6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A helpful book but could have been better, November 4, 2005
This review is from: Essays That Worked for Law Schools: 40 Essays from Successful Applications to the Nation's Top Law Schools (Paperback)
I personally found it helpful to see what other applicants had written. The forty essays in this book are separated into seven categories. They are essays about: Character, the school and you, important changes, entering the legal profession, contemplative, crimes, and applicants with colorful backgrounds. I found about half of the essays to be of little help to me personally as they were more the result of an applicant's specific abilities than a good essay. For example, I did not find essays about being a congressman's son, growing up as a Native American, or living in Niger to be to helpful. It would also have been nice to know which essays worked at which schools. It mentions the schools on the cover but does not tell which essays went to each school. This would be especially helpful since some worked at Florida State and Tulane while others worked at Harvard and Stanford an obvious difference. Personally, I found How to get into the Top Law Schools to be more helpful but this is good as supplementary reading.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Boring Essays, July 10, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Essays That Worked for Law Schools: 40 Essays from Successful Applications to the Nation's Top Law Schools (Paperback)
The book has its helpful points, but the overwhelming majority of the essays in this book are boring and don't stand out in too many ways, in my opinion. I'm having a hard time seeing why the various admissions officers chose to submit the essays in this book--probably because most applicants write boring essays, as even the admissions officers in this book will tell you. I also guess it's because the title of the book is "Essays That Worked," not "Essays That Are Impressive." And I'll bet the essays mainly "worked" because everything else in their admissions files was stellar and they were written in a decent fashion.
One of the essays I remember particularly well basically read like a laundry list of things that can easily be found ELSEWHERE in his application, which I specifically remember reading in just about every other book/advice about law school essays NOT to do. There don't seem to be many truly revealing essays (interesting life events), essays that grab at you or cultural essays--all of which, in my opinion, are the absolute best ones. The essays do tell you something about each person's character and most are well-written, which probably contributes to why they worked, but the way in which most of the authors acheived their ends is not exemplary. Their methods are plain, as if they are too scared to really open themselves up or talk about something very personal. I believe you can write much better essays than these.
Perhaps the most exemplary and interesting essay in terms of writing style, topic and revelations about the author is the last one in the "Essays About Character" section where a young woman wrote about, what I will call, her conflicts with her mother. Her essay is an example of what I mean by very interesting life events that reveal something about the authors in a much deeper way than the average essay does.
The most helpful parts of the book, for me, were the questions in the beginning about essays that were answered by admissions officers and the chart that shows how much estimated importance each of the top schools places on essays. It's truly eye-opening to see how much schools like Harvard and Yale value personal statements while schools like Duke and Boalt place the least amount of emphasis on it out of the top schools listed on the chart (I don't consider Indiana a top school, and their were rated as seeing essays the least important). I would, perhaps, buy the book just for this information and maybe to get an idea of how much better you can do on your essays...and also for the one stand-out essay I mentioned.
Even if you're not a minority, I believe the best essays I've read are the ones in the upcoming book by Evangeline Mitchell entitled "Profiles and Essays," a book that is basically targeted at African Americans. Not all the essays are about being Black--in fact, most aren't--so you can still get some good ideas and see good, race-neutral essays. The book is likely officially coming out this fall, but you can probably order a rough copy of it now at hopespromisepublishing.com as I did. The essays I've read in other books are, more or less, boring as well...although Richard Montauk's "How To Get Into Top Law Schools" and Willie Epps's "How To Get Into Harvard Law School" present SOME good essays.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect for applicants, August 13, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Essays That Worked for Law Schools: 40 Essays from Successful Applications to the Nation's Top Law Schools (Paperback)
I am an educational counselor and received all four of the new "Essays That Worked" books recently. These newly revised editions are perfect for any applicant stumped by or anxious about writing a personal statement. The essays are inspiring, and the advice is frank and fresh. The authors did a great job of updating these classics, and I highly recommend them to anyone applying to college, law school, business school, or med school.
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