Written by Cheyenne Wahlheim, ’26
A testimonial from Career & Professional Development’s Employer Relation Strategist, Cheyenne Wahlheim ‘26
When I began the law school admissions process, I felt completely overwhelmed. No one in my family has attended law school, and I had little understanding of what admissions committees were actually looking for beyond a solid GPA and LSAT score.
More than any other written component, the personal statement gave me the opportunity to show admissions officers who I was beyond numbers. It allowed me to communicate not only why I wanted to attend law school, but also what experiences, values, and perspectives I could contribute to a law school community.
Now that the 2025–26 admissions cycle has come to an end, I am excited to share that I will be attending Seattle University’s School of Law this fall. Looking back on the process, I wanted to share some of the most valuable lessons I learned while writing my law school personal statement, especially for applicants who may feel overwhelmed or unsure of where to begin.
Crafting a Law School Personal Statement that Stands Out
How to Pick a Topic
At the beginning of the admissions process, choosing a topic for my personal statement felt incredibly daunting. I had a hard time choosing a topic that felt personal enough to reflect my unique experience, while still highlighting what made me a good candidate for admission. Many schools will have a more specific personal statement prompt, while others may have a more general ‘why are you interested in applying here” style prompt. Read and sit with the prompt careful before you begin brainstorming.
Key Takeaways
- Let yourself entertain multiple topics. Use a blank sheet of paper, an iPad, or even a Library Study Room Whiteboard to create a mind map of ideas for topics.
- Set a timer for five minutes and write with a pen and paper about what you feel defines you. There is no right or wrong answer, but during the timed period you cannot stop writing or allow your pen to leave the paper.
- Do not be afraid to get personal or emotional. The strength of my personal statement came, at least in part, from my willingness to share how a deeply impactful and challenging personal experience inspired my law school journey.
Crafting the start of your personal statement
Right from the first few sentences, you want to capture attention and pique interest. Most likely, the admissions officer reading your statement has looked at thousands of other statements before reading yours. This means your personal statement needs to grab attention right from the start. Vivid and descriptive imagery can help with this process. For example, here is how I began my personal statement, starting with a moment in time that was impactful to me and then using the rest of my statement to elaborate how that moment led me to pursue a legal degree:
“Time stood still as I answered my phone… My body felt numb as I asked the police on the phone to confirm that she was safe and that someone was with her. I felt desperate, helpless to protect my [family member name] from her addiction, and terrified that I was going to lose her.”
Give yourself enough time to brainstorm, revise, and ask others for feedback
One of the most helpful things I did during the application process was attend a pre-law event prior to the beginning of my application cycle. This event required me to submit a law school personal statement draft in order to attend. At the event, I had the chance to sit down one-on-one with current law students who were willing to read personal statement drafts and offer honest feedback. Although the draft I took with me to get feedback on was far from polished, it was helpful in that it gave me a starting point to work from. Because of this early start to the revising process, by the time I submitted my application, my personal statement felt like something that had truly evolved with me rather than something I rushed to finish.
Takeaways:
- Start early, and give yourself enough time to sit with your personal statement prior to application deadlines
- Ask peers, professors, staff at LMU for the support you need during the application process
- Set up a meeting or attend office hours with trusted professors and request them to read your personal statement
Utilize your campus resources:
During my writing process, I took full advantage of the resources that LMU offers to assist me.
Key Takeaways
- Make an appointment with a CPD peer advisor or career coach early in your writing process to get feedback and tailored advice for your personal statement
- Make an appointment (or two) at the LMU Writing Center with a tutor. The tutors can help you at any stage in your writing process, and act as an additional resource to help with revising or drafting your personal statement.
Tying it all together: How to write the end to your personal statement
The last few sentences of your personal statement should both tie together your whole statement and reiterate your ‘why’ for pursuing that specific law school. For my conclusion, I tied my opening sentence back with my personal experience and used this to reiterate why I am pursuing a law degree at this time.
“My experiences have led me to pursue law school to become a criminal defense attorney, to approach the accused with empathy, and to see my [family member] in every future client. I want to do the kind of work that ensures nobody ever has to receive a life-changing call like the one I had.”
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- The Use of A.I.
My best advice is that admissions committees do not want to know what A.I. has to say. They want to hear from you, in your own voice, perspective, and experiences. Some law schools may even make you verify with a signature that you did not use A.I. to craft your personal statement. The best way to avoid the temptation to rely on A.I. throughout your writing process is to give yourself the time you need to craft your own personal statement.
- Submitting a Personal Statement that is a Resume in Written Form
The admissions committee will already have access to your resume as part of the application.
Your resume is your opportunity to expand on your experiences and demonstrate something about yourself that is not already covered in your resume. It can feel easier to just use your personal statement space to write out your resume bullets in essay form, but DO NOT DO THIS. The personal statement is your chance to add value to your application, not simply reiterate what is already in your application. Highlight new skills, character traits, relevant stories to show how you will add value to this particular program.
This does not mean, however, that you cannot or should not talk about experiences listed on your resume in your personal statements. This does mean that, in your personal statement, you can focus beyond resume qualifications on how that experience may have shaped your character or skillset in addition to desire to pursue law school.
Helpful Resources for Writing a Law School Personal Statement:
Good luck to all my aspiring attorneys!
