Extracurriculars in College; Relatively Unique Question Forum

[Nate895]

I know LSAT and GPA are the main factors in law school admittance, so this isn't some kind of post about how the debate team is going to get me into Harvard despite my 153 LSAT/2.3 GPA (I'm being facetious). My concern is being flagged for lack of extracurricular activities during my first two years of college. I was involved in a program back in Washington State called Running Start, which is kind of like dual-enrollment except you can do it full-time and the state pays your tuition bills (basically, a two-year full ride just for passing the community college entrance exam) while you're still in high school. All my extracurricular activities at the time were through my high school. Since then, I've been involved in student leadership, clubs, and some community service, no big deal, but enough for the adcomm to know they aren't admitting someone who spent most of his free time napping.

I have decided I'm not applying until next cycle, but I was just wondering if I should simply submit a short one or two sentence addendum basically explaining what I just said so as to not be flagged for non-participation in life for two years, or possibly explain somewhere else in my app.

[bk1]

Plenty of people (including me) basically slacked off in college and did nothing. People like that performed around their numbers. The fact that you have 2 years of stuff is probably better than most. I imagine that you will perform around your numbers as well.

[Nate895]

Plenty of people (including me) basically slacked off in college and did nothing. People like that performed around their numbers. The fact that you have 2 years of stuff is probably better than most. I imagine that you will perform around your numbers as well.

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure I won't get dinged for something silly like this.

[Gamecubesupreme]

Most law schools really don't care about your extracurricular if your numbers are good enough.

[Nate895]

Most law schools really don't care about your extracurricular if your numbers are good enough.

Many law schools have applicants submit a resume, and most of the online advice on that said to focus on extracurriculars and community service, particularly any leadership roles in either of those. Along with things like the PS and LoRs, I was under the impression that a resume won't get you in without the numbers, but it could possibly disqualify someone with the numbers if there is something that raises a red flag. I just don't want that red flag to get raised because of two years of what the adcomm can only perceive as inactivity.

Right now, I think I'll probably just add the words "Running Start" under the education section on my resume. Most UG adcomms know about the program, and I would be surprised if the same wasn't the case for law school adcomms since RS students spread out more for grad and professional programs.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

I did exactly one extracurricular type activity in college and it was freshman year. It doesn't matter. (Or, to be more accurate--it has a very, very marginal effect on things.)