The Essays (back to contents)

For organizational purposes only, we divided the essays into seven groups. We created the introductions to each group of essays from the comments submitted by law school admissions officers and other admissions counselors. Please bear in mind that this grouping is totally artificial. You don’t have to write an essay that would fit neatly into one of these categories.

As well as being a fine piece of writing, an essay might also exemplify a “type.” For instance, the piece on the death of Michael Stewart (page 104) is a good example of an essay on injustice, which is a popular topic. So if you are planning to write this type of essay, pay special attention to the comments in the group’s introduction, as well as to the actual essay.

Of course, the essay question may limit your range of responses. Most law schools ask for something vague and open-ended, such as “Please write something that will tell us more about you.” For that, you could write about practically anything. Other schools have more specific topics that require much more focused writing.

The essays are reproduced almost exactly as they were submitted, though of course the fonts and spacing are different. We did not correct the writers’ punctuation, spelling, or grammar—but note that very rarely would such correction be needed.

Since the authors of several essays requested anonymity, we occasionally deleted proper names and substituted a general name or date for a specific reference. In addition, at the request of a few schools, we sometimes disguised the name of the school to which the writer applied. However, our substitutions never distort the intent of the author.

Read Them All (back to contents)

Let’s get one thing straight: The essays in this book are not standards that you have to meet in order to get into law school. Some of you might have essays in your head far better than anything here. (If so, let us read them! CLICK HERE for information on submitting your essays for the next edition of this book.) These are simply essays that worked—not the only essays that worked.

We hope that you will first read all the essays. There’s a wide range here; some are 500 words, some are 5,000. Some have dialogue, some are aggressive, some are reflective. The question you should ask yourself as you read is not, Is this a good essay? but rather, Do I get to know this writer from this essay? If you are an admissions officer, you will also ask, Now that I know this applicant, does he/she match my law school?

Getting into law school is not a writing contest; the competition is more subtle than that. More important than how well you write is how well you illustrate who you are and whether a particular school is right for you. Believe it or not, the admissions officer wants what’s best for you. With the ever-increasing quality of the applicant pool, most schools have little trouble filling their first-year classes. Your task is to communicate something new and meaningful about yourself to someone who only knows you by your numbers.

A Warning (back to contents)

While we know that no one would be foolish enough to copy any of these essays verbatim, some of you might be tempted to take an essay and “change it around a little” to suit your application. We hope you know how stupid that would be. For one thing, stealing a phrase or even an idea from an essay in this book is flat-out dishonest. Duke University, the University of Virginia, and many other schools maintain that the application is covered by their Honor Codes. Thus, cheating on the application will guarantee your rejection from those schools. In fact, Stanford recently expelled a student two months into the academic year when they discovered he had plagiarized his application essay.

Remember, this has been a popular book for many years. Most admissions officers have read this book and are familiar with each essay. No admissions officer would ever admit a plagiarist.

A counselor from a prestigious prep school sent us this anecdote regarding our college Essays That Worked book:

When I was Associate Dean of Admissions at Georgetown in the (late 80’s), we were asked to select memorable essays from among the applications of students who were being admitted. Two enterprising Yale graduates had requested samples of “essays that worked” to publish in a guidebook aimed at a high school audience. Because of our involvement in the project, we received several complimentary copies of the volume, which I read out of curiosity.

This background knowledge proved useful during my tenure on the George Washington University admissions staff in a subsequent year. Imagine my surprise when I reviewed an application, only to recognize one of the examples from Essays that Worked. Although the student had elaborated on the original theme, the initial paragraph was word for word part of an essay that appeared in the book.

The student who plagiarized was unequivocally denied, even though he would normally have been a good candidate. Instead of increasing his chances of admission, he instantly destroyed the value of all his academic achievements over three and a half years. I shared with his college counselor the reason for our decision, knowing that the message would be relayed to the student. What a shame! He didn’t trust his own ability to be impressive enough.

The following pages demonstrate the creative potential of the law school application essay. We hope these essays will inspire you when you begin to write, and we hope they will give you the confidence to write a bold, personal piece that is truly your own and that will help an admissions officer see why you are special. Enjoy the essays, study them, and let them be a catalyst for your own creativity.

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