Personal Statement
Applicant: Xx    Program: LLM

The hallowed halls of xx University Law School have been traversed by some of the finest legal minds in the world.  I realize that it is extremely difficult to be admitted to one of the world’s best law schools, but I have strong confidence and faith in my abilities.  My personal statement shall strive to impress upon you my ability to overcome all obstacles in reaching my dream of earning the LL.M. degree from xx Law School, just as I have been able to overcome difficulties throughout my entire life.

I have always had to work very hard for my success in life, indeed I was born in xx, one of the poorest provinces in China.  I grew up in a minority area and learned the local language.  Although it was very difficult for me, I worked and studied very hard and achieved excellent grades all through elementary and middle school.  As just one example of my above-average abilities, I was selected as the Master of Ceremonies for a television show in a contest by our provincial television station out of hundreds of contestants.   In high school, my grades placed me in the top of my class, and I was selected to attend one of the best law schools in China, xx University of xx.  xx has nurtured some of the best legal scholars in China, including more than twenty high court judges, prosecutors and many legal professionals that are among the best in China.

At xx, I became involved in more than just the rigors of academic study.  As a freshman, I was selected as the “Outstanding University Volunteer” for my role in working with people that had been displaced by the Three Gorges Dam project.  I took on the job of photographer and writer for a team of students that took boats into the areas where the local populations were being affected by the building of the dam, and brought attention to some of the problems that were being created there.  Furthermore, I was active in volunteer teaching for a local primary school, and as a legal aid advocate that provided legal services to the poor in the local community.  I found these volunteer experiences to be just as rewarding as my academic studies.

My academic success continued at xx, with an undergraduate GPA of 85.1/100, which placed me in the top five percent of my class.  My intense desire to learn as much as possible gave me a very rare opportunity – I was selected as an honor student in the exchange program at one of France’s finest law schools, xx University of Law, Economics and Science to earn a Master of European Business Law degree.  xx has three law departments with approximately 1200 students, and only the top twenty students were eligible for the exchange program.  It was my great honor to accept this opportunity to study abroad, and I have taken full advantage of this exclusive opportunity.

At xx University, because of my outstanding performance, I received an even greater honor – the “xx”, the xx Scholarship, from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The scholarship is awarded through the Eiffel Excellence Program through a very competitive selection process – only six or seven of the very best law students annually receive the award, and I am very proud to be one of them.  Although gaining awards is not the reason for my hard work and inspired study, it is an honor to have my accomplishments so recognized.

My Master’s thesis at xx discusses the effects of the Social Responsibility 8000 (SA8000) standard on Chinese businesses.  The SA 8000 defines a set of auditable standards and an independent auditing process for the protection of workers’ rights, and it is controversial for the appropriateness of its use in developing countries such as China.  I worked diligently for one month in the Pearl River delta area of xx, which has a large concentration of labor-intensive manufacturers, to uncover primary data on opinions on SA8000 by Chinese employers and employees.  My thought-provoking thesis won the commendation of my supervisor, one of xx most famous professors, Prof. xx.

I have learned a tremendous amount of knowledge about law and the world from my scholarship studies in France, but I realize that it is not enough to fulfill my dream of becoming a world-renowned legal scholar although I have now studied law on two different continents.  Old Europe is presently enjoying a rebirth through cooperation and expansion with the European Union.  China is a rising power both politically and economically.  I have a solid foundation in legal studies in both of these areas, but to achieve my fullest potential, I must continue my studies in the world’s leading country, the United States of America, which has become powerful mainly through a strong legal system and a systematic rule of law. 

It is the absolute pinnacle of legal scholarship to study law at xx University, and it is my heartfelt desire to embrace this challenge to become one of the world’s leading legal scholars.  My main areas of interest lie in law related to international trade, such as trade law, comparative law and American antitrust law.  Additionally, I would like to study insurance law due to its rapidly developing importance in China.  Although China has had its first insurance company listing on Wall Street, the industry lacks a true infrastructure and legal professionals with strong insurance knowledge will be desperately needed in the coming years.  I would like to focus my research at xx on the theories and methodologies of insurance law in the United States so that I can transfer that knowledge as a leading legal scholar back to my home country to help this relatively new industry develop properly. 

In summary, I have been able to overcome an inauspicious beginning in one of the poorest provinces in China to achieve great academic success at the top law schools in both China and France, and it is my strong belief that I can continue my success in the challenging environment of xx School of Law.  It would be an honor to have the opportunity to earn my LL.M. degree from your esteemed program, and I will in turn strive to become another of the world’s leading legal minds that has earned the respect that comes with a degree from xx University.