how much do softs weigh on an applications? Forum

[Cougkid93]

I have a decent gpa 3.5 (i transferred from one 4 year institution to another) with a 3.73 at my new school. I also have many softs like head of fraternity's philanthropy chair and alumni chair. I also participated in a program that went inside prisons and educated prisoners along with helping newly paroled inmates avoid recidivism. I also have worked 12+ (weekly) hours for the past 3 years along with full time in the summer. Lastly I am currently interning for Justice Corps (it is not as fancy as it sounds) and spend plenty of time in the courthouse. How much will this impact me in getting more financial aid money. My lsat score puts me in the 75th for the schools I am really looking at and a reach for the ones I think might take me. Will the softs help me get the reaches?
Lastly (sorry for the multiple questions) during my first semester of college my dad developed a blood clot in his leg and this caused stress on me as i was in another state. I felt worried over my dads health and it caused my grades to slide. How do I tell a law school about this?

[t-14orbust]

no. don't

[Mack.Hambleton]

Softs/essays/recs are about 5% of admissions, and your softs are probably below average or average anyway.

Focus on the LSAT, scholarships are awarded for numbers

[elterrible78]

Softs/essays/recs are about 5% of admissions, and your softs are probably below average or average anyway.

Focus on the LSAT, scholarships are awarded for numbers

The 5% is a little exaggerated, but the takeaway is correct. Numbers are what matters, although the weight of soft factors (and by this I mean anything not GPA or LSAT) does vary from school to school. In an imperfect analysis (that still gives a rough idea, and certainly a basis for general comparison), numbers made up about 50% of the admissions decision at Yale, and closer to 85% at Columbia.

[MistakenGenius]

Post removed.

[thisone2014]

I have a decent gpa 3.5 (i transferred from one 4 year institution to another) with a 3.73 at my new school. I also have many softs like head of fraternity's philanthropy chair and alumni chair. I also participated in a program that went inside prisons and educated prisoners along with helping newly paroled inmates avoid recidivism. I also have worked 12+ (weekly) hours for the past 3 years along with full time in the summer. Lastly I am currently interning for Justice Corps (it is not as fancy as it sounds) and spend plenty of time in the courthouse. How much will this impact me in getting more financial aid money. My lsat score puts me in the 75th for the schools I am really looking at and a reach for the ones I think might take me. Will the softs help me get the reaches?
Lastly (sorry for the multiple questions) during my first semester of college my dad developed a blood clot in his leg and this caused stress on me as i was in another state. I felt worried over my dads health and it caused my grades to slide. How do I tell a law school about this?

As other people have said, softs probably won't matter much. But you can try to highlight them by including hrs/week on your resume next to the activity.

You can consider writing an addendum to address the effect of your father's health issues on your performance. Much has been written elsewhere on the site about when and how to do so. Consider, though, that your GPA is relatively strong (depending on where you think you want to go), and you don't want to sound like you're trying to excuse something that doesn't warrant excuses. Unless the semester is really an outlier on the transcript, I would probably forgo the addendum. Good luck and I hope your father's doing better.