Why nyu law essay

As of now, NYU requires all scholarship applicants for the current admissions cycle to submit their completed applications and CAS law school reports by January 1. Regardless of whether you apply Regular Admission or Early Decision, you will need to submit the following materials:. CAS report. If you are currently in school or recently graduated within two years of your application to law school , both letters should be from faculty from your school.

If you have been out of school longer than two years, only one letter needs to be academic. Mandatory: law school personal statement. NYU provides applicants with discretion regarding the length and content of the personal statement. However, we suggest that you try to keep your personal statement to two pages, single-spaced, 11 or pt font. Optional: law school diversity statement. No length requirements given. We will discuss how to write this type of essay later in the guide. Optional: additional information, if relevant.

In this section, we will discuss how to approach writing essays for your application to NYU School of Law. We will also show you some full-length essay examples from admitted students so that you can get a sense for how you can approach this process.

Keep in mind that there are many approaches you can take to writing high-quality essays. We will highlight some things that successful applicants often have in their essays, but it is important to tailor our advice to your specific situation. Some general guidelines to keep in mind when writing your essays:. Focus on crafting the very best writing you can and make sure to proofread your essays for correct grammar and spelling. Be sure to carefully follow essay instructions, including length guidelines.

Going over a specified word limit will show you have trouble following directions, which is not a good sign for someone to looking to be a lawyer. To simplify the process of applying to law school, we suggest writing a personal statement that can be tailored to each school that you apply to. Try to keep your essay to two pages, single spaced.

Here are a few things we think you should keep in mind while writing your personal statement:. Make sure your personal statement touches on why you want to go to law school and highlights your commitment to practicing law in the future. While this might seem like a no-brainer, it is important not to lose sight of the purpose of your personal statement, which in this case, is to demonstrate why you should be a law student at NYU School of Law.

Provide a clear example of your skills or qualities that could translate to success in law school. Law students must be analytical, organized, meticulous, creative, resilient, have good time management skills, and be able to synthesize large amounts of information. Using your personal statement to tell a story that demonstrates that you possess one or more of these qualities and are thus prepared for the rigors of law school can be very effective.

Do not be afraid to use your personal statement to tell an interesting story. We like this approach, because it makes your personal statement enjoyable to read while also giving the reader a glimpse into your life story. Telling a personal story helps to humanize you to your reader, which can help them feel connected to your application.

Pay close attention to your essay structure. Avoid using long words and sentence structures. Each sentence should be succinct and clear. Also use good transitions between paragraphs so that your essay reads smoothly, and your reader is able to easily keep track of the key points you are trying to convey. At the age of 4, I had presumptively decided to dedicate myself to law enforcement.

I roamed my childhood home imitating my favorite detective, Columbo, convinced that I was closing in on bad guys. I dreamed of wearing a badge, like my hero Columbo, to signify my membership as a dutiful public servant.

By this time, my mother and I had left Atlanta for a small, predominantly white town in Texas. At 17, I momentarily reconsidered my plans when I mentioned Rodney King in my senior English class, only to be met with silence by my peers, who had never heard of him.

Perhaps their parents had not warned them about police violence as mine had. I briefly considered that their experiences with law enforcement, directly or indirectly, would always be different than mine. And still, despite my brief reservation, my commitment to federal law enforcement was unwavering. At age 19, my conceptions and career plans collapsed around me. Since moving to New York for college, I had attended numerous forums, lectures, and panels on the intersection of two issues I was intimately but naively familiar with—criminal justice and racial prejudice.

Despite my childhood convictions, my conceptions of good and bad guys had changed. I had been conditioned to believe that the delineations were clear—those who executed the law and those who disobeyed it—the good and the bad. I discovered, however, that sometimes those with badges, shiny degrees, and high-ranking positions are the bad guys. Sometimes the bad guys have power, authority, wealth, and societal respect.

They sometimes sit in boardrooms and county seats. They receive awards and accolades. They stand in court. They even become president. And the good guys—sometimes the good guys can be found in federal prison for minor drug possession or spending six years at Rikers Island awaiting trial for a crime for which they have not been proven guilty.

Northwestern undergrad cares a LOT about demonstrated interest. The biggest area where demonstrated interest comes up for law school admissions is in the essays and with interviews when offered. If a law school wants to know "Why School X" in an essay, they will ask you to address that either in the Personal Statement prompt or in a dedicated optional essay.

If a school doesn't ask, it doesn't care. They could easily ask if they wanted to. This is a prompt for one of their optional essays:. You may submit an essay providing additional information about why you have chosen to apply to law school in general and Duke in particular. We are interested in the factors that have prompted your interest in a legal career and the ways in which you think Duke can further that interest.

Columbia Law School could stand to be a bit more explicit, but they want a Why Columbia element in the main personal statement. Here is how they have worded it in years past:.

D'Agostino Scholarship for Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Criminal Justice applications require at least one additional recommendation that addresses the applicant's commitment to public service see Scholarship section for details.

The application fee is not applied to tuition and is not refundable. To qualify, applicants must have completed their 2-year commitment to Teach for America or the Peace Corps by the start of the fall semester.

Further, Teach for America alumni must have completed TFA's pre-corps training institute and served as a teacher for two years in a low-income community through their Teach for America placement. Applicants who have completed less than 2 years by the start of law school or those who are just entering Teach for America or the Peace Corps are not eligible. The application fee will also be waived for those who have served or are serving in the United States military.

Participation in a foreign country's military does not qualify an applicant for a fee waiver from NYU School of Law.

Teach for America, Peace Corps and US military participants should send their request for a fee waiver to law. Applicants must have an account with the LSAC. To request an application fee waiver, please include your L number, a verification letter as well as the basis for the waiver Teach for America, Peace Corps, or US military service.

While the Committee on Admissions does not use interviews as part of the regular selection process, we would like to give you the opportunity to include more information about yourself than the application form conveys.

Because people and their interests vary, we leave the content and length of your statement to your discretion. You may wish to complete or clarify your responses to items on the application form, bring to our attention additional information you feel should be considered, describe important or unusual aspects of yourself not otherwise apparent in your application, or tell us what led you to apply to NYU School of Law.

The Committee on Admissions encourages you to provide any information that may be helpful to us in reaching a thoughtful decision on your application. While the choice as to whether and what information to submit to the committee is entirely yours, any information you provide will be used to give you full credit for your accomplishments, to help the committee reach an informed decision on your application, and to aid the committee in selecting a diverse student body.

This list is not all-inclusive, but we offer it for you to think about as you consider whether such information might be relevant in your case, and to assure you that it is quite appropriate.

If you choose to provide additional information, please upload this information in the attachment section of the application, and clearly identify your submission accordingly. When you receive additional grades such as first semester of senior year grades , you are required to submit an updated transcript to LSAC, which will, in turn, send us an updated CAS report.

Any information you submit, including material sent after your application is complete, will be considered by the Committee on Admissions if received before a final decision is reached on your application. In completing this application, be sure that your statements are accurate, you answer all the questions in the Character and Fitness section of the application, and you electronically certify the application by completing the Certification section of the application.

Misrepresentation may result in denial of admission, the rescinding of an offer of admission, dismissal from the Law School, or revoking any NYU School of Law degrees granted. The Law School may seek to verify any information submitted by contacting recommenders, employers or school officials.