Sample #1
I was thirteen years old when the letter from the U.S. Embassy arrived. I noticed that my father
walked into the house differently that day. His face was expressive yet it did not give his
emotions away —I knew something important had occurred. Soon an incredible sense of joy
spread across his face, as I overheard him tell my mother that we had “won the lottery.” At that
instant I knew that my life was going to change drastically.
It was surreal—my family had won the Green Card Lottery and had the opportunity to become
one of the 50,000 permanent visa winners awarded yearly by the U.S. Department of State. On
June 6, 1998 my family and I had to leave behind the life that we had known and embark on a
journey towards a life that we thought we were prepared for. While I walked through Albania’s
small, outdated airport, I was grasping my father’s hand, and he reassured me that in America “I
would have a better life.”
Albania had just experienced a regime change, which resulted in an unstable and dangerous
political and economic situation. My parents had always instilled the value of education in their
children, encouraging my brother and me to complete several language programs in the hope that
we would continue our studies abroad some day. They not only taught me the value of
excellence in education, they showed me its importance through their tremendous sacrifices.
After having lived in the United States for over six years, I have come to realize that obstacles,
which at times appeared insurmountable, can be overcome with guidance and determination. I
began my freshman year of high school in an entirely different educational system. Although
difficult, this experience taught me an extremely valuable lesson: the “better life” is not handed
to anyone, not even in America. After attending English as a Second Language classes for only
one semester, I began regular courses and successfully graduated from high school with honors.
Overcoming these educational and cultural obstacles in high school empowered me to excel in
college. My aspiration, however, has not been to get ahead of others but to make a difference in
society through public service. While I was an intern at the Midwest Immigrant and Human
Rights Center, which provides legal services to low-income immigrants, I had the opportunity to
observe how governmental policies have affected immigration law in our country. During my
internship I interpreted in Albanian for pro-bono attorneys in the development of an asylum case.
I translated the client’s testimony as well as other court documents, and due to my knowledge of
Albania’s political background, I also provided input on case strategy. This experience exposed
me to the obstacles in the legal system for those who wish to obtain citizenship, and it reminded
me of my family’s struggle to come to this country.
Although I am now an American citizen, I have not forgotten those who continue to suffer from
political persecution in their own countries and who have not been fortunate enough to “win the
lottery.” A degree from (school name) School of Law would give me the opportunity to make a
significant impact on the lives of those in need. My experiences have taught me always to push
myself beyond the limits. No longer the “foreign girl” in high school who had to overcome a
language barrier, I am determined to pursue a career in the field of law. I want to provide others
with the same opportunity that my parents gave me: “A better life.”
Sample #2
Sometime around the age of eleven, I decided that I wanted to participate in sports. My father
found this entertaining as I often lacked coordination and I have very little natural athletic ability.
True to form, my second week playing basketball I fell at practice and fractured my wrist. Not
only was this break an emotional disappointment, but it was also a major setback since all the
other girls would have a year more experience than I had. This was the first time in my life when
I became filled with an intense determination to better myself.
After I had my cast removed, I began practicing all the time, and I was able to improve
dramatically. High school coaches throughout the Chicago area were encouraging me to attend
their schools. I selected a school with a respectable reputation in both athletics and academics.
As a freshman I played on the varsity team. However, my sophomore year we welcomed a sixfoot-two freshman and a six-foot-four junior. I am five foot ten, and suddenly I was not tall
enough anymore. Thus, I was presented with another setback. Many of my former teammates
quit the team. But for me quitting was never an option. I retooled and began developing the skills
necessary to contribute in a different position. I once again practiced relentlessly and developed
into one of the team’s best three-point shooters. I did not receive the same amount of playing
time I did as a freshman, but that did not deter me. My senior year I was named team captain,
and I was part of a team that won the Illinois girls’ basketball state championship. I also nailed
the three-point shot that put our team in the Illinois record book for largest margin of victory in a
title game.
When I thought about college, I figured I would be playing basketball somewhere. I was
awarded scholarships to almost every school to which I applied, but I decided on Loyola
University Chicago because it was close to home and had an excellent academic reputation.
Many friends said that college is the time to live and unwind. They told me they spent four years
working in high school to get into a good college, and now it was their time to enjoy life. But my
work did not end after I enrolled at Loyola. I received a scholarship but was told that if I earned
high grades the university would increase my award. I now had a new goal. I wanted to excel in
college and reduce the financial burden that tuition was placing on my family. After only two
semesters in college, I received an increase in my scholarship award. Since then my
determination has been focused on doing well in all of my classes.
This past summer I interned at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. It was an eventful
summer, with many prominent cases assigned to the court room in which I worked. The
attorneys to which I was assigned treated me as a law student, not the undergraduate I actually
was. I felt overwhelmed at first, but that intense sense of determination kicked in. The attorneys I
worked for were impressed by the fact that I was always the first to arrive and one of the last to
leave. I was the only intern entrusted with major responsibilities, due in part to my work ethic
and determination to complete successfully any task I was assigned. And what I saw as an intern
confirmed my decision to seek a law degree.
