The Personal Statement and PR

As you know, I am applying to various law schools. One of the components of the applications is a personal statement. Since the majority of law schools do not grant formal interviews for applicants, the personal statement has replaced traditional interviewing.

Realizing that the personal statement is a way for admissions officers to get to know me without actually meeting me, I plan to show, on paper, what I can offer to the prospective institutions, thus persuading them to admit me. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to incorporate my public relations skills and writing skills to write a great personal statement.

When I came up with a theme for my personal statement, I began writing ideas for main points and supporting details for my essay. At first glance, I felt as if I was selling myself short because I failed to go into detail about myself, specifically by not mentioning good things about myself. Throughout my life, I have been described by older people as being modest or humble when in actuality I thought that if I said too much about myself that I would appear to be boasting or being pretentious.

However, when I began reading James Hoggan's "Do the Right Thing: PR Tips for a Skeptical Public," I realized that for many reasons I had to be my own PR person when writing my personal statement. One reason being that these law school admissions officers are not super heroes and cannot read my mind. I "...can't sit around and assume that everyone will notice that [I] have done something right ...," and that I "...must take [my] reputation into [my] own hands" (p. 4). I also learned that it is not about me seeming as if I am boasting about myself, but it is about realizing that “it’s a matter of making sure that people who are important to [my] business* know what [I] am doing” or what I have done (p. 12). (*Business, in this context, means admissions council.)

After I establish my reputation, I have to believe what I am writing is true (which, of course, it is) so that others can believe I am credible and will be able to trust what I am writing, too. In addition, I also learned that proof and support of my good reputation and credibility lies in the hands of the people whom I ask to recommend me for law school. Just as what Hoggan emphasized in his book, in order for me to further establish my credibility and reputation, I need to be aware of how my public (this case being the people writing my recommendations) thinks of me. This will confirm what I have written about myself in my personal statement and my other application materials, so there will not be any discrepancies in what I am portraying and the person recommending is writing about me.