A Personal Decision

I have decided to ditch a personal statement that describes my motivation for going to law school. I have been working on it for months, and I have not been happy with anything that I have written. Every draft has a major flaw that I just can't find a way to fix. Looking at what I have going on at work and with the family in the next few weeks, I don't have time to rework my latest statement into something that I would feel comfortable submitting with my applications. I would rather have my applications in early than delay submission until the middle of November.

My wife read the statement that I submitted to Richmond, George Mason, and Alabama. She thought it was good. That's high praise from her. I would rather use a statement that is good than something that is merely adequate. Science Ph.D.s go for patent law enough that admission committees will likely assume that's why I'm applying. I'm fine with that. Michelle over at ask.com read my statement, and she thought I should address my law school motivations to make the statement really solid. I thought I needed to address my motivations as well. That is why I've been working so hard to get a statement that conveyed my reasons for pursuing law school. Unfortunately, those statements were usually more about the pharmaceutical industry than me.

The point of this blog is to see how soft factors like the personal statement impact law school admissions decisions. We'll see how I do with a statement that does not directly discuss my motivations for law school.