<p>Hi, just wondering how involved an undergrad should be to go to top law schools, since it seems hard to maintain astronomical GPA and a social life, and get a decent amount of sleep while still devoting >10 hours per week for extracurricular.</p>
<p>Wow! That sounds a lot like the challenge of practicing law at a Biglaw firm – working 70-80 hours a week, occasionally seeing friends and family (usually late at night after getting home from work), and trying to go to the gym, get a haircut, see the dentist, pay some bills, and generally, have a life. Whew! That’s exhausting!</p>
<p>I think the general consensus is that GPA and LSAT are far more important than anything else. If you can do the EC’s without sacrificing your GPA, they couldn’t hurt, but otherwise your GPA is far more important.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that it’s not necessary to do at least 10 hours every week for an EC to count. Even if you get in an hour or two, it’s something that you can put on your resume and application.</p>
<p>If your time management skills are that bad, maybe law isn’t for you?</p>
<p>It may seem like you’re always busy now, but it’s nothing compared to what life is going to be like once you start working.</p>
<p>Assuming you sleep 8 hours a day, drink/party for 20 hours a week, spend 20 hours a week in class, spend 10 hours a week at the gym, and 10 hours a week doing whatever extra curricular activity you do, you’re still left with 58 hours a week to do homework.</p>
<p>If varsity athletes survive, there’s no way you cannot.</p>
<p>^ You mean 52 hours a week? And you discount hours of eating, commuting, etc, unless you mash them up into one of the categories above. 
Say you’re also self-learning a new language and attending two extra lectures for personal interest.</p>
<p>I’m just wondering how extracurricular for law schools usually is.</p>
<p>You mean your weeks don’t have 174 hours in them?
I’m not really sure how I screwed that one up, lol.</p>
<p>It’s really about what’s important to you. </p>
<p>Didn’t include eating as it can easily fit into studying, drinking or class time and at least for me generally tended to when I was still in school. Studying and partying unfortunately tends to result in negative synergies.
If you live off campus and have a long commute, that sucks and I’m sorry. Nothing you can really do about that.</p>
<p>Extra curriculars are important, even if they don’t help you get into law school, just for your own sake.
You’ll meet new people and be a more interesting person.
Also, they came up on every single one of my job interviews and pre-interview dinners (not for law though, but I’d imagine it would be the same) + they were an often a point in common when networking.</p>
<p>Just do a few in which you’re interested. Unless you can achieve something significant, no need to go overboard to look good because no one will care. Even if you can achieve something significant, your grades and LSAT are still paramount.</p>