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Hello everyone, I am not as frequent to TLS forums as most. I don't mean to come off naive, but have a question before structuring my personal statement.

When I was 11 I was diagnosed with liver cancer. In a very fortunate circumstance, they found it through my appendix rupturing. Is this too off topic for a personal statement or can I build something strong around it?

Thanks, sorry for the naivety. I don't want a sob story either. I don't come off very sentimental and it will sound fake.

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rachelac wrote:If this connects back to your current life path/desire to go to law school, you can totally structure a PS around it. If it's just a major life event that doesn't really connect to your academic performance or life goals, I wouldn't.

It certainly has lead me on a path to want to achieve the most, due to the fragility of life at such a young age. My problem is I didn't really realize it until I was in college and more mature to understand the situation. Thanks for the advice.

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Platopus wrote:

rachelac wrote:If this connects back to your current life path/desire to go to law school, you can totally structure a PS around it. If it's just a major life event that doesn't really connect to your academic performance or life goals, I wouldn't.

I entirely disagree. If you can relate it to some shift in your world view or can reflect on an inportant lesson learned, then do it. A personal statement is not a statement of purpose, so unless specifically requested, there is no need to tie it to anything related to school or law. Be careful though, you don't want to sound like you're looking for pity points.

Yes, this is exactly what I want to avoid. Nothing would piss me off more than getting in due to an unfavorable circumstance. I hope to post it here and have it critiqued for being too shallow or whiny.

Platopus wrote:

rachelac wrote:If this connects back to your current life path/desire to go to law school, you can totally structure a PS around it. If it's just a major life event that doesn't really connect to your academic performance or life goals, I wouldn't.

I entirely disagree. If you can relate it to some shift in your world view or can reflect on an inportant lesson learned, then do it. A personal statement is not a statement of purpose, so unless specifically requested, there is no need to tie it to anything related to school or law. Be careful though, you don't want to sound like you're looking for pity points.

This. Adcomms have to sludge through so many "x happened and it made me want to go to law school" structured PS every cycle.

Stand out.

I got tons of compliments from adcomms from schools I was admitted to on mine because it wasn't structured like that.