to pursue a graduate education and career path.

Over the next four days, we’ll highlight one takeaway from Marion Roach Smith’s approach to memoir that will help you craft a strong personal statement. Check in daily. Also, be sure to check out her memoir manifesto.