Crafting a Winning Law School Personal Statement Presenter: Karen Buttenbaum Partner, Spivey Consulting Group

Transcription

1 Crafting a Winning Law School Personal Statement Presenter: Karen Buttenbaum Partner, Spivey Consulting Group Our webinar will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m., EST. You are invited to type in questions prior to the start of the webinar.

2 Our presenter Karen Buttenbaum 15 year veteran of law school admissions From , she was a voting member of the admissions committee at Harvard Law School 16,000 applications and interviewing over 1,000 applicants Member of the Massachusetts Bar

3 Insights About Law Admissions from Eamon Ladewski Associate Director of Admissions, Michigan State College of Law Seven cumulative years of admissions experience, most recently at Notre Dame Law School Assisted and counseled thousands of students through every level of the law school admissions process

4 WHY IT MATTERS (IN A NUTSHELL)

5 A TALE OF TWO STATEMENTS THE BAD THE GOOD 85% 15%

6 WHAT MAKES THE BAD, BAD? Wrong Audience in Mind Poor Judgment Sloppy Top 10 mistakes Not proofreading your own work. Restating your resume in paragraph form. Talking about someone else more than yourself. Trying to make something out of nothing. Thinking that the essay needs to be all about why law or why a certain law school. Focusing too much on your career plans. Declaring love for one area of law without knowing anything about it. Repetitious use of certain words. Too much information. Using too many unnecessary words and/or lack of precision with the words you use.

7 WHAT ABOUT THAT OTHER 15%? Something that YOU are passionate about Tells a story Puts a smile on the face of the reader - Doesn t mean the story has to be about an achievement - Some of the best are about failures

8 THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS (1) (2) (3) BE COMPELLING BE PROFESSIONAL LEAVE THE READER WITH A FOND IMPRESSION OF YOU

9 WHAT DOES A GOOD PS LOOK LIKE? I sit and I play. I play until it is too dark to read my music. Then comes that indescribable moment, sought by all musicians, when thinking becomes subordinate to instinct. The music is no longer just sound, but poetry spoken from within. I love to play French horn at dusk. Before I begin to play, I imagine the most beautiful conglomeration of sounds and expressions traveling through the air. I take a deep breath and immerse myself in the music that I love so much. Playing a Strauss concerto or a Beethoven sonata represents, for me, the culmination of countless hours of practice and hard work deciphering fingerings, tempos and pitches. In this transcendent moment, though, when I play in the darkness of the room, I think not of the fingerings and the intervals that I need to execute, but rather of the expression and interpretations that make the music mine. I play late into the night with nothing on my mind other than trying to make each note I play the most beautiful and sonorous sound. I hear the ethereal tone of my horn echoing off the walls and saturating the air. There is something intoxicating about dwelling in a single moment in time. Hours spent trying to perfect a note that is born in the soul and travels through the air to live no more. The endless pursuit of one moment of perfection ultimately not mine to have and to hold. My life is spent pursuing these moments.

10 WHAT DOES A GOOD PS LOOK LIKE? (CONT.) In college, I found that my fascination with musicality and expression translated easily to literature. When I first read Lolita, I recognized in Nabokov s writing the same lyricism that I always strive for when playing French horn. I saw the same passion I so often feel in the moment of music. I immediately fell under the spell of Nabokov s enchanting prose and artfully chosen words. It was the most beautiful story I had ever read the story of a grown man, head over heels in love, driven to murder by forbidden concupiscence. I began to empathize with this man, thinking to myself, How terrible to love someone so much someone so unattainable. And just like that, I found myself rooting for a pedophile. Perhaps it was my passion for music that allowed me to fully see this side of Nabokov s hero. Life is rarely black and white. I found that I could empathize with someone who was desperately trying to hold onto something so poignantly beautiful, something that could never last, while at the same time being completely aware of his gaping flaws. As I learned reading Lolita, Nabokov s clear love for and mastery of language, while incongruently romantic, is at the same time capable of transforming the depths of one s perception and understanding of the world. There is a power in words, not only to entertain and enlighten, but also to persuade, convince and even transport. I have seen this power manifested in the plea of an applicant for political asylum, in the argument crafted on his behalf and in the judge s ultimate decision, which can bring a human being out of danger and to a new life. It is this power of expression and my desire to master it that draws me to the law.

11 Q&A

12 Upcoming programming

13 Wednesday, November 5, 7:30 p.m., EST: Career Options and Market Outlook for Attorneys Wednesday, November 12, 7:30 p.m., EST: Expert Advice as You Plan for Law School and a Legal Career Wednesday, November 19, 12:00 p.m., EST: Careers in Private Practice and Government 13

14 On Campus Additional Events Hosted by MSU Law Friday, October 24: Lunch and Learn: Tips for Assembling Your MSU Law Application for Admission Tuesday, November 11: Admissions Reception with Alumni, Students and Faculty Virtual Events Wednesday, October 22: Video Consulting Session Tuesday, November 4: Online Chat 14

15 Contact MSU Law Admissions for a free copy of our LSAT Prep Guide: admiss@law.msu.edu or

16 Thank you for joining us! Karen Buttenbaum: Eamon Ladewski: