<p>jonri -
perhaps what is important is not necessarily what type of work one does but the life experience one gets from not going straight from college to law school. and in that regard - i really still have to think that the statistics of YLS's admissions bear out that they must be looking for something more than just kids who did well in college (ie gpa) - i really have to think that this additional life experience must mean something - otherwise you wouldn't expect this percentage to be consistant over time. and to add, the article is not the only source for my conclusions - i was also familiar with the student body at YLS years ago, and the article just seemed to reenforce what i had seen in the population at the time - ie a LOT of students who did an awful lot of different interesting things between the time they graduated college and the time they started law school.
i don't think there is any one type of work experience that would give one an "edge" - but anything one does that enriches one's background and allows one to bring more to the mix - i think would be a factor -. and i still think it wrong of tpeck to simply float the conclusion that Harvard and Yale don't seem to care much about this without presenting a basis for that claim.</p>
<p>Another possibility is that the people with the talent to get into YLS are likely to come up with something interesting to do in a "year off."</p>
<p>Greybeard, yes, we know someone who will be at YLS in the fall and who spent last year doing social work in a developing country. This is very different from spending a year as a dime-a-dozen paralegal. With undergrad admissions, people often ask, "Will it help me if I do x?" Invariably it's not the <em>doing</em> of x that helps, but the way the person who did x ends up being transformed by the experience; that transformation is reflected in the application essays.</p>
<p>not to thread-jack or anything but what does it take to become a paralegal? can you get paralegal work with just a bachelor's degree or does it require additional formal education?</p>
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Invariably it's not the <em>doing</em> of x that helps, but the way the person who did x ends up being transformed by the experience; that transformation is reflected in the application essays.
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<p>This requires emphasis. The competitiveness of admissions in general has skewed the incentive for doing community service and other charitable deeds. I think admissions officers are quite capable of identifying students who engage in charity in order to gain an edge.</p>
<p>Edit: I think I might be misappropriating your post.</p>
<p>I was just trying to say that if unbelieveablem was basing his/her opinion on how YLS admissions works on that article, the article really doesn't say you need WE. Additionally, nobody should assume that the people who took time off between college and law school and then went to YLS spent the interim working. There's one heck of a lot of Rhodes, Marshall, Gates, Fullbright, Henry, Rotary, Watson, etc. scholars at YLS. </p>
<p>I very much agree with Greybeard that it's a good idea to take a year off before going to LS; I'm just trying to say that you shouldn't think based simply on statistics that taking the year will increase your odds of getting into YLS. There are VERY few things that you can do in one year that are really going to help much in admissions.</p>
<p>I fully agree that WE CAN help--I said that. I think spending a year as a social worker in a foreign country would be similar to being in the Peace Corps, one of the things I specifically says DOES help. </p>
<p>Nor did I say that YLS bases its admissions decisions simply on gpa and LSAT.That's not true and I know that--a quick look at the grids will prove that. </p>
<p>But if you are entering college or have more than a year to go, focus on your gpa and later LSAT. They matter more than WE for MOST people who take less than 5 years off between college and LS.</p>
<p>jonri - i never said one "needed" WE - i was responding to a post that said Harvard and Yale didn't "care much" about WE. The simple fact that so many students do not go straight from college (and in the further stats you later provided there is still a very significant number who are out of school more than just a year) still in my mind, those stats seem to undermine THAT original statement. The actual value of the WE or whatever else the students do during that time is not for me to know.<br>
The most important point I think is that people should be VERY careful about making sweeping conclusions without clearly stating what facts they are basing those conclusions on - I think both you and I have done so, and I am not even sure our conclusions are that different - but certainly anyone reading the posts can see why we are saying what we are saying.
In contrast the simple statement that Harvard and Yale don't seem to care much about WE was throwing a conclusion out there without basis for anyone to judge whether to accept it or not. In my original post on this I invited the poster of that statement to indicate the basis for the conclusion so that readers could evaluate that conclusion and I have not seen such a response posted.</p>
<p>So...</p>
<p>I'll be the one to make the sweeping conclusion:D</p>
<p>May be it'll help YOU, may be it will not! --depending on other factors, variables, and the specific circumstances.</p>
<p>wf</p>
<p>P.S. Man, I am that good :D</p>
<p>Sigh. Not to one-up WF, but...</p>
<p>Work experience is often most beneficial for what it will do FOR YOU, not for you chances of admission. Some law schools really want to see it (such as Northwestern - 92% of the incoming class has taken at least one year off), and some really don't care very much unless it is unusual experience.</p>
<p>I really think that time away from the stress and neuroses of academia was one of the best things for me as a law student - I learned to function better as a student for having done something entirely different for a while.</p>
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**And do you think doing bad in school the first time around (I got a ged) and then turning it around later will make a difference?
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Yes. There's a woman on another law school discussion forum who got a GED and went on to graduate from Harvard Law School. It's rare, but it can be done.</p>