Be True to Your School:
Essays about Why You and the School are Well-Matched

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All law schools are not alike. While admissions officers can quickly spot “sucking up,” showing some knowledge of the school to which you are applying is a smart move. Law school readers, maybe better than any others, can recognize a canned, generic essay that you’re sending to several schools. Law school is serious business; admissions officers want evidence that you understand the gravity of the coursework and that you’ve made an effort to treat your application to their school seriously.

Any indication that you have carefully considered the schools you want to attend can make you seem more mature and respectful. You want to persuade the admissions officer that you’re a good fit with the school, but don’t spoil your observations with effusive language and gratuitous praise.

“We get a lot of applicants trying to flatter us by writing something like, ‘Your school has an internationally renowned reputation’,” one admissions officer said. “And you just know they wrote the same thing to twelve other schools.”

Even if you honestly believe that a school has “an exciting and diverse student body, brilliant professors, and an excellent program of study,” telling them this says nothing about you.

Every law school has some fine aspects, and a candidate who has researched the school can speak to them. Doing so could convince the admissions officer to let you in—or reject you. If you cannot substantiate your argument that you “fit” the school well, the admissions officer will see it as merely contrived—and perhaps you as merely desperate.

Yale Law School is known for its politically active, often left-wing students and faculty, and an essay about your compassion for the oppressed might be received well there. But if your history of activism consists solely of being treasurer for your high school’s Young Republicans club, you’re not going to need directions to New Haven.

The law schools at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan are considered rather traditional, where your hard work may count for more than your politics. But telling the admissions committee in Ann Arbor that you are “inspired by the demanding workload at Michigan” will fall flat if your college grades are mediocre.

So consider a wide range of law schools, and if you find a terrific match for your interests, personality, and background, by all means exploit it. But don’t try to stroke the admissions officers’ egos or think you can take advantage of their naivete. They’ve seen it all before, many times.

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