Personal Statements - Why 'X School'

[CanLawHopeful]

How much time did you all spend talking about the actual school in your PS?

Trying to develop a decent narrative and also fit in various experiences is a bit tough with the word limit constraints.

Is a paragraph or two sufficient?

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Renerik]

From what I've seen, the norm is adding a paragraph at the very end of the statement addressing Why X.

The stronger personal statements try to tie certain aspects of the school and city into the rest of the PS.

[TobyFlenderson]

I agree with Renerik. 

[angelica97]

Just wanted to jump in this thread and ask -- is it ideal/recommended for the PS to read as a narrative? (hook, compelling anecdote etc)

[GoatDuck]

1 hour ago, angelica97 said:

Just wanted to jump in this thread and ask -- is it ideal/recommended for the PS to read as a narrative? (hook, compelling anecdote etc)

I’ve gotten the impression that narrative style is a US thing, and that Canadian schools want a more direct, straight to the point (but also authentic) piece of writing.

[RIP-Joel]

1 hour ago, angelica97 said:

Just wanted to jump in this thread and ask -- is it ideal/recommended for the PS to read as a narrative? (hook, compelling anecdote etc)

https://marcuseducate.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Примеры-эссе-для-UofT.pdf

here's a bunch of examples of personal statements that got students admitted to uoft law. this should give you an idea of what they are looking for 🙂 

[Phaedrus]

Ditto, Renerik. I was admitted to the schools I applied to and gave paltry attention to "why X school". It's all bullshit anyway: their alumni are reputable and amazing, they're well known for their local/national contribution projects (name a few), and you want to be part of their community of do-gooders and changemakers. It's necessary asskissing that's best left to a minimum. 

Focus on crafting a strong narrative, and reserve "why X school" just enough space that it's a natural next-step (and you know that because of the above-noted amazing crap they/their alumni do).  

[CanLawHopeful]

All, thanks for the commentary and insight. Very helpful to me and people in my position.

Edited October 12, 2022 by CanLawHopeful

[Ryn]

I can say that as a former adcom member at Osgoode, I never found the "why our school" sections to be very compelling. Most of the time, the applicant has no idea what they're talking about. And even if they do, I'm not sure I am motivated to care very much unless you have some deeply personal reasons that tie in with the rest of your application (maybe you were legitimately inspired to get into law by a prof at the school and you wanted to be taught by them or something, I don't know).

In my view, you can certainly do without and lose nothing. If you do mention a why, as Renerik suggested, I would write no more than a few sentences on it. More than that, I think you're just wasting characters on it.

Perhaps it's nice to have some context, but truthfully you're probably applying to the school because it's a law school and you want to be a lawyer. That's a totally legitimate reason and often the case for applying to an institution. You don't really have to make up another reason unless there really is a legitimate one.

[123]

I don’t remember writing it and I got in everywhere I applied.