One of the most insightful papers I read after discovering the field of health economics was an article written by Michael Frakes. To my delight, I found out that Dr. Frakes became a faculty at Northwestern Law School and continues to focus on health policy issues. Dr. Frakes’ research exemplifies the direction that policy and legislation should progress towards and also provides me an extraordinary opportunity to learn about the issues and tools related to policy implementation. In addition to Dr. Frakes’ research, Professor Paik’s course titled "Empirical Research in Health Policy" utilizes quantitative skills in policy evaluation. This course allows me to apply my graduate training in statistics, economics and analytical methods to enhance my understanding of policy.

Martin XXXX (class of 2014) discussed with me the breadth of clinics available at Northwestern, and specifically how useful the SCOTUS clinic is since it mimics the duties of actual practitioners. Martin mentioned that amongst his peers, the clinic experience was one of the best parts of law school. Martin also talked about how the environment at Northwestern is conducive to learning due to the collegial atmosphere and how courses changed his interests within the field of law.

Other than the academic qualifications, Northwestern also represents an opportunity to live in the third largest city in the United States, a city with a robust public transit system and offers a variety of cultural and food experience. The AJD program also enables me to finish law school in two years instead of three, thus I can start my legal career much earlier.

David’s Comments

Although this essay needs to be polished, it proves that the author (1) has done some research, and (2) has specific, compelling reasons to apply to Northwestern.