This sense of determination was instilled in me by my parents. They grew up with very little and
did not receive the same opportunities I have. Both of my parents only attended community
college. Now my father is a captain in the Chicago fire department, and my mother is a manager
for one of the largest home health care agencies in Chicago. They got to where they are today
through hard work and a determination to give their children the best life possible. Whenever I
think of how hard my parents work to support me and provide me with the opportunities they
never had, it makes me work that much harder.
Even though that broken arm seemed like the end of the world back then, I am now grateful that
it happened. It is because of that broken arm that I am now determined to excel at _________
Law School. Your school has the resources to prepare me well for the hard work of being an
attorney.
Sample #3
Although I can not remember a time when I did not want to become a lawyer, it was not until last
summer, when I interned at Prairie State Legal Services in Waukegan, that I learned what the
profession really entails. Prairie State is one of Illinois’s legal aid offices, offering help in civil
cases to people who can not afford to pay private attorneys. It was the avalanche of cases that
went through the office while I was there that changed my view of the law, and confirmed to me
that I should become an attorney. Although I remember clearly many of the people and the
myriad of problems we encountered each day, there is one case that I think exemplifies how all
these clients’ stories affected me. This is the case of a woman I am going to call Melinda.
Melinda, who was appealing a denial of Social Security Disability (SSD), had fibromyalgia as
well as a number of mental illnesses that had become progressively worse and more debilitating
in the years prior to her arrival at Prairie State. Her diagnoses included Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Panic Disorder, among other frightening illnesses
that were manifesting themselves in a variety of unbearable ways. Melinda had panic attacks,
auditory hallucinations, delusions, a constant feeling of anxiety, and she was a compulsive
cleaner. The fibromyalgia caused her unremitting physical pain, and prevented her from having a
full range of motion in her arms. She could barely leave her house, was scared to drive her car,
and had no money on top of all of this because Melinda was so severely ill that she could not
hold down a job. She had been recently fired from a position set up specifically for her by an
occupational specialist because she could not understand or remember instructions, despite her
best efforts. To make the situation even worse, she had a son who was physically disabled to the
extent that he had been removed from her care and placed in a nursing home, and Melinda was
now convinced that he was being abused.
I was introduced to her case by the managing attorney, a resolute woman who had worked at
Prairie State longer than anyone else, and had seen every case imaginable. Nothing surprised her;
in fact, she was jaded to the woes of most of the people asking for Prairie State assistance. That
is why, when she took me aside to describe Melinda’s case, I was taken aback as she explained,
visibly shaken, that Melinda was truly ill. She asked me to go to the Evanston Social Security
Administration office to make a copy of Melinda’s file. The file contained all the evidence for
Melinda’s hearing, including some information that the SSA had collected itself, for instance a
report by a doctor they had paid for. The attorney needed this file because she needed to see the
SSA’s evidence in order to determine what their argument against Melinda was going to be.
It was an obvious case: she met all the standards for SSD, but hearings with Social Security were
not usually as open and shut as they should have been, and, after all, she had been denied once. I
helped the attorney sort through the copy of the file I brought back, but it did not look good. The
SSA’s evidence included a report from a therapist which declared that Melinda should be able to
work a few, very specific jobs, the only caveat being that she could not lift anything because of
her fibromyalgia. Often the SSA had used reports like this one, in past cases that Prairie State
had defended, as a declaration asserting that the client was able to work and thus did not deserve
SSD.
However, the hearing was, to say the least, surprising; it lasted a mere twenty minutes, at the end
of which Melinda had won SSD monthly payments as well as a lump sum to account for the
lapse in time between when she first applied and this moment. It was the fastest win for SSD that
the attorney had ever seen. The key factor was that the medical expert, a man notorious for
denying almost everyone’s need for SSD, determined that our client did, in fact, meet the criteria
for disability based on her anxiety disorder.
Melinda hugged her attorney, tears welling up in her eyes. This was the one moment in my
internship that I could truly see someone who needed Prairie State’s help, who ended up with a
clear win, no ambivalence about it: case closed. In the relatively short time I worked at Prairie
State, there were many instances where I had seen good people have poor outcomes at hearings,
but this time the proverbial system had worked: someone who deserved SSD got it. She was
grateful to a degree that I cannot even begin to imagine. Though it did not seem that the attorney
had to do much, I knew that without her, Melinda would never have gotten that far. And I felt
like I had helped, even just the tiniest bit, and now this woman was going to have a much needed
source of income. I had never had a job where the end product was something I could be truly
proud of, until Prairie State. Though my summer was filled with turning people away who we
could not help, and cases were lost, it really seemed like it was worthwhile just to see this one
woman win her case, as banal as that may sound.
It was this case that helped me realize that going to law school was the right decision for me. Not
only did I realize how interested in the law I am, but I also recognized that there will be
opportunities to really help people, even if they are few and far between; not many people have
jobs where they can say that.