<p>I was just accepted into a university and I want to go to law school. I was searching the university's extracurricular activities and I want to be a part of them. I know that if I juggle the extracurricular activities with my full time amount of courses (12 units or more [3 or more classes]), I will have bad grades. </p>
<p>I want to be a part time student (I would take more or less 8 units [2 classes]) because then I will be able to maintain a high grade point average and still be a part of the schools extracurricular activities. </p>
<p>I am worried that as a law school applicant, I would not seem appealing as a part time undergraduate students as opposed to a full time undergraduate student. </p>
<p>(The extracurricular activities that I want to be part of are the pre-law society, student government, and the university's mock trial program).</p>
<p>What looks better, a part time 4.0 student with the above extracurricular activities or a full time 3.0 student with the above extracurricular activities?</p>
<p>If you were working at a job, i’d agree with Demosthenes. But only take 8 credit hours so you can participate in ECs? Nope, I don’t think that will fly.</p>
<p>I took several low-credit semesters. Didn’t affect my cycle in the slightest, and that was back when schools were flooded with applicants. When schools have to start reporting undergraduate workloads to USNEWS, they’ll start caring. Until then, there’s no reason for them to.</p>
<p>If you’re doing the EC’s because you think law schools or employers will care, then go full time and get involved in student government. You’ll learn more dealing with people in that realm than in mock trials and pre-law organizations. Or go part time and work - saving money for law school.</p>
<p>Whether schools will care or not shouldn’t be your only concern, in my opinion. Most successful law school applicants that I know were able to carry a full course load as well as be involved in extracurriculars and still do well academically. Is there some reason that you think yourself incapable of this? What will you do once in law school? You won’t have the part-time option there.</p>
<p>AlwaysAMom beat me to it. Most undergrad majors require much less work than you’ll do in law school, and that is less work than studying for the bar, which is less than when you start practising law - you get the picture. </p>
<p>I will also point out that high school and college are very different in the way that your time is structured. The most time that I ever spent in class in any semester was about 25 hours a week - and that’s when I had two lab courses (three hours each). However, you’re probably going to spend 12-15 hours a week in class, which leaves you another 155 hours in the week to study, sleep, eat, party, hang out with your friends, do ECs, get some exercise, etc. Unless you are a D1 athlete, your ECs shouldn’t be taking up so much of your time that you can’t take a full course load - and, again, priorities.</p>