Great resource

I bought this book because at one crazy point, I actually thought of going to law school. I came to my senses eventually and I ended up applying to PhD programs in biology. I thought I wasted money on this book, but then I gave it a chance and it actually gives great overall advice on writing effective personal statements for ANY purpose. Graduate schools all look for the same thing ultimately, they want to know what you are about and they want to know why you chose your career path. This book is great because it gives you examples of people coming from all sorts of background and you can draw on all their experiences to put together your own essay. I even stole a line from one of the essays because it applied to my own life and I wouldn't have found a better way to say it. I'm going to Columbia University starting this fall, so I guess my personal statement wasn't half bad. This book made the job a lot easier, especially if you have writer's block like I did. It really gives you a starting point.

OK, but new edition of "Essays That Worked" is better

The new edition of "Essays That Worked for Law Schools" by Curry and Baer is more up-to-date and has better essays, I thought.

A good strategy guide

This book profiles several different slants on submitting an effective law school essay. Read them all and decide which one will work best for you.

Most of the essays read like glorified pages from the "Fearures" or "Special" section of any major metropolitan newspaper. That is, they mostly offer tales of woe, struggle, challenge and personal goals with the reader asked to provide the ultimate happy ending - admission!

Whatever tear-jerking tact you wish to take in your essay, be it poverty, race, sexuality or politics to name a few, be sure to omit any references to conservatism, the christian religion or questionable politics. The admissions committe frowns on this and typically favors "enlightened" (read:liberal) perspectives, and it would be best if you kept it this way and saved your integrity for after graduation. I can't beleive I just wrote that, but it's true. Baring your soul can be risky at this stage of the game, so be careful.

Oh, and in case you're wondering: being a recent white immigrant is a nice touch, but alas, as you are still white, you probably won't get much mileage out of the "minority plea for admission" tactic. This line doesn't fly very far for white females, either, so you'd better have something else to sell. Sorry.

Maybe you'll agree with most or all of the views and perspectives in these essays, maybe not. Just remember that the admissons essay is not just a simple essay, and you must use careful judgement when crafting this very important piece of sales material.