Most law schools no longer ask for “diversity statements” as a part of their applications, but they do ask for similar (but broader) information in other essay(s)—a varied group of optional statements that we are calling “experience/perspective essays” or “E/P essays.” If you aren’t familiar with what types of essays are encompassed by this umbrella term, we recommend reading our E/P Essay FAQ blog post and/or listening to our E/P Essay Deep Dive podcast.
If you’re wondering what successful E/P essays look like, here are a number of examples, all of which are real essays (with minor anonymizing redactions) from applicants who had highly successful admissions outcomes. They discuss themes including adversity, LGBTQ+ identity, disability, women's issues, experiences of racism, being a second-generation immigrant, growing up in a rural area, and more. We hope that they serve as a helpful resource!
Note: all of the below essays have been published with full permission from their authors.
Experience/Perspective Essay Example 1
This essay discusses the applicant’s rural upbringing and experiences working for their grandfather’s farm and grocery store, tying those experiences to skills they will use as a law student and attorney such as communicating across differences (a major theme of some E/P essay prompts), customer service, problem-solving, and more. It is an excellent example of an essay that prominently features the influence of another person on the applicant, which can be a tricky balance to maintain without including too much about the other person and not enough about yourself. Notice how this essay starts with one of the applicant’s personal memories, not biographical information about their grandfather. That information comes later, and it is given only sparingly, just enough to provide context for how he impacted the applicant.
I stared up at the red, dusk sky as I lay in the bed of my grandpa’s pickup truck near his farm. Surrounded by a group of uncles, cousins, and grandpa himself, I would soon begin a rite of passage: baling hay for the first time. We had to wait for the humidity to drop below a certain threshold or risk mold and bacteria growing inside the bale, which could ruin the hay or cause it to spontaneously combust from excess heat. We also needed to get the baled hay into the barn before tomorrow’s looming rain, so we sat waiting for our window. Once it arrived, we sprang into action.
I drove one of three tractors pulling balers, large trailers that scooped cut hay from the ground, compacted and tied it into neat, square bales, and then dumped them behind us to be gathered by a trailing crew. We worked late into the night, and it was well past midnight when my mom’s car pulled up to the field, signaling it was time for me to go home. I didn’t want to leave before we finished the job, but I was only fourteen. I also had a shift at my grandpa’s grocery store the next day. My grandpa met me at the car and told my mom, “He did good,” before turning to me to say, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” As we drove off, I watched him climb into the tractor as the floodlights of the other two danced across the field, still working. The next day when I arrived at the store for my shift, I saw my grandpa through his office window. He had been there since opening the store at seven that morning.
My grandpa was a farmer, a small business owner, and one of the most influential role models in my life. Growing up, I spent almost every summer and weekend at his farm; after turning fourteen, I began working as a bagger in his grocery store. Those experiences shaped my values, and I still carry the lessons with me today. It wasn’t easy working after school or extracurricular activities, and I envied my teammates who got to go home after Saturday morning football practice. But I developed a strong work ethic and grew in ways that school and sports couldn’t match.
Under my grandpa’s guidance, I learned working intelligently is just as important as working hard. On the farm, countless problems arose that no amount of brute force could solve, and my grandpa, at that point in his seventies, always found ingenious ways to solve them. Repairs on the enormous machines we used required precision rather than force, and no matter how hard you worked, you could never plow a field by hand. Tasks on the farm demanded both grit and efficiency. Once, after my cousins and I struggled for half an hour trying to pry open the handle of an irrigation pump, I proudly informed my grandpa that creative use of a crowbar and leverage got the job done instantly.
At the grocery store, I developed another skill I had yet to encounter on the farm: customer service. As a bagger and later as a cashier, I interacted directly with the customers, often serving as their final impression of the store. My grandpa consistently emphasized the importance of customer service, particularly as a small business competing against national chains. I took his words to heart and tried to ensure every customer ended their experience satisfied and excited to return. This required empathizing with unhappy customers and helping to address their concerns. It also necessitated the capacity to realize when someone may be having a bad day and needed to vent. I learned sometimes people just need someone to talk to.
