Community Service Question

[justin989]

Hey everyone,

While doing research on prospective law schools, I have noticed that a handful put the amount of community service that an applicant participated in into consideration. Conveniently, I have been helping my old high school's wrestling coach run his summer camp program for the past 2 years. The only thing I want to know is what would be considered adequate documentation for the community service hours and how do I get it? If you guys could get back to me and clear my confusion it would be much appreciated!

[bp shinners]

You won't need documentation of the community service - law school applications are on the honor system because if you lie, the Bar will most likely find out and you'll have just wasted 3 years of your life and $150K.

However, while it's definitely something you want to reference on your application, it will hold minor weight in the whole decision process. Law schools expect people to have community service/EC/WE in their backgrounds; while volunteering at a summer camp is admirable, it's not above and beyond what they expect from their average applicant. So your GPA and LSAT will still weight much more heavily in the decision process. Much.

[justin989]

Thanks for the prompt reply! I'm aware that GPA and LSAT are the essential deciding factors for gaining acceptance. My grades for both of those categories are where they need to be for the places I am applying too. Also, I'll be doing more/already have done other community service activities at different places because the clubs that I am in make it mandatory to do so. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't some certification I needed to get credit for it. It would have been a huge waste if I did all that and it was completely unacknowledged. I appreciate the quick feedback though. Anyone else have any input?