law statement - how personal? reference?

[werbito]

Can anyone recommend any good books on writing a personal statement? Better yet if you have one that got you into a decent school would you mind sharing?

I'm not quite sure what angle to take on mine. I don't want to play the sympathy card but I would like to talk about struggles I overcame growing up and going to college. How heavily should I emphasize my experience in college as opposed to in life/before college? I haven't had many leadership positions as I have had to work pretty much full time my entire time in school. How do I make up for this?

tia

werbito