How to Write a Winning LLM Application Without Bragging or Inflating Yourself: Unconventional Guide to Success
Many master of laws applicants believe that getting into a prestigious LL.M. program requires bragging or excessive self-promotion.
First, if you dislike brag, don’t do it. There's no rule in the applications process that says you must.
Second, if talking about yourself feels uncomfortable, I get it. Being your own mirror is hard. It’s really hard. It feels like all the flaws are magnified, and achievements seem to be small and insignificant.
That being said, the entire application process - CVs, online application forms, essays - is about you. There's no avoiding it. You have two options: not apply altogether or find a way to talk about yourself that you feel comfortable with.
In this post, I'll share how one can do the latter.
Think of an LL.M. application as a shortcut to who you are as a person.
What do I mean by that?
The selection committee isn't looking for self-absorbed, egotistical letters. They see enough of those, and they rarely leave a good impression. Nor are they looking for a simple restatement of your CV. They already have that information.
What they want is you – your goals, motivations, the path you’ve traveled so far. They're interested in what you stand for, what drives you, and what brought you to a point in life where you are applying for a master of laws degree. Emotional maturity and introspection are what stand out, not self-centeredness.
Some people believe that the committee will figure out their worth. They think, ‘I’m just going to list the things I’ve done and let them decide. If I’m any good, they’ll see it.’
Let me save you the trouble: they won’t. It's not because they are mean or indifferent. On the contrary, most members are eager to support bright, earnest candidates and help them achieve their goals. That was one of my reasons to do it for sure.
But they review dozens, sometimes hundreds, of applications while juggling other responsibilities. Many applications are decent or even great, and a lot of them are similar. The way the admissions committee differentiates among them is through the way you present yourself, for instance, in an essay like a motivation letter or a personal statement. The quality of your LL.M. application is how you help the committee to help you. You help them by not just dumping raw information such as diplomas, certificates, and lists of achievements on them, but carefully selecting and organizing the events from your past and what they meant for you. You help them by organizing it in a way that tells them who you are as a human, what drives you, your defining moments, and your plans for the future.
You see? LL.M. applications aren't about bragging at all. They're about storytelling.
This is really important. To drive this point home, let me illustrate. I reviewed an application s for a friend. An exceptionally qualified academic, she applied for a tenure-track position at a prestigious EU university. Tenure is the most sought-after professorship as you cannot be fired from it. It's highly competitive.
However, she stated from the very beginning that she was a humble person who didn’t like to brag, and so she wrote her application accordingly. So much so that when I reviewed it, I could barely recognize her for an extraordinarily accomplished applicant that I knew she was. She listed in a formulaic manner her professional milestones but failed to argue why she was the right fit. Had I not known her qualifications, I might have dismissed her as a weak candidate.
Here is the truth: applications written from the mindset of being humble and modest do not actually make you look humble and modest. They make you look unqualified.
It’s like wearing a poorly fitted dress. It doesn't make the dress look bad; it makes you look bad. Similarly, a poorly written application makes a human life – your life – look smaller.
Call me dramatic, but I think it’s a tragedy.
Don’t do that to yourself. You’ve come this far. You deserve better.