Ep 68: Should You Write a Why X Law School Essay?
Today we're going to be talking about "Why X" Law School Essays. Should you write one to every school? Should you write one to any school? How should you best go about this particular type of essay?
Episode Highlights
A “Why X” law school essay is an essay answering to a prompt (not every school has this prompt) that basically asks, “Why do you want to come to this school?” Other ways that this prompt could be asked are:
Why do you feel like the university is a good fit for you? Is this a place where you see yourself?
Why do you feel like it's the best choice for you in your legal education?
Some may say that you should write a “Why X” law school essay to every single school, whether they ask for it or not. I don't think it's good advice.
If a school asks for a “Why X” law school essay and you feel like you can write a great essay, then go for it. You don’t want to leave that essay last minute, because it if it ends up being poorly done, all it will tell admissions is that you don’t care at all for the school and you didn’t try. Don't put yourself in that position.
If a school does not ask for a “Why X” law school essay, I would be a little hesitant in deciding to write one anyways. Admissions is not the most well staffed offices in the world. If you're giving them more work to do that they didn't ask for, it will annoy them and distract them from your application. Writing essays they did not ask for, especially when they're not written well, is not a great look. It doesn't help you.
An option to go about writing or not writing a prompt is simply asking admissions. If you have been this entire time, like I've been asking you to, forging and cultivating relationships with admissions, going to information sessions, seeing them at LSAC forums, even scheduling a Zoom call, because you actually can do that at so many law schools, at so many law schools. You can ask them. An example of going about this could be:
Hi John at Sunnyside Law School, my name is Sydney Montgomery. Thanks so much for this info session, I've learned so much. How does your office feel about “Why X” law school essays?If I have a really compelling reason for why I want to go to your school, I don't really see a place on the application for it, what would you advise me to do?
They will either say, “Oh, you know what? Go ahead and write it anyway.” Amazing. Now when they read it and they get that extra essay that they did not ask for, they would say, “Oh, but this is Sydney and we talked about this. Oh, I'm so excited to read this compelling essay about why she wants to go to Sunnyside Law School.” Or
“You know what? Incorporate that as part of your personal statement.” Great. Now for the personal statement to Sunnyside Law School, you're going to weave it in there because you follow instructions and you are respectful of their time and the pieces of papers that they want to read. Or maybe they'll say,
“You know what? I love that you wanna go here, but that really has 0% bearing on admissions and I wouldn't spend extra time on it.” Well, great. Now you have saved time and resources writing an essay that no one wanted you. All three of these are fantastic options because you were considerate, you engaged in the admissions process, you got to know them.
In terms of the content of your “Why X” law school essay, I like to have students do this exercise. If you got into all the schools that you applied to, what are the reasons that would make you choose a school over another school? And I think thinking about it in that frame can help you think about different things because once you've got into schools, they all pretty much have good academics.
What are some of the reasons that one school is actually better than the other? I should feel like you actually want to go to the school. Like the school should feel special. It should feel genuine.
You should also do some element of research. Look into clinics, journals, and professors. Look at the community that it's around. There are a lot of reasons that make a school a good fit outside of the classroom as well, and that's so important.
What are the values of the school? What other personal connections have you been to visit? What are my personal reasons? What are my values? What pieces of myself have I not shared?
Tweetable Quotes
“[Your application is] like a puzzle…You could be a 50 piece puzzle or a 1000 piece puzzle, and you should want to be a 1000 piece puzzle because that’s more interesting. You want to be an exciting puzzle, so you want to be providing as many details as possible as long as they weave together into a cohesive narrative.”
“I think that if you can’t write a compelling essay and you’ve done research, and you can’t do it, don’t do it. But if you have compelling personal reasons that elucidate something else from your life, that might have a geographical, a family, an educational, an academic, a value, or culture based reason…you absolutely should put those in a compelling “Why X” law school essay and follow their instructions on how you should submit it.”