On Nov. 15, two people from the admissions council to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Law School came to Doane to speak about personal statements. They also helped with law school applications and how to make a potential candidate stand out so that they could become a promising candidate.
The meeting was held in the East/West Dining Hall at Doane. Students on Doane’s unofficial pre-law contact list were invited to go, along with any students who wished to attend but were not on the list.
The meeting started off with introductions, the two people who were involved in the admissions process at UNL’s College of Law, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Enrollment Operations Melissa McCoy and her associate, Recruitment Coordinator Rachel Smith. The students then introduced themselves.
Their presentation lasted an hour and a half and covered almost every aspect of preparing for law school admissions, including taking the Law School Aptitude test, LSAT, which is a test with no need of previous knowledge. The test is a way for law schools to vet potential applicants by seeing if they can follow the logic of law school.
The last section of the presentation was all about making your personal statement, and what the philosophy behind a personal statement should be.
“What is your superhero origin story?” McCoy said.
Students who attended were encouraged to come up with a first line for the personal statements. The presenters drove home the importance of the opening statement in a personal statement. They see the opening statement as a way for students to make themselves stand out from other applicants.
Law school applications for most of the students in attendance would not be for a couple of years, so there was also a focus on building up before heading out to law school. There was a big point about there being a lot of people who have careers before they go to law school, or they build up their savings before law school.
