Application Letters: Examples

Hello, beautiful human!

This is a collection of my application letters.

I made a diverse set - it includes motivation letters for scholarships, personal statements for admission to a master's program, cover letters for public interest fellowship and law firm internships.

I know it's hard to write a letter about yourself, especially if you come from a background where applications don't require you to think deeply about your qualifications and motivation and talk about it to people who don't know your world.

The set of application letters is for you if:

• you don’t know what a successful application letter looks like
• you don’t know how to write about yourself, or feel uncomfortable doing it
• you think application letters are about bragging and would like to avoid doing that but stay authentic in the letter and still be successful in your applications
• you don't know the difference between a successful and unsuccessful application
• you’re not a native English speaker & find it really hard to write a letter about yourself in English

Some of my applications got me admissions to and funding from Harvard, NYU School of Law, Master's of International Dispute Settlement in Geneva, the University of Cambridge, a 4-year PhD in the heart of Italy, The Hague Academy of International Law, Paris Arbitration Academy, the UNIDROIT and Max Planck Institutes, Humboldt University of Berlin, and many more.

In this collection, however, I’ve included both successful and unsuccessful letters. I believe it's incredibly important to see both sides of the matter, not only successful and polished one but also the one that is messy. Because the messy part - provided you don’t stop there - is usually a stepping stone to success.

If there is one thing I find consistent across my applications is that nothing gets wasted. 

Application letters that did not work out, I later redrafted and used for other applications that became successful. 

Example: Right after law school, I wanted to practice international arbitration. So I applied for a law firm internship in Paris. I didn't get the internship, but the letter - the letter I revised, adjusted, reoriented, and submitted for a Master’s of International Dispute Settlement in Geneva. And I got it. Of course, I’d have to write that letter anyway, but I had the advantage of having thought about my application for a really, really long time. I had the time to develop my thinking and writing.

I wanted the letters in this compilation to reflect that and be representative not just of success, but of the entire path to it.

Whatever your application journey is, think about it long-term. As NLP practitioners say, there is no failure - only feedback.

What You'll Get

Here is what you'll receive, all inclusive of a one-time signup fee:

• Personal Statement for a Master of Laws at NYU: This essay secured my admission to NYU and earned me a Dean's scholarship offer of $30k.
• Cover Letter for Research Stays: A letter that won me merit-based scholarships to support my research from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg (twice) and the UNIDROIT Institute in Rome.
• Cover Letter for International Arbitration Internships: This letter helped me secure interviews for competitive internships in Paris. I later adapted it to apply for the MIDS (Master's in International Dispute Settlement in Geneva), where I received both admission and a full scholarship offer.
• Cover Letter for a Position with a U.S.-Based Educational Institution: I applied right before COVID and am not sure if it was the reason for rejection, or that I'd have to apply for the right to work for the U.S. company (while being based in Italy), or that they had a stronger candidate. Regardless, I like this letter. I think it says a lot about my values, and I decided to include it to show that even a well-crafted letter can sometimes lead to rejection - and that's okay. I sought feedback from a friend when writing it, which helped me improve it a lot.
• Cover Letter for a Non-Profit Fellowship with PILnet in New York City: I received assistance on this letter from Harvard's Career Office - they commented on it, and also reviewed my CV. I felt pretty confident about my chances, especially due to my experience of leading a pro bono practice at Noerr, but they ultimately selected another candidate. I included this letter here for the same reason as one above - to highlight that even a strong application may not always be successful due to factors beyond your control, eg, if there is candidate who may be a better fit.
• Cover Letter for the Hague Academy of International Law and the Paris Arbitration Academy: Both applications were successful, and I received admission and scholarships. However, this letter is almost a decade old, and I now consider it one of weaker works. It was one my first attempts to describe my experience to an international audience in English. I included it here to demonstrate that letters don't have to be perfect, and they are just one of many factors that influence the outcome.

It's 6 letters in total.

For more of my writing, please check out this post: How I Found Ideas for My LLM Personal Statement: Part 1. It's about my process regarding the Harvard essay, and it includes the essay itself (part 'b').

I hope this will be of help to you in your academic journey.

A final note: Please don't copy the letters. They are for informational and inspirational purposes only.

There is a minimum payment but you are welcome to contribute more if you'd like to thank me for my work.

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