Ep 78: What to Avoid in Your Law School Scholarship Essays
After writing endless amounts of law school application essays, writing supplements, diversity statements, writing another essay for scholarships may seem dreadful. However, it is worth the effort and time if it means earning money to help pay off law school. Today, Alice goes over 3 things you should avoid when writing your law school scholarship essays to help you power through and give your best shot at receiving a scholarship.
Episode Highlights
Avoid disregarding the prompt and the parameters.
At its heart, this is follow the directions, which has been said a lot on here if you’ve been listening for a while. Law schools spend a lot of time and they spend a ton of effort into the way that they word the questions, the way that they word those prompts. They are looking for something specific. The prompt may seem broad, and you may be able to choose from different parts of your life that apply to whatever scholarship it is, but they have asked you for specific information and you need to give it to them.
Follow the formatting guidelines. They can get as specific as they want. Most of the time they give you some leeway, but you're still going to have those parameters built in and you still have to follow them first. Follow the directions. It is in there for a reason, and admissions like to see that you listen.
Avoid overgeneralizing and total recycling of essays
Not saying that you have to start from scratch, but if you are recycling essays you have already written, chances are they're gonna be pretty general or they're gonna have something to do specifically with you that doesn't change school to school. You want to do your research, you want to be as specific as possible. You want to make sure that you are tying your experience, the things that make you a good candidate for this particular scholarship, to the things that are important to the organization/donor/school, to show them, you’re the best candidate.
Tip: One thing to do that's super helpful in being super general is mirroring the language that you see in the prompts. If you can mirror that language and apply it to the things that you have to offer, do so.
Avoid bad writing. Mechanically and content-wise.
Engage me as a reader, retell me a story that is going to make sure I get what it is from your resume. Utilize the space to share a story you haven't shared yet.
You can write an engaging story, and it can be completely discounted because admissions can not read the way it is presented to them. Make sure this is your best piece of writing.
Tweetable Quotes
“The most engaging stories in the world will not land if your writing is bad.”