Can an Undergrad Co-op placement serve as work experience? Forum

[waylonn]

Law schools in the U.S. clearly favour applicants with work experience compared to applicants that do not. Can doing a Co-op in undergrad serve as "work experience" and significantly improve the chances of admission for a K-JD despite the K-JD never taking a year off after their bachelor's degree? Is there any difference of preference between a K-JD without a Co-op placement and a K-JD with a Co-op placement in Law school admissions?

[cavalier1138]

"Work experience" generally refers to full-time work experience obtained after (or before, in some cases) undergrad. Internships--even long-term ones--are not given the same weight, although they're certainly not a bad thing to have on your resume. A K-JD with a co-op is probably going to beat out an identical K-JD with no jobs at all on their resume, but that's only a definite outcome if they're literally identical in every other way.

But you can solve the K-JD problem yourself: Don't go straight through. Take a few years off to try "adulting." Law school isn't going anywhere.