what are good EC's for someone applying to law school?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>From this site i've garnered that LSAT&GPA are the most important, but how important are EC's? do they want you to do a ton of them like when you're in high school applying to college, or are they ok with 1 or 2?</p>

<p>is there a preference for they type of EC? for example is volunteering better in their eyes than being in student newspaper. are they ok if you are just a writer for the paper or do they expect you to be editor?</p>

<p>what about internships, do they consider them important? or even if you just have a job likke on the campus bookstore.</p>

<p>the reason i'm asking this is because if they expect you to have a whole lot of EC's, then how do they also expect you to have a 3.9 GPA if you're going to a pretty rigorous school? isn't there not a lot of time?</p>

<p>also, if i were a poli sci major, would they not like that compared to being a engineering major because its more generic for prelaw people?</p>

<p>does it really really matter if you go to a top 14 university? for example notre dame isn't one of them but its a pretty well known school, right? i mean what if i just want to be a divorce attorney and not some big shot, will it really matter what law school i go to?</p>

<p>last question, but how many years is law school and when you apply do you usually need to do an interview or have recommendations.\
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thanks for reading this i really appreciate it</p>

2

<p>1) ECs are of minor importance. LSAT+GPA combined comprise 80% of your application, with the LSAT being the most important.
2) It is better to be dedicated to a couple ECs than half-ass a laundry list of extracurriculars.
3) Yes, there is a preference for certain ECs: Peace Corps, TFA, Curing cancer, saving orphans, Managing your own non-profit to save the whales. You get my drift.
4) Internships are of minor importance.
5) GPA matters more. Majors are of little importance, unless you want to do IP law and you need a science background.
6) Only the very top universities get a little boost. Alma mater doesn't factor in that much (HYPSM, maybe Cal-tech, Swarthmore).
7) Law school is 3 years. Some schools interview over the phone (or in person, depending on the school). You need in general 2 recommendation letters.</p>

3

<p>^Addressing the first point about the importance of LSAT/GPA, will a 4.0 176+ pretty much guarantee admission to any law school? Provided that one has no EC's at all, would that be enough for even schools like Harvard LS? Just wondering. Thanks.</p>

4

<p>I'd wager that a 4.0 176+ and a decent essay would pretty much guarantee admission to any law school except Yale, Stanford, and Harvard, even with no ECs. Harvard can afford to be more selective, and no numbers guarantee admission to Yale or Stanford, who look more at the soft factors.</p>

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<p>Why on earth would you go through college with no EC's at all? There's only two scenarios I can think of. One is really, really lame, and the other is really, really rare.</p>

6

<p>Plenty of students go through college with no EC's at all, especially in majors such as engineering which don't allow a lot of free time.</p>

7

<p>No activities? Clubs? Sports? Work? Family obligations? They just... sat in the library and punched away at MATLAB all day?</p>

8

<p>^hahahaha.</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
^Addressing the first point about the importance of LSAT/GPA, will a 4.0 176+ pretty much guarantee admission to any law school? Provided that one has no EC's at all, would that be enough for even schools like Harvard LS? Just wondering. Thanks.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Im_blue is right. Basically decent shots at all except HYS. </p>

<p>However the problem with no ECs is that it makes it harder to write a personal statement and it makes it impossible to depict a unique personality in your applications.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
No activities? Clubs? Sports? Work? Family obligations? They just... sat in the library and punched away at MATLAB all day?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You obviously don't know any engineers.</p>

11

<p>I know plenty of engineers: current, former, and ongoing. None of them had zero EC's.</p>

12

<p>To go back to your questions:</p>

<p>"how important are EC's? do they want you to do a ton of them like when you're in high school applying to college, or are they ok with 1 or 2?"</p>

<p>Not very important. They mostly provide a way for schools to distinguish between multiple people with similar GPAs and LSAT scores. </p>

<p>"is there a preference for they type of EC? for example is volunteering better in their eyes than being in student newspaper. are they ok if you are just a writer for the paper or do they expect you to be editor?"</p>

