<p>I will enter junior year at an Ivy League university in sept. with a 3.8 gpa. I was accepted as an unpaid intern at the prosecutor's office in the county where I live (it's a program they have year round).
But, I was offered a PAID internship at a local company where I can earn $2000 in 8 weeks this summer (the work is not law related and doesn't sound that great, but the money is good.
I don't know what to do. Will the unpaid internship at a prosecutor's office help my application a lot? They wanted to see a writing sample before they accepted me, and apparently I will be doing stuff that paralegals do.
What should I do?</p>
<p>My opinon is that having a good paying job this summer is a significant accomplishment. For most students, it would be nice to make money.
Working for the prosecutor might be interesting, but if the work is significant, it should be compensated. In other words, if you are really doing necessary and valuable research work, you should be paid for it.
I do not think that the summer work experience would tip the scales for you one way or another at a top law school. They will mostly be looking at your GPA and LSAT scores. The fact that you worked somewhere may be a slight plus, but I don’t think you’d be hurt even if you took the summer off. My D just got accepted at most of the T-14 schools and she’s spent a lot of time working in a store that sells costume jewelry.</p>
<p>Do you care about the money you could be making? If so take the paid job because either jobs will affect your application minimally.</p>
<p>Otherwise working at a prosecutor’s office could be fun, and it could give you something to write your personal statement on if you haven’t done it already.</p>
<p>Do whichever is more relevant to your interests.</p>
<p>If you are certain you wish to go to law school and be a lawyer, then the law internship will likely be of limited value in terms of getting you into law school. Grades and LSAT are more important. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if your not sure you want to be a lawyer, the legal internship may be of significant value if it enable you to figure out you don’t want to be a lawyer (and thus don’t waste years of your life and money for nothing) or want to be a lawyer (and thus willing to work very hard to get into a good law school).</p>