I wouldn't say that it has to go from one point in time to another, but FOR ME, my statement will absolutely go from one point emotionally to another. This will probably mean it moves through time to put this into perspective.

Let me give you some examples (and mind you these aren't necessarily ones I will use) - mentioning the time I was living out of my car to contrast against the height of my career after college when making money hand over fist.
Going from depressed (feeling like a failure) to satisfaction from not only (finally) making it myself, but in helping others achieve (ie, University Athlete of the Year)
Or I could take on a more personal route and talk about growing up never knowing my father and touching on those that served father roles in my life and how this all played out in the above mentioned cases.

I have many, many more just from brainstorming. The tough part will be in selecting things that are important in discussing WHO I am, but also discussing how law school fits into everything... and then doing this in basically a page (2 with the double space).

I'd love to swap statements or review what you have. I don't want to put much more than I just wrote onto the board, but I'm sure we could figure out a way to swap statements... maybe Noah would have some ideas.

I can see where you're going, and in those cases I realize that going from one point to another makes great sense. But you're right: the key objective is to tell that compelling story while keeping everything to just two double-spaced pages.

I'm still brainstorming in a way and don't have anything too substantive, but would love to swap statements as well.

I really hit the writing hard this weekend, coming up with what I think is the start of several strong personal statements.

But I have a couple of questions that I'd appreciate any feedback on.

I've been out of college for three years now and have been working for the same company for two of those years in sales/marketing.

My senior year of college I was executive editor of my university's daily paper, which was essentially a full-time job (40+ hours per week) and I did that while maintaining my full academic scholarship.

Also, over the past 10 years, I've worked with an international non-profit organization as a volunteer. As a teenager I was international president of the youth division of that organization, and currently sit on the international committee/board of directors that oversees the youth division.

All of these things are, in my opinion, worthy of my time and consideration for my essay, but I just can't seem to figure out which one would be the best and most relevant. For one, the non-profit/volunteer stiff is on my resume in detail as I've served on many international committees for this organization.

Any ideas on what would be best, or how I could put them all together. I want to be concise and clear in my writing. If I could fuse two of the topics together that would be great, but I'm not sure how I could do it where it doesn't seem forced.

Thanks for any feedback.

You might want to enlist friends to act as readers for you. If you know any professional editors/lawyers/academics, even better.

I've found a mix of both is extremely helpful - someone to watch the Ps and Qs so to speak and others specifically for the emotional side of it.

You may want to use the angle that you've really been passionate about jobs/roles that have dealt with interesting ideas and how those ideas impact people. Law is a huge part about how we structure society -- and I'm sure your work on the paper and with that organization tie into that.

BTW, the folks at mbamission.com are starting up a JD admissions program. They do free half-hour consultation sessions for folks considering going that route - e-mail them at info@mbamission.com but be sure to say you're looking to apply to law school.

- N

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