I brought both this work ethic and customer service proficiency to future roles, such as my manager position at [Company Name]. There, I often served as our customers’ only interaction with the company and was responsible for ensuring their satisfaction with our services. Later, when working with the state legislature and in a state agency, the interpersonal skills I had developed allowed me to thrive in these jobs as well, particularly my ability to empathize and collaborate with individuals on both sides of the political aisle.
As a law student, I will continue to apply these lessons and the perspective they instilled in my daily life. They have shaped my work ethic, forming the foundation for my academic success and interactions with others, buoying my participation in thought-provoking conversations with individuals whose viewpoints differ from mine. The ability to listen and respectfully engage with someone with whom I disagree rather than argue has expanded my capacity to learn and allowed me to grow as a student and a person. These values and skills, that I first learned from my grandpa and cultivated throughout my life, are what I will bring to [Law School] and into my career as an attorney.
Experience/Perspective Essay Example 2
This essay beautifully illustrates important elements of the author’s LGBTQ+ identity and family history while also showing how those experiences inspired them to found an organization and seek to effect real change. It also draws the connection between their past experiences and their future as a law student, which is especially important for many E/P essay prompts.
“Home” has always been an interesting concept for me. I grew up in a lower middle class and conservative family. My father emigrated from Greece in his early twenties and with my mother, raised me and my brother in the confines and support of the Greek Orthodox community. My parents’ firm religious and cultural traditionalism left them deeply unprepared to grapple with the realities of our family. When my older brother developed a severe personality disorder, often behaving in violent, threatening, and unpredictable ways towards us, my parents failed to address his issues or seek help.
Meanwhile, I was reckoning with a burgeoning understanding of my own queer and trans identity. Knowing that it would not be safe for me to come out while living at home, I struggled to make sense of how to belong to a family that was so different from me. Navigating my unstable home life was a constant challenge; so was the double consciousness I felt from remaining closeted. I directed my confusion into a gnawing sense of curiosity about the world around me. I desperately wanted to understand how larger societal structures—patriarchy, white supremacy, class, homophobia—were impacting my family dynamic.
My first year of college, I came out and lost my family’s support. It was heartbreaking, but it offered me the opportunity to envision a new sense of home for myself. The friends I had made during work-study shifts in the hot, cramped corners of dining hall dishrooms stood by me as I navigated my new reality. I sought comfort in my chosen family, the linocut prints from a local queer artist that I hung above my desk, and the tutoring job that enabled me to bring a sense of belonging to students struggling to navigate imposter syndrome among their peers.
Home is at the heart of why I created [Organization]: I wanted to breathe life into a space where queer and trans people could feel at ease. Through my life experiences, I know how much chosen family and community matter in offering people the tangible and emotional support to thrive. At [Law School], I will contribute my perspective in sincere discussions in class. Through thoughtful engagement in OUTLaw, Art Law Society, and Review of Law and Social Change, I will strive to create a sense of belonging and home on campus and in [City] for the people and community around me.
Experience/Perspective Essay Example 3
Many applicants wonder whether it is appropriate to write about learning disabilities in their law school applications. Here’s a great example of one applicant who did so in their E/P essay, successfully conveying important elements of their identity and educational background while also effectively communicating that those learning difficulties will not impede them from being successful in law school—and in fact may even be a benefit.
When I was 15, I was a great student. I was in advanced math and science, top of my class in history, English, and Spanish; you would have been hard pressed to convince me I had a learning disability. But then, there it was in big bold letters on my IEP: auditory dyslexia. After being told, the psychologist asked me a series of questions to help me recognize my dyslexia–Do you flip facts? Do you struggle with lyrics? Do you not hear people calling your name? The answer to every question was yes.
I struggled with every issue the psychologist identified, but over the years, as these shortcomings became more apparent in school and socially, I had subconsciously developed coping mechanisms to compensate for their effect. In early middle school, I took an online class to become a better typist and memorize the keyboard. When I could type without looking at the keyboard, I could read the teacher's lips to learn instead of listening to their words. In elementary school, my best friend wouldn’t let me sing in the car because I always got the lyrics wrong. It became a habit to memorize lyrics by doodling them. All my life, I insisted people call me by my nickname, [Nickname]. It was such a unique sound that I could register it more quickly than [Legal Name] when a coach yelled from the sidelines or a teacher called on me in class.
