Moot Court/Appellate Advocacy

To the best of this community’s knowledge, is Moot Court a common/rare high school activity? I love it and I’ve been deeply involved in it since freshman year, but I wanted to know if it’s generally seen as especially advantageous or as just another extracurricular. Thanks!

Mock Trial was high school and Moot Court college. Mock Trial is basically an activity unless you can add things to it like team captain and state awards. Mine wanted to do Moot Court in college but couldn’t fit it into her schedule. They were a winning team and the captain ended up with a full tuition scholarship to Duke for law school. Not bad for a small college.

Wow, that’s amazing! Congratulations! Do you think having participated in Moot Court at the high school level for four years would be beneficial from a college admissions perspective?

As I stated, at the high school level here it is Mock Trial. Four years helps since it shows that you can stick to something and not just add activities junior or senior year to make it look good on an application. Have you won any awards? Those count. They also show that you actually participated instead of showing up a few times a year to count as a member but not really doing anything but occupying space.

Thank you! I’ve been actively involved and have held several officer positions, won a national and a few local awards, organized a tournament, and will (hopefully) be organizing a few more my senior year throughout my state.

That should go on your application and look good. If your interested in continuing with Moot Court in college, look for schools that offer it either as a class or as an activity. Where my d went it was offered as a class, taught by the English prof who had a law degree and had been a defense attorney.

Thank you! Wherever I end up, if they don’t offer Moot Court, I intend to start a club/team. (I wouldn’t dare be without it!)

As always, an activity is good, leadership is better, and awards are better.
You should be exploring interests of yours regardless of what it looks like to a college.

Thank you, and exactly! I love it, and that’s why I’ve devoted the past three years (and next year) to it, across multiple programs. However, this inquiry was brought about by my teacher saying that it was actually a common activity (I was under the impression that it was quite rare) and thus might not make for the best essay topic.

“my teacher saying that it was actually a common activity (I was under the impression that it was quite rare) and thus might not make for the best essay topic.”

This is a slightly different issue than the question you posed in your first post. Moot Court - and all the similar programs - aren’t rare; there are multiple similar programs that have different names but do the same thing. It can be a good EC to have, especially if you have a good track record, but not because it’s uncommon.

Whether Moot Court makes for a compelling essay topic is a whole separate issue. If the idea is that Moot Court is rare and that’s the focus of the essay, I’d have to agree with your teacher. If you’ve had some interesting experiences, epiphanies, or personal growth within your Moot Court experience, that might make for a compelling essay, though.

Thank you! It’s been the focal point for my whole time in high school and, since it’s been such an integral part of my experience and the shaping of who I am, I figured it would make for a good essay topic.

Out of curiosity, what other names does it go under?

How rare mock trial/moot court is, depends on the area of the country. Here the largest city doesn’t offer it but some of the burbs do. Rural schools don’t have it. A few of the schools in larger towns do but even then, not all of them. Only 2 of the high schools in my town offered it out of 6. Things vary widely across the country.

It’s an EC, no more or less valuable than others such as MUN, JSA. But the fact that you have done it and loved it for 4 years is what matters. Colleges care less about what you did and more that you did it (were engaged) and learned from it (incling something about yourself. ) Make sure that enthusiasm comes acrossi in your application /interviews!