How long should a law school personal statement be?
Two pages, double spaced, which comes to roughly 500 to 700 words. LSAC sets no limit of its own, so the ceiling belongs to each school, and the 14 schools below state it in 14 slightly different ways. Where a school states a cap, that cap wins over any general advice, this page included.
What each school states
Every line below is the school’s own wording for the 2026-27 cycle, copied from its admissions page rather than from a guide. All 14 were last read on September 9, 2026.
| School | What the school states | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Law | limited to four double-spaced pages in 11-point font that is highly legible and with 1 inch margins. Three pages is recommended. | Admissions page |
| Chicago Law | There is no page limit, but we generally find 2-4 pages to be sufficient. | Admissions page |
| Columbia Law | While there is no official page limit, a good guideline is two double-spaced pages, using readable fonts and margins. | Admissions page |
| Cornell Law | total of five (5) pages across all prompts answered; you may submit distinct essays responding to a specific prompt or a combined essay so long as the total does not exceed five pages | Admissions page |
| Duke Law | 2-3 pages, double-spaced | Admissions page |
| Georgetown Law | no minimum or maximum length; around two pages double-spaced recommended | Admissions page |
| Harvard Law | one to two pages in length, using double-spacing, one-inch margins, and a font size that is comfortable to read (no smaller than 11 point); at least one full page | Admissions page |
| Michigan Law | While we do not impose a page or word limit for the personal statement, we value clear and concise writing; most personal statements are between two and four pages. For ease of reading, please use double-spacing and at least an 11-point font. | Admissions page |
| Northwestern Law | no limit stated on the page | Admissions page |
| NYU Law | no limit; content and length at your discretion | Admissions page |
| Penn Carey Law | no limit stated on the page | Admissions page |
| Stanford Law | approximately two pages in length | Admissions page |
| UVA Law | should not exceed two pages double-spaced in 12 pt font | Admissions page |
| Yale Law | approximately two double-spaced pages, formatted in a professional 12-point font, and include their name, LSAC number, and "Personal Statement" in the header | Admissions page |
A school that states no cap is not inviting four pages. It is declining to make the decision for you.
Two pages, in words
Schools count pages rather than words because what they receive is a PDF, so the font and the margins move the number. In 12-point Times New Roman, double spaced, with one-inch margins, a page holds about 250 words.
- One page
- about 250 words
- Two pages
- about 500 words
- Three pages
- about 750 words
- Four pages
- about 1,000 words
Single spacing to fit more on the page is the oldest trick in the file and the easiest to see. If a school states double spacing, the count above is the real ceiling.
What to cut when you are over
Cut setup, not scene. Every read here reports how the words divide between setup, scene and reflection, and the drafts that run long are almost always long in the same place. In the law statement published in full on this site, 52 percent of the words are setup and 8 percent are scene, which is why that essay reads as a cover letter rather than as a person.
- Chronology that arrives before the thing it explains. It can usually go entirely.
- A paragraph of institutional background that a reader already understands.
- Sentences that summarise what the paragraph above them already showed.
- The line that gestures at a resume the file already contains.
The worked example is here: the law statement that is a resume in prose.
The addendum is a separate document
An addendum and a perspective or diversity statement do not count toward the personal statement’s pages, and they are not judged on the same things. An addendum is judged on being brief, factual and free of argument, which is the opposite of what the personal statement is judged on. Each school page linked in the table above carries that school’s own wording for every piece of writing it asks for, not just this one.
Paste your statement
Length is the easiest thing to fix and the least of what a reader notices. The first look is free: you see the verdict, where attention dropped and how your own words divide between setup, scene and reflection.
Program
Applying to college instead?
Common questions
- How long should a law school personal statement be?
- Two pages, double spaced, in a 12-point font with one-inch margins, which comes to roughly 500 to 700 words. That is the length most schools either require or recommend. Where a school states its own cap, that cap wins over any general advice, including this page.
- Does LSAC set a length limit?
- No. LSAC handles the transmission, not the requirement. The limit belongs to each school, and the fourteen listed on this page state it in fourteen slightly different ways: some as pages, some as a range, some not at all.
- How many words is two double-spaced pages?
- About 500. A double-spaced page in 12-point Times New Roman with one-inch margins holds roughly 250 words, so two pages is about 500 and three is about 750. Schools count pages rather than words because the file they receive is a PDF, so the font and the margins change the answer.
- What if a school states no limit?
- Treat it as two pages anyway. A statement with no stated ceiling is not an invitation to write four pages; it is a school declining to make the decision for you. The read is the same either way, and the pages that lose a reader are the ones that spend too long on setup.
- Does the addendum count toward the length?
- No. An addendum and a perspective or diversity statement are separate documents with their own limits, and the read judges them on different things: an addendum is judged on being brief, factual and free of argument, which is the opposite of what the personal statement is judged on.
Length is one question. What the six bands actually judge, and what comes back on a full read, is on the law school personal statement review page, and the prompts for every school above start at law.