The list of techniques I use is constantly growing. Every day, I work against my odds and develop new routines. And as much as I have learned to work around my disorder, I have also learned to work with it. Having to fact-check myself with teachers or even just talking with friends has taught me patience. I must be patient with myself when I need alternative methods to process information. In turn, this has taught me to be patient with others; maybe they too just need it presented differently. You could be the smartest person in the room, but if you are an auditory learner and the information is only presented visually, it does not matter what your IQ is.
Working through and living with my own disability has also trained me to be a uniquely skilled problem solver. While math taught me how to manipulate facts to reach the answer, my dyslexia taught me to think outside of the box for new avenues to that solution. This ability to solve problems creatively has made me a highly inquisitive learner who is always eager to ask the “what if” questions. Frequently, my posed hypotheticals catapult into class-wide discussions or debates contemplating the applicability and alternativity of different topics. As a result, my intellectual curiosity is a contagious engager in the classroom, and it is my belief that it not only deepens my personal learning experience, but that of those around me as well.
When I consider my legal education, I see myself as someone who will work collaboratively to support my peers’ academic success by helping them integrate information in a way best suited to their learning style, and as someone who will inspire classroom discussions that contribute to the learning dynamic. It is my fervent belief that my disability will be one of my greatest strengths in law school, and that it will not only benefit my own education, but also those around me.
Experience/Perspective Essay Example 4
This essay is effective on a number of levels. It communicates how the applicant’s racial identity has influenced their perspective on acts of violence and injustice close to home, discusses personal experiences of racism, and connects those points to the applicant’s advocacy work and core values.
On November 23, 2012, Michael David Dunn shot and killed Black teenager Jordan Davis for playing music too loudly. This was a hard time to be a Black teenager in Florida, as Trayvon Martin had been murdered less than a year earlier. But Jordan’s murder hit even closer to home; he was killed at a gas station between my house and my high school. Like most Black people in the area, my mother and I went out of our way to avoid that gas station from that point on. Because of my proximity to the serial acts of White vigilante violence, I perceived death to be an imminent threat.
In [City], it was common to hear community members express contempt for Black homicide victims. If one were to enter a corner store and ask the cashier what they thought of the recent shooting downtown, the cashier would likely shrug their shoulders and utter the often-repeated refrain of, “I’m sure he was a boy scout.” This cruel and sarcastic phrase permeated the city after every homicide of a Black person. People used it to signal that the details of the victims’ deaths and the specifics of their lives did not matter. The communal opinion had already been formed: based on the context provided through their neighborhood and race, the murdered party deserved the fate they met. These statements were oftentimes accompanied by fervent accounts of how brutally and gleefully they would end the life of a thug who threatened their lives, family, or property. The emphasis they placed on the word “thug” heavily implied it was a proxy for words that are, by most people, no longer deemed appropriate for casual conversations.
Because of my experiences navigating hostile environments like the ones I endured in Florida, I learned to challenge racial injustice. I connected to a robust group of local and state activists dedicated to achieving racial equity in the state. By using my activism during rallies and marches following the murders of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, campaigning for more progressive candidates in local, state, and federal elections, and raising funds for grassroots organizers, I have remained dedicated to enacting and raising awareness about racial justice. Partaking in social justice work can sometimes be intimidating due to the very real threat of physical danger. Even so, I am proud to participate in acts of resistance because I believe it is vital to stand on my principles even when I must do so with trepidation. My experience of growing up Black in Florida during the beginning of a racial awakening has given me purpose, resilience, and a determination to withstand adversity. I am confident that these qualities will serve me well in my future career in law.
