<p>I am considering studying abroad junior year. If I do this however, I will obviously be forced to leave the ECs and clubs I am currently in for the year. I am thinking that this may cause me not to gain leadership positions in the clubs, as they are mostly upperclassmen, and I will have a whole year of not participating in them once I return. However, studying abroad while I'm in college interests me very much. Will this situation be detrimental in applying to top law schools?</p>
<p>Oh, man. I asked this exact question a year or so ago. No helpful answers were given...</p>
<p>I decided against studying abroad, because I knew I would be giving up my leadership positions. But, I've decided to take a year off before law school to travel (get accepted, then defer admission). So, I'm pretty happy with the compromise.</p>
<p>No school is going to care about what leadership positions you had in clubs, anyway. Do not worry about this at all.</p>
<p>Oy! The quick answer is, EC's don't seem to play as big a role in law school admission as it does in college admission. It is mostly your GPA and LSAT score that will get you into law school. An activity or two to show you're alive while at college is probably more than sufficient.</p>
<p>Now the important thing about Study Abroad and Law school-- (d did study abroad semester last year) is how the grades are recorded at your home school and at the study abroad school. Will the transcript at the study abroad school be in English or will it need to be translated??
I know these sound like silly questions, but they are not!!
All UG transcripts must be received by LSAC to convert your grades into an LSAC GPA.
It's hard to explain- so what I am going to strongly suggest is that once you find a study abroad program that interests you, speak to your Law School advisor and study abroad advisor to find out how grades are handled.<br>
All Study Abroad grades are considered for law school admission, though they may not be calculated into your "home school" GPA!! </p>
<p>And please don't live your life based on what you think Law Schools are looking for- You only go through your UG experience once, make the most of it.</p>
<p>If it's really just VP of the Go Club or some such thing, it won't matter. If it's a matter of having a chance to be the editor-in-chief of a major campus newspaper or prez of the student body, that's another story.</p>
<p>This sums it up perfectly: "And please don't live your life based on what you think Law Schools are looking for- You only go through your UG experience once, make the most of it."</p>
<p>Remember that Study Abroad is an important experience as well. You wouldn't be giving something up for nothing...it'd be more of a trade-off as far as your resume is concerned (and SA would probably come out waaay ahead as far as life experiences are concerned).</p>
<p>Maybe you could just study abroad for one semester. That seems like a compromise of sorts.</p>
<p>just to throw in another thought re: study abroad and law school.
You really got to plan ahead and figure out when is the best time to take the LSAT.
My d was NOT going to let the LSAT interfer with her semester abroad. The last thing she wanted to do was study for the test while she was in Italy
She made a quick decision and decided in August to take the December LSAT of her junior year which was right before she went abroad.<br>
She gave herself 4 solid months of studying. It may have been better, if she made the decision in June so she might have had a few more months to study- but it worked out ok
but please consider the timing of the LSAT with your time abroad.<br>
and Joe- maybe the semester abroad may meet your needs as samsonite suggested.</p>
<p>Would studying abroad negatively affect law school admissions chances though?</p>
<p>As in, for example, would courses obtained at an institution in a different country be viewed as less rigorous?</p>
<p>Since when has course rigor been a factor in law school admissions?</p>
<p>From my understanding- the answer is NO. The GPA/LSAT score is the name of the game for law school. In my d's case, d will be sending 2 transcripts- the one from her UG school and the other is from another school in NYS which sponsored her Study Abroad Program. She is not getting a transcript from the school in Italy, as those grades are reported on the transcript from the other NY school.</p>
<p>I do not know how scores are reported if you go through a Study Abroad Program from a company such as CIEE or SIT or any of the other programs. My kids program was sponsored by another college.
As I said before, it is an issue that MUST be discussed with your study abroad advisor and Law school advisor.</p>
<p>My kid absolutely LOVED her SA experience. She would do it again in a heartbeat- but there are definitely issues to consider if you are planning to go to Law school or other graduate programs.</p>
<p>I think it was just dumb luck that everything worked out fine- but you do need to know how grades for the semester are counted. Some SA just do pass/fail- I do not know if that hurts or helps.</p>
<p>Another aside- see if you can find out about the grading system of the program you are interested in.
I remember reading on LSD- that one kid was doing a program at Oxford (??-I think). The grading system is quite hard, and he was worried that it would cause his LSAT GPA to go down. so you really do need to consider the program you want to do. My kids program graded fairly- so she was in good shape.</p>
<p>If you want to study abroad - do it ! It's a wonderful experience and far too valuable to give up for a nebulous fear of how some as yet undetermined law school might view a not-yet offered leadership position.</p>
<p>Our child not only took a semester abroad, but he studied and took the LSAT abroad. We didn't recommend that, but studying for the LSAT didn't seem to take too much time away from him going to school plus having a great time. The only real downside was that he had to go alone to the test site almost 2 hours away by train, and negotiate the trip while having limited language skills. It worked out for him, though. And it was his choice, as it is his ife.</p>
<p>The main lesson is, from our perspective, to get the LSAC transcript processed asap. Sometimes the foreign schools don't work at the same speed ours do, and there can be unfortunate delays. So don't put that piece off.</p>