Customer Reviews

Essays That Worked for Law School: 35 Essays from Successful Applications to the Nation's Top Law Schools

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

...[This book] was very helpful when I first started thinkingabout how to approach my personal statement.

The fact is that yourGPA and LSAT are the most important factors in law school admissions,so the bars at the front of the book indicating the importance of the essay in the admissions process can be misleading. Harvard may give the essay a "10" in importance, but Salman Rushdie probably couldn't write his way into Harvard with a 2.9/159 and nothing else going for him. On the other hand, if your scores are competitive, the competition at HYS is so intense that it is likely your essays, in conjunction with the other parts of your application (recommendations, etc.), that are going to determine whether or not you get in.

This book is short, concicse, and informative. The "interview with an admissions officer" put me in the admissions officer's shoes, and the concerns expressed by the ad.coms seemed genuine.

This book avoids the "how to," and instead tries to help the reader "understand better the boundaries of tone and content within which [they] can work." This is what I was looking for, and this is what I got.

If you are looking for a "how to" book, you will get more mileage from something like "Essays That Will Get You Into Law School." If you're looking for essays that worked for *Harvard*, check out Willie Epps' book, "How To Get Into Harvard Law School." But if you're looking to read a well chosen selection of essays that made a difference in the minds of admissions officers, this is the book for you.

I found the grouping of essays a useful organizational tool that helped me better grasp the 'boundaries' of acceptable personal statements. Some of the essays were less polished than others, but (IMO) the quality of the essays overall was better than in say, "Essays That Will Get You Into Law School."

Another reason I liked the essay selection is because I found myself thinking "Wow, that's the kind of essay I want to write," or "I wish I had written that essay." Personally, I found that the best and most moving essays in the other books mentioned above were tied to extraordinary experiences or abilities of the essay writer, whereas Curry's book generally (but not always) presented essays that were written by good writers, and did not depend as much on the author's unique gifts or background.

There is a limit to how much any book can do for you in the law school admissions process. I wouldn't believe anyone who said "This essay book got me into Harvard!" But for about ten bucks, this book will give you perspective, and hopefully put you on the road to writing a good personal statement.

I won't begin to write as if I know what law school admissions committees are looking for in an essay. I believe it is common sense that not all schools will review or value the personal statement equally. As a current law school applicant going this alone I bought this book to help give me a clue as to what the PS is all about and I feel the book did that. What it showed me is that you can write whatever you want to write about - just make it meaningful and insightful into WHO you are. I struggled with the format of my essay and after about the 6th revision of the format (nevermind the content :) I came up with a format I would not have even considered before reading the book. As mentioned previously, I am a CURRENT applicant and do not know as of this writing how successful my essay is, but I DO know that I am proud of what I wrote, and feel very comfortable with it - because it is absolutely 'me'. Good luck to us...

This book has some good advice, and the essays are interesting to sample, but this book is definitely past its prime. I regret that I bought it. "Essays That Will Get You Into Law School" by Kaufman, Dowhan, and Burnham was much more helpful to me when I wrote my personal essay for my law school application.

This book has good and bad qualities. It segments various "types" of essays such that you will likely see examples of the type of essay you would like to write. This is helpful if you want to write, say, a "why I got bad grades" type of essay. Also, the authors give good tips about what to hit on, and what not to touch. So, in this regard, it's a helpful guide. However, I am an older student and I found the content of most essays to be very naive and difficult to relate to. It's hard to imagine many of these being considered "good" samples by admissions departments, especially by today's standards (some of the essays are from the 1980's). The tips are disappointing too. For example, they offer feedback from admissions officers, but it's very thin stuff; there's no depth on perceptions and perspectives of these individuals. For example, in "Law School Confidential" by Robert Miller, he conducted a candid interview with a Director of Admissions. This level of depth is missing in this book. You get the surfacy stuff that can spawn ideas for your own essays, but not a lot of perspective. So, it was helpful to me but it lacked the depth I hoped for.

This book was great!! While applying for law school, I found that there was very little information regarding essays (tons of stuff about the LSAT, but what about the essay??). These examples were extremely helpful. I enjoyed reading how successful students had approached the task of presenting themselves in a few short pages. After reading this book I felt that basically anything goes in terms of law school application essays. I was finally ready to tackle writing my own essay(yikes!).

This book is completely out of date - but perhaps may oil the creative gears - no modern essay question addressed - the content on Essayedge.com is free & far better.. Another Ivy League lawyer doing things besides practicing law .. you gotta love it ..