Experience/Perspective Essay Example 5
This essay, on the applicant’s Lebanese-American heritage and perspective as a second-generation immigrant, was exceptionally strong for this individual and led to great admissions results. While the prose may be too heavy on the ornate imagery for many applicants, the essay captured the author’s genuine voice and style perfectly and felt very authentic in the context of their full application. This statement did a particularly good job connecting the applicant’s multicultural identity and perspective to themes of communicating across differences and engaging productively with disagreements—a prominent part of some E/P essay prompts.
In the lush Lebanese valleys where the mighty mountains meet the Mediterranean Sea, my childhood summers in [City] were colored with the hues of my family’s Middle Eastern culture: communal camaraderie, irresistible eats, and my dear pet sheep. Yet, as summer waned and I found myself back in the urban sprawl of [American City], the light-hearted harmony of my heritage would come to an abrupt halt. In my suburban kindergarten classroom, I felt suffocated by curious glares around me, prompting my careful choice of English responses to my mother’s loving Arabic questions. These contrasting worlds, so distinct yet equally mine, have sculpted the essence of who I am today.
In my formative struggle to mix Arab roots with American life, I confided in my immigrant father, whereupon he recounted his first bid at the American Dream. Seven years of hard work as a cashier finally afforded him his dream of owning a convenience store, but he was cruelly defrauded, lost everything, and was forced to start over, bereft of any access to legal recourse. However, to my awe, he emerged stronger, sharing a transformative insight with me: “Our dual identity is not an obstacle, but our most valuable ally.”
His words, simple yet powerful, led me to finally realize that the Lebanese-American hyphen I straddle does not represent a burden to juggle two divorced identities. Instead, it is a gift that yields the distinct privilege of marrying their synergistic qualities. Further, the shockingly elusive nature of justice—a reality I saw the truth of through my father’s story—was a call to action, igniting a burning imperative to protect those at the mercy of their voices’ limitations. Thus forged within me a keen aptitude for discerning intercultural nuances and building connections of understanding, even in differences and disagreements (or perhaps especially so). It has transformed me into an astute listener and a passionate advocate, relentless in my pursuit to represent and amplify silenced voices as the advocate my father once needed and did not have.
In setting my sights on your esteemed law school, I recognize my multicultural heritage as more than just a background—it is a powerful asset, inextricably fused with a deep commitment to and awareness of diversity’s intrinsic value. My journey, enhanced by my roles as a coach, student organization leader, and professional in the legal, tech, and business fields, has equipped me to lead my fellow law students by example in challenging dominant narratives, advocating for transformative inclusivity, and stimulating meaningful dialogues that transcend mere tolerance to actively cultivate and celebrate diversity’s offerings.
Experience/Perspective Essay Example 6
Unlike the other examples on this page, this essay was actually submitted several years ago as a diversity statement, but it was executed in such a way that it still makes for an exceptional E/P essay.
I was raised by a single mother, but my home was filled with family. My mother, sister, and I shared a room with two twin-size beds. My aunts, uncles, five cousins, and grandparents shared the two remaining bedrooms. In total, there were thirteen people sharing a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home. For the children, the nonstop playtime and carefree memories mitigated the obstacles that came with our socioeconomic insufficiency. For me, our tight-knit family and living situation made it much easier to overcome the absence of my father.
My father represented many of the negative stereotypes that Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants have to combat. He immigrated to the United States as a young adult and fell into a life of criminal activity during our city’s booming methamphetamine trade. His choices had an adverse impact on not only my family, but also our community at large. I was somewhat sheltered from learning too much about my father, but I knew enough to feel burdened with shame. In fact, that feeling was so strong that I became fixated on the goal of creating a life opposite to that which my father had built.
Pursuing a brighter future did not come without obstacles in my neighborhood and family. Rejecting the criminal element in our community required a deliberate choice to exclude myself from the majority and often made me feel left out. Many of my peers criticized me and called me stuck up or “white washed” because of the choices I made. My family fully supported my goals, but their own education levels and unfamiliarity with the college admission process restricted the amount of guidance they were able to provide. Counselors at my high school were overloaded by high dropout rates and unable to focus on college-bound students. It was the small acts of support and encouragement that ultimately got me to overcome my inhibitions and fears of the unknown and pursue a bachelor’s degree: a friend who told me what the SAT was, a teacher who explained the FAFSA and college deadlines. These processes seem basic to some, but can be overwhelming to a first-generation student to the point where it becomes easier to put it off or quit altogether.
