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What are "Good" or "Great" Softs?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:45 am
by Desim08
What are "Good" or "Great" Softs?

Re: What are "Good" or "Great" Softs?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:51 am
by JamMasterJ
the college ones seem decent, but not extraordinary. The hs stuff isn't worth mentioning

Re: What are "Good" or "Great" Softs?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:56 am
by Band A Long
It seems the consensus is that they will help you only in extraordinarily close circumstances (i.e. vs. someone with an identical or very nearly identical GPA/LSAT index). Still it certainly adds to a well-rounded application and shows some level of maturity.

Re: What are "Good" or "Great" Softs?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:05 am
by MrPapagiorgio
Standard/average softs. Great softs are not activities you participate in or positions you held. Rather, a great soft is what you've been through that sets you apart from the sea of numbers. Think escaped-from-the-Rwandan-genocide instead of team captain. (obviously hyperbolic, but you get the point).

Re: What are "Good" or "Great" Softs?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:09 am
by top30man
Good softs are ones that schools could put in a brochure (eg military veteran, peace corps, tfa).
A school would never put "we have three people in the class of 2016 that had some pretty cool internships" in a brochure.

Re: What are "Good" or "Great" Softs?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:17 am
by jessedvhs
Peace Corps/City Corps
Teach for America
Military combat experience (with an MOH medal for "great soft status" with law schools).

Re: What are "Good" or "Great" Softs?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:44 am
by TheProsecutor
A great soft factor is school dependent and applicant dependent. A soft may be impressive at one school, but common at another.

Good Softs:

1. Student Body President
2. Division One Athlete
3. Editor-in-chief of school paper
4. First in family to go to college
5. Started a student organization with some local impact.

Great Softs:

1. Military Officer that led troops in combat
2. Rhodes Scholarship
3. Professional/Olympic Athlete
4. Pulitizer Prize winner from a major periodical or publication
5. First in family to go to college; raised siblings and supported them
6. Started a national organization with national or international influence

What separates Good Softs from Great softs is the uniqueness. You'll have dozens of candidates with good softs; great softs are truly unique and signify something of importance to a broader community.

Yale Law always has these class profiles "two world class jugglers, 3 black belts, a person that lived in a cave studying archeology..." these aren't softs. They are just interesting. They didn't help the people get in, but one they were in it helped highlight what an interesting class is made up of.