Positive things to do in the summer for your LS app? Forum

[calbear15]

Hi, I was wondering what have empirically been positive things to do in the summer that look somewhat good on your LS app. I know that your gpa/lsat are the most important things, but I'm still at a loss about how to spend all the free time that i'll get. Do people put normal everyday jobs such as working as a cashier on their app, or does it have to be like some legit working experience? Also if any political science majors could provide input on what they did during their summers that would be greatly appreciated as well!

thanks in advance

[YaSvoboden]

Hi, I was wondering what have empirically been positive things to do in the summer that look somewhat good on your LS app. I know that your gpa/lsat are the most important things, but I'm still at a loss about how to spend all the free time that i'll get. Do people put normal everyday jobs such as working as a cashier on their app, or does it have to be like some legit working experience? Also if any political science majors could provide input on what they did during their summers that would be greatly appreciated as well!

thanks in advance

Do something that you would do anyway, so long as that is not playing video games all summer. If you are passionate about something and take your free four months to pursue that, it will show.

If you need to work to support yourself, do that. Odds are that you won't do anything that looks amazing on your app in the next four months, otherwise you would probably know about it, but make sure you have something in there. A lot of schools ask for a resume, I think that any summer job belongs on there, they kind of want to know what you do with your time and a 4 month gap may look weird. Landscaping for a summer (I did that and really enjoyed it) won't impress anyone, but I doubt you will be looked down on for having to support yourself.

[Tom Joad]

I am interning for a Senator's constituency service office in the town where I live. Works for your major, mine is paid, and it is super fun and might even impress some people.

[dpk711]

Use your free time to study for the LSAT and maximize your score.

[OGR3]

I am interning for a Senator's constituency service office in the town where I live. Works for your major, mine is paid, and it is super fun and might even impress some people.

Working with constituents sounds horrible. Have fun telling them you can't get their parking tickets expunged.

[law4vus]

I am interning for a Senator's constituency service office in the town where I live. Works for your major, mine is paid, and it is super fun and might even impress some people.

Working with constituents sounds horrible. Have fun telling them you can't get their parking tickets expunged.

I did the same thing. People love to complain. However, it is heartbreaking when you have to tell someone that they're going to lose their house, citizenship, or can't attend their mother's funeral because they can't get a visa to leave the country.

Overall though, they do like to complain. lol

[Tom Joad]

I am interning for a Senator's constituency service office in the town where I live. Works for your major, mine is paid, and it is super fun and might even impress some people.

Working with constituents sounds horrible. Have fun telling them you can't get their parking tickets expunged.

It is challenging because many of them just lack the basic knowledge of government that would allow them to answer their own questions, but it is actually really rewarding to see the impact that government has on everyday people. It is also awesome to realize just how amazingly competent the people working in the federal government are.

[Tom Joad]

I am interning for a Senator's constituency service office in the town where I live. Works for your major, mine is paid, and it is super fun and might even impress some people.

Working with constituents sounds horrible. Have fun telling them you can't get their parking tickets expunged.

I did the same thing. People love to complain. However, it is heartbreaking when you have to tell someone that they're going to lose their house, citizenship, or can't attend their mother's funeral because they can't get a visa to leave the country.

Overall though, they do like to complain. lol

Have you completed your cycle already? If so I just wanted to know if any schools looked particularly favorably on that kind of internship. Not that I am doing the work looking for an admissions boost, but I could imagine people either looking very favorably on that type of internship or likewise not caring at all.

[OGR3]

OP: Sorry for hijacking your thread.

To answer your question, do something you'll enjoy and hopefully get paid for. Working as a cashier isn't a bad thing, especially if you can get a job with good discounts. As a political science major (since the internship idea has already been proposed), you might also want to check with some of your professors to see if they need any research help, it's never a bad time to cultivate some academic LORs.

[law4vus]

I am interning for a Senator's constituency service office in the town where I live. Works for your major, mine is paid, and it is super fun and might even impress some people.

Working with constituents sounds horrible. Have fun telling them you can't get their parking tickets expunged.

I did the same thing. People love to complain. However, it is heartbreaking when you have to tell someone that they're going to lose their house, citizenship, or can't attend their mother's funeral because they can't get a visa to leave the country.

Overall though, they do like to complain. lol

Have you completed your cycle already? If so I just wanted to know if any schools looked particularly favorably on that kind of internship. Not that I am doing the work looking for an admissions boost, but I could imagine people either looking very favorably on that type of internship or likewise not caring at all.

Yep, my cycle is pretty much over and just riding out a few waitlists. Overall, my cycle went as expected (splitter 3.3 167) with several waitlists within the top 30 with a couple acceptances sprinkled in. The biggest surprise was a waitlist at GULC, but I doubt I'm getting in (regular WL).

I think it did help to a certain extent. I got roughly 15K a year from Emory, while others with the same LSAT score and higher GPAs than I did got WL or rejected. I would say that Emory was more holistic this year than in recent years and my congressional internship experience was probably the most impressive thing on my resume. I'm sure it's a mixed bag, though. It boosted me at places like Emory and could possibly help me off the WL at GW, but I got dinged at BC because they seemingly couldn't overlook the low GPA.

[law4vus]

OP: Sorry for hijacking your thread.

To answer your question, do something you'll enjoy and hopefully get paid for. Working as a cashier isn't a bad thing, especially if you can get a job with good discounts. As a political science major (since the internship idea has already been proposed), you might also want to check with some of your professors to see if they need any research help, it's never a bad time to cultivate some academic LORs.

To piggyback off of this, one really good thing I did was I became a summer teaching assistant for a class I had taken the previous semester and got an A in. If you have a teacher who knows you and you did well in their class, being a teaching assistant might be a good thing to do over the summer. Just ask around and see if they need someone to help grade exams or lead small group review sections. That helped me get a really good LOR and the teacher that wrote it obviously knew me extremely well once the summer ended, having worked with him pretty much every day with writing exams and taking care of administrative stuff.