I did not spend my entire youth in that overcrowded yet comforting home. Eventually, my mother remarried and we were able to move out of my grandparents’ house. But I still know what it is like to feel insecure about where you come from and what you lack—it is something I will carry with me throughout my life and career. My education and career goals have been shaped by my background, and I will continue to aim high despite the challenges that may come my way.
Experience/Perspective Essay Example 7
This statement, which centers on the applicant’s difficulty being diagnosed with a chronic disease, was written in response to a required E/P essay prompt. Many applicants don't consider that health issues, particularly chronic health issues, can profoundly inform their perspective. This applicant was able to write about her experience in a way that shows how she developed the ability to advocate for herself and others while navigating her care. The essay would work well for a wide variety of E/P essay prompts, including those focused on adversity and/or how your experiences/perspective will impact how you work as an attorney.
I had just spent thirty minutes describing the immense pain I had been going through every month.
“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do for you.”
Her words stung of fatality. Complete dismissal from my doctor, and without any steps to see if there was an underlying cause. I was frustrated, beyond frustrated to be completely candid, and felt helpless because it seemed that there was nothing I could do to get a doctor to listen to me. But at the same time, I was numb—this was what I had come to expect, and her reaction, sadly, did not surprise me. I had heard it before.
On the drive home from the doctor’s office, my mother and I called my father and explained what had happened. I was about ready to throw in the towel—maybe there really was nothing wrong with me. Maybe I was just being dramatic. My mother was not sure what could be done, either, as for years no doctor had listened and believed her either. My father, on the other hand, was determined to get meaningful answers. We quickly got to work looking for an endometriosis specialist in our area, and once we found one, we scheduled an appointment as soon as we could.
Meeting with Dr. [Name], there immediately was a difference. She took my symptoms seriously and came up with a plan, and when, after several months, that plan was not working, she scheduled me for surgery—currently, the only way to concretely diagnose the condition we both suspected. I went into the surgery in December of my freshman year of college, and sure enough, I was diagnosed with endometriosis. Finally, I had an explanation for the immense pain I had been experiencing chronically for years, pain other doctors had dismissed over and over as me just being hyper-sensitive about experiences that they claimed were normal. I was finally vindicated, and more importantly, I was able to take steps that would properly help me and not just put a bandage over a bullet wound.
On average, it takes ten years for women to be diagnosed with endometriosis, so I consider myself lucky that it only took six for me. Going through this process and talking to doctor after doctor made me realize the importance of having people in your corner who are willing to advocate for you when you struggle to be taken seriously and receive help on your own. Without my parents’ support and keeping me from feeling too dejected, I would not have continued the process of seeking a diagnosis and essentially begging doctors to listen and believe me. In addition to my parents, having Dr. [Name] on my side made me realize the weight that professionals carry as advocates. Without her, I may still be fighting for a diagnosis and proper treatment to this day. This is not something that I take for granted, but rather something that greatly influences the way that I understand my future role as a lawyer. As an attorney and advocate, I aspire to adopt Dr. [Name]’s approach of listening, caring, and taking active steps to help understand the cause of an issue and what can be done to alleviate it.
Through this process, I also had to learn how to advocate for myself and make myself heard in spaces that did not listen to or respect what I was saying. It is immensely difficult for women to get diagnosed with endometriosis because there is no way to make someone feel the pain you are feeling or express the pain in a way that is not taken as an exaggeration. Throughout this experience, my belief and trust in myself ultimately grew. I learned that what I feel and think about myself and my experiences is just as valid whether no one believes in me or twenty people believe in me—it does not change the validity of what I know to be true.
These are principles that I carry with me, not just about myself but also for others. Not everyone has the benefit of having amazing fighters in their corner as I did with my parents, but everyone deserves this. While growing up, I never doubted that my parents would do whatever they needed to ensure the safety and happiness of me and my sister, and only as I grew older did I realize that this is not a given for everyone. Part of the reason that I want to be a lawyer is to be able to advocate for those who may not have the privilege of having a village that is willing to fight tooth and nail for them.
