Tailoring Personal Statement to Yale Forum

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mruskin

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Tailoring Personal Statement to Yale

Post by mruskin » Thu Dec 27, 2018 4:17 pm

To oversimplify, my personal statement is about how I was initially skeptical of studying law but changed my mind after a number of experiences in my own life and encountering the work of certain legal scholars at the intersection of law and political economy. Most of those scholars are professors at Yale Law; obviously, I did not mention them by name in the statement I sent to other law schools. I am wondering if it would be appropriate/beneficial to tailor my statement for Yale, providing names of those scholars. I am leaning against doing so, because it might seem like gratuitous name-dropping, but I would appreciate any input.
Thanks!

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cavalier1138

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Re: Tailoring Personal Statement to Yale

Post by cavalier1138 » Thu Dec 27, 2018 5:04 pm

mruskin wrote: I am leaning against doing so, because it might seem like gratuitous name-dropping
Trust your instincts.

Npret

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Re: Tailoring Personal Statement to Yale

Post by Npret » Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:16 pm

cavalier1138 wrote:
mruskin wrote: I am leaning against doing so, because it might seem like gratuitous name-dropping
Trust your instincts.
Exactly. Don’t name drop professors. I’m trying to think when it would ever be good to do so. Maybe if the faculty member is a parent?

nixy

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Re: Tailoring Personal Statement to Yale

Post by nixy » Thu Dec 27, 2018 10:47 pm

It’s expected in PhD applications, because you’re expected to have a research agenda and know how that agenda fits with the interests of specific professors on the program you’re applying to. But that’s not pertinent to law school apps (problem is that some uninformed people assume law school apps are like grad school apps).

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