<p>Just for general information.</p>
<p>What type of work experience during time off is advantageous? (e.g., volunteering, prestigious wall-street jobs etc.)?</p>
<p>I think that work experience is a strong factor for business school, haven’t really heard many people who say that it affects your law school admission.</p>
<p>Apparently, except for Northwestern.</p>
<p>great work experience (i-banking, etc) is a minor plus. not game changing, but still a plus.</p>
<p>mediocre or bad work experience is a neutral. you can be a complete f-up after u-grad and still get in as if you applied senior year.</p>
<p>would a person be doing an injustice to themselves if they take two years off to work at a prestigious wall street firm if they have a good undergraduate record? I ask because I hear law schools discount the UGPA the further one gets away from her undergraduate years. Presumably, two years out isn’t too far…but I just wanted to make sure.</p>
<p>well, like you said, two years is definitely not too far out. in fact, isn’t that around the average amount of time off LS applicants take? and as for working- I’d personally worry about liking the money on wall street too much to return to LS. :o</p>
<p>a lot of top law schools are actually reluctant to take people straight out of undergrad, since you’re so green. taking two years off is really not a big deal – honestly, probably a plus since you’ll have proven that you’re a good worker as well as a good student.</p>
<p>The median age for entering students in my class was 24. (That was three decades ago, but I don’t believe this has changed for my alma mater.)</p>
<p>I’m sure nobody discounts a two-year-old GPA (which wouldn’t even be two years old at the time the application was filed).</p>
<p>in general, i believe they only discount POOR undergraduate records as time goes by. for example, if your gpa is 2.8 you are well served by putting some work experience between your application and your academic record. if you did great in undergrad, have no worries.</p>
<p>Not wanting to start a new thread, but I have a question: </p>
<p>Looking at very few law school stats, it seems like there is a higher percentage of people who are accepted after taking 1-2 years off of school versus those who are accepted straight out of undergrad (~45% vs. ~30% at the schools I was looking at). Is there an actual advantage of graduating and working a little at a pertinent job for admissions? Wouldn’t it be harder to elicit letters of recommendation in that case?</p>
<p>you could ask profs to write you letters as a senior and then not use them til you’re ready to apply. The career office at my college actually had a system where you could ask them to keep recommendations on file for this very purpose.</p>
<p>Definitely take a couple of years. The ones who burned out when i was in law school tended to be the ones who went straight through from undergrad.</p>
<p>I went straight through. I don’t regret it (in fact, I’m glad to be finally on the path that I want to be on). I don’t think it’s particularly advantageous to take time off for the sake of taking time off. But if you could get some valuable experience that might provide perspective on things, by all means. I had ibanking offers, but I knew that route wasn’t for me. I didn’t get the Rhodes or Marshall or Fulbright. If I had, I’d have gone for those.</p>
<p>I am a big fan of taking time off, but you have to do what is best for you. In my experience, post-college work experience can be a positive factor in law school admissions, particularly if that experience leads you to grow in a way that becomes a part of your personal statement. You may also benefit if you have one of your recommendations come from an employer who has fantastic things to say about you (and, in most cases, will know you personally in a way that most professors will not). The final, and perhaps, most important, benefit of post-college work experience is that real work experience is often a boost when interviewing for jobs, particularly Biglaw positions.</p>
<p>While I think taking time off between college and law school is a good idea, 1-2 years of typical work experience really doesn’t boost your odds of admission much from what I’ve seen. A partial exception to this is community service, such as Peace Corps and TFA or military service, all of which do give you a boost. Long ago, I knew a cop who was wounded in action (and disabled seriously enough to end his career as a cop) who did amazingly well in LS admissions. But to really “walk away from” a lower college gpa usually takes 5 or more years of stellar work experience. </p>
<p>The unfortunate reality is that among the LSs I’d describe as “strivers”–below the top 14 but in the top 50 with the goal of improving their rankings–USNews’ methodology has made them less flexible about LSAT and gpa. </p>
<p>But if you’re in the lower end of the “zone”–say between the 25th and 50th %, and aiming for one of the elites, I’d say TFA, Peace Corps or some other altrusistic use of your time boosts your odds more than Wall Street type employment.</p>
<p>As Sybbie notes, though, work experience can make you more desirable for hiring purposes, but that’s a different issue.</p>
<p>Thamks Jonri, But I gotta give credit where it is due; it was actually Sally who wrote about w/e.</p>
<p>OOPS! Thanks for the correction.</p>