As I go through life, the values and confidence that I gained from this experience only continue to grow and shape me into the person and advocate I want to be. My experiences will help me immensely in my ability to represent my clients, especially those whose voices are not being heard, because I have experienced that first-hand.
Experience/Perspective Essay Example 8
The author of this essay did a phenomenal job writing about both the adversities that they faced growing up and the resilience and determination that they showed in overcoming those adversities. This applicant began their E/P essay with a simple, straightforward statement about the aspects of their background and identity that they sought to discuss in the statement, which may or may not be the best starting point for any given applicant (in this case, it worked quite well). Notice, too, how the last paragraph covers themes that make it fit many E/P essay prompts that ask about how your experiences will affect you specifically as a law student and lawyer.
I am a non-traditional applicant who enters law school after overcoming extreme adversity in my early years. My path to education was as unconventional as it was unlikely. I was fourteen years old the day I sat in a high school headmaster’s office for an interview I felt I had forced my way into. Unbeknownst to him—and to the state of New York—I had not received any form of education since I was eight years old. My mom had pulled me and my older sisters out of our overcrowded public schools when I was in the fourth grade with the intention of homeschooling us. By then, our abusive father was mostly out of the picture, leaving behind a legacy of violence and a host of financial woes that only exacerbated our mom’s severe depression and mental illness. Unable to leave her bedroom, my mom soon gave up on putting together lesson plans, and our household descended into chaos.
My mom became an extreme hoarder, unwilling to part with trash. Old newspapers, junk mail, dirty clothes, and animal droppings piled up until every inch of floor and surface area was inaccessible and no one besides us could come inside. As things broke, they were never fixed. Eventually we didn’t have running toilets, hot water, or a functioning oven. We were constantly sick from the mold infestation that was causing the walls around us to literally crumble, and we rarely saw doctors. Despite our living conditions, I loved my mom and I lived in constant fear of being taken away from her.
I distracted myself from my surroundings by reading voraciously about art, history, and vocabulary—anything I could glean from the early internet. By the time I should have been in middle school, desperate for any semblance of a classroom, I joined online message boards and began writing papers I assigned to myself. I knew I had to attend a real high school, so I set my sights on [High School]. It was only a few miles from our apartment, but to my mom the exclusive private school was light years away. “You will never get in, and even if you do, we can never afford it,” she cautioned.
Despite her opposition, I pressed on. I obsessively studied for the standardized test and spent dozens of hours on college admissions forums preparing for the interview. I did the most I could to stack every odd in my favor. But that all would have been in vain had it not been for the intervention of a total stranger.
The person who convinced my mom to allow me to apply to high school was a family psychologist we were meeting for the first time. The session was not for me, but I came along anyway and brought a copy of an essay I wrote on The Catcher in the Rye. I desperately handed the doctor the paper, and to my surprise she read the whole thing. In private, she persuaded my mom to take me to the interview for a school that seemed impossibly out of reach. Days later, I was not only accepted, but awarded a scholarship that allowed me to attend. My sister [Sister 1]’s education ended in 9th grade and [Sister 2]’s in 7th grade. I went on to be the first member of my family to graduate college.
The trials of my early life left me with a mountain of perspective I would never have had access to, had the circumstances been different. I figured out that the scope of what I could achieve through sheer effort and will was greater than I had ever imagined. Conversely, I realized that my feat would not have been possible without someone in a position of influence using her voice to give me a fighting chance. I saw how easily fate could have slipped away from me based on the world I was born into. Most importantly, I learned that incredible outcomes are possible when one person is willing to listen.
We have all faced different challenges and experiences in life and, as a result, have our own insights and ways of engaging with the world. I look forward to meeting my future classmates at [Law School] and learning from their distinct perspectives. Through my involvement in classrooms, affinity groups, student government, and journals, I will first and foremost listen to the viewpoints shared in the hopes of expanding my own.