Hi everyone, I am entering as a freshman in college this year and I was wondering which extracurricular activity hold more weight when applying for law school: Mock Trial or Debate? Also in addition to either or both of the two, what other activities would Law schools expect/like to see on an application? It’s my dream to go to Harvard Law School and I want to give myself the best shot possible! Thank you!!
Neither. Law schools won’t care. If you want Harvard you’ll need a great GPA and LSAT. Extracurriculars won’t do anything, so do what you enjoy.
Definitely spend some of your college career working in a law office though. It’s very important to understand what the practice of law is actually like before committing to law school.
@Demosthenes49 Do you think research with professors at my college is essential or helpful in addition to working in a law office?
@girlapplicant1: It will make no difference to law schools. It might be a nice experience though.
@Demosthenes49 Also, for working in a law office, is it worth the effort to work as a paralegal or should I just get an entry level job as a receptionist or something?
@girlapplicant1: For purposes of gaining experience about the real practice of law, an externship would probably work fine. Some law schools, particularly Northwestern, like to see work experience. Most law schools don’t care. Employers, however, love work experience. For that reason I recommend taking some time to work between college and law school. Paralegal would be a fine, and common, way to do that.
I went to HLS and didn’t know anyone who did mock trial in college (what purpose would having non-lawyers do a mock trial serve?) and don’t recall anyone who did debate, either. Neither should matter. Do activities that are consistent with your life’s highest passions.
What kind of extracurricular activities were you involved in? @HappyAlumnus
Law schools do not care about extracurricular activities. Now, if you are a national champion in debate, they might care (a bit), but it’s never going to be a big factor in admissions. This is largely because law school extracurricular activities are meaningless (Law Review excluded), and law schools aren’t looking for great athletes and musicians to fill up the sports teams and orchestras.
All of the above is correct.
As a freshman the best thing you can do is get the best grades you can. Nothing (LSAT notwithstanding) will trump grades to HLS or any other law school.
I disagree. I think having mock trial under your belt will help and being on the Board of Barristers (mock trial and moot court board) helped me get my first job. It is a buyers’ market so to speak in many law schools because the number of applicants is down. Debate is OK too but trials are not like debates. (if you truly are going to be an attorney I think it would be helpful to have mock trial experience) Good grades mean scholarships and higher ranked law schools but I think being involved in school is important.
^ I agree, it’s important to be involved but I do want to caution the OP that she/he should not do so at the expense of grades.
FWIW, my undergrad extracurriculars absolutely helped with my first job out of college pre-law school (and many do work before law school these days) but I never had a law firm interviewer ask me about law school extracurriculars much less undergraduate ones. At that point, anything you did in undergrad shrinks in relevancy
Law schools are like exclusive undergrads, they try to fill out their class with interesting people. The comments above are correct about GPA and LSAT being important, but keep in mind that every law school has more than enough qualified applicants. How do they narrow it down? They look for those who have excelled with varied experiences. Look at the description of Yale’s class. They make it a point to emphasize this. You may have professional or olympic athletes, executives, doctors, police officers, scholars, CPAs, etc. the list is endless. So, if you are a debate champion or mock trial champion, then yes. In fact, the national champion in debate last year is going to Harvard this fall after taking the year off to work on a political campaign. But if you are thinking about an extra curricular to join just to join, forget about it. It won’t set you apart enough. Instead, go start a nonprofit and change your community. You will get far more attraction with an adcom that way.
“but keep in mind that every law school has more than enough qualified applicants.”
No, not really. Not if they want to maintain their medians. (Besides, using Yale as an example is bad - you simply cannot meaningfully extrapolate from Yale’s admissions to any other school’s admissions, except maybe Stanford.)
Now, if you are outstanding in debate, or mock trial, or football (think nationally-ranked), that might matter… if your grades and LSATs are also good. As a rule of thumb, if the college extracurricular (or job) won’t impress law firms during OCI, law schools won’t care about it.