<p>Any kind of extracurricular (work, community service, clubs, religion, family commitment) is fine. Something where you can demonstrate initiative and leadership is best.</p>

<p>"what about internships, do they consider them important? or even if you just have a job likke on the campus bookstore."</p>

<p>part-time work and internships can be lumped in with other extracurriculars--in general, they're not going to be that much of a help or a hindrance to law school admission. Conceivably you could do something so cool that it would boost you up, but so could higher GPAs and LSAT scores.</p>

<p>"if they expect you to have a whole lot of EC's, then how do they also expect you to have a 3.9 GPA if you're going to a pretty rigorous school? isn't there not a lot of time?"</p>

<p>nope, there's not a lot of time. but there also isn't a lot of time in law school (yet there's a hope you'll be able to balance studying with whatever other commitments you make for yourself while there--family, religion, hobbies, part-time work, etc.) and there definitely isn't a lot of time when you're a lawyer (but you still have to maintain a work-life balance). The reason top law schools are considered so selective is that they can choose the people who are able to do a lot outside of school and still get great grades.</p>

<p>"if i were a poli sci major, would they not like that compared to being a engineering major because its more generic for prelaw people?"</p>

<p>They don't care what your major is. They care what your GPA is, and they don't really adjust for the difficulty of your major. If you want to do IP law, engineering is probably better. If not, your best bet for law school admissions is to do what'll get you higher grades. HOWEVER. You may change your mind about law school and you might consider choosing a major that will help you get a non-law job that you enjoy.</p>

<p>"does it really really matter if you go to a top 14 university? for example notre dame isn't one of them but its a pretty well known school, right? i mean what if i just want to be a divorce attorney and not some big shot, will it really matter what law school i go to?"</p>

<p>The ranking of the law school matters less if you want to stay in the state/metro area in which you go to law school, or if you want to work at a smaller firm. In fact, having a lower debt load is a good thing if you're not shooting for BigLaw (or for a public interest job that makes you eligible for loan forgiveness), and lower-ranked schools might be more likely to give merit aid. But this is a decision you can make once you see what your LSAT and GPA are and after you have the acceptances and financial aid offers from a variety of law schools in hand.</p>

<p>"how many years is law school and when you apply do you usually need to do an interview or have recommendations.\"</p>

<p>Three years. Only Northwestern (that I know of) offers interviews. Almost all places require recommendations--most often people use professors, but a former boss or supervisor could be a nice addition to the mix.</p>

13

<p>Harvard conducts phone interviews. I believe Cornell, GULC, UVA offer phone interviews. GULC's is optional. Not sure about the others</p>

14

<p>My sense of Harvard is that they only offer phone interviews to people they're pretty sure they want to admit. </p>

<p>When I applied to Georgetown (and got in) I don't remember the possibility of an interview, but it was a couple years ago so things may have changed.</p>

15

<p>This is a rough estimate, but my understanding of the Harvard phone interview process is that they offer the call to the top 1000 or so applicants out of a pool of 7000+. Of those 1000 or so called, about 800 get an offer of admission. Read up on it on Toby Stock's blog here:</p>

<p>Toby’s</a> blog Admissions General</p>

16

<p>I just want to throw in a caveat. Remember you are aiming for a moving target. If you are a freshman in college (or in high school) there's no guarantee that the admissions process will be the same when you apply. Who knows? Three or four years down the road, ECs may be more important than they are now or perhaps even less important.</p>

<p>The median gpa and lsat score at different law schools will probably change too.</p>

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<p>wow thanks everyone for answering, i didn't expect to get so many detailed replies!</p>

<p>i've decided that in college i'm probably going to major in an area where i can get a job if i decided not to go to law school or didn't get accepted or if i just change my mind about law, and i'll take the LSAT and if i do well on it then i'll apply to law schools. but i think its a good idea not to put all my eggs in one basket like jonri said especially because i don't know what the future job market and grad school admissions will be like. i should probably get involved in community service clubs too when i go to college and really focus on getting a high gpa.</p>