TFA or White House Internship Better for Law School? Forum

[CyanIdes Of March]

Pretty clear you're going to do the WH thing and end up somewhere between Georgetown and Columbia. Your URM status and mediocre/low numbers are going to make ALL of the difference, nothing else matters at this point.

But beyond that, you shouldn't even be considering TFA if you don't care about the actual mission. You'd just be robbing kids of a good mentor, and good mentors of a chance to make a difference, all for the great payout of nothing. Besides being a waste of your time professionally, it should at least be a bit of a difficult question for you morally.

EDIT: Removed LSAT & GPA for the ppl who can't follow directions.

This makes you one of the lucky few who got away with saying something really douchey when people were trying to help you without the topic being derailed.

I don't know where everyone got off thinking I didn't care for TFA. I very much do and have enjoyed teaching my kids tremendously. I'm trying to make a very difficult decision here, and you guys are right, if I didn't care for TFA I wouldn't have brought my question here anyway, considering I don't really use forums like these normally.

I don't want to work with kids desperately, that much is true.

That + the "Which one looks better?" makes the idea seem fake, but maybe it just came off badly.

As for LSAT-GPA comments, I asked nicely at the start and still got the usual ppl coming in and being like "you have no hope, retake." Don't think my response is douchey at all, but to each his own I suppose. My question wasn't "GPA-LSAT-URM rate me" it was simply share your opinion on which of these two opportunities looks more attractive to law schools.

If someone tells me they are going to jump off a ledge so don't try to talk them out of it, I still might try. Same principle applies. What makes it douchey is that you had the option to just ignore it or to give a polite "thanks, but no thanks", instead of a snapping "learn to read" type comment.

[rftdd888]

As for LSAT-GPA comments, I asked nicely at the start and still got the usual ppl coming in and being like "you have no hope, retake." Don't think my response is douchey at all, but to each his own I suppose. My question wasn't "GPA-LSAT-URM rate me" it was simply share your opinion on which of these two opportunities looks more attractive to law schools.

the thing is that LSAT-GPA are all that matter. period. and your numbers COULD improve, IF you followed the correct advice ppl on this forum offer regarding retakes. the real truth is that some kid who did NEITHER of these internships is going to get into schools ahead of you because of better numbers, so you putting in months of labor in an internship rather than improving your numbers strikes many people here as silly.

and you had a bad attitude about it.

[TLSCLB]

As for LSAT-GPA comments, I asked nicely at the start and still got the usual ppl coming in and being like "you have no hope, retake." Don't think my response is douchey at all, but to each his own I suppose. My question wasn't "GPA-LSAT-URM rate me" it was simply share your opinion on which of these two opportunities looks more attractive to law schools.

the thing is that LSAT-GPA are all that matter. period. and your numbers COULD improve, IF you followed the correct advice ppl on this forum offer regarding retakes. the real truth is that some kid who did NEITHER of these internships is going to get into schools ahead of you because of better numbers, so you putting in months of labor in an internship rather than improving your numbers strikes many people here as silly.

and you had a bad attitude about it.

I think those responding with sincere advice have already made their opinion known, so I'll go ahead and make this my last response on this thread.

I've taken the LSAT twice already, 164 was my score after retake. I have no desire to have my effort and my LSAT score analyzed by this forum; I've already spent months of PowerScore course studying and independent studying doing just that. I did not come here for that. I generally PT'd in the 166-170 range, and after extensively reviewing my test, I came to the conclusion that my performance was close to my best. Yes, I wish I'd scored at least a point higher to put me in that upper bracket. But I'm satisfied with where I'm at.

I appreciate that telling ppl who get below a 165 to retake is generally good advice. But if someone clearly tells you that that isn't going to happen, you should be able to respect that enough to leave it alone and help them with what they're asking for advice on.

[rftdd888]

sorry it just seems like any person who could one day become an effective lawyer would understand how much more valuable your time would be spent improving numbers as opposed to softs that won't matter. it's simple research, logic

[stuckinthemiddle]

That fact that you were scoring in the 166-170 range and didn't hit even the bottom end of that range on the actual test is a clear reason to retake. Learn to calm your nerves and prepare more efficiently, and you would have infinitely better options later in the cycle.

These softs won't matter as much as this potential increase. Neither the internship nor TFA will be a deal-breaker for adcomms so just do whatever you want (hopefully for reasons other than trying to impress law schools, because it won't happen either way).

Good luck.

[TLSCLB]

That fact that you were scoring in the 166-170 range and didn't hit even the bottom end of that range on the actual test is a clear reason to retake. Learn to calm your nerves and prepare more efficiently, and you would have infinitely better options later in the cycle.

These softs won't matter as much as this potential increase. Neither the internship nor TFA will be a deal-breaker for adcomms so just do whatever you want (hopefully for reasons other than trying to impress law schools, because it won't happen either way).

Good luck.

This was on my retake. Do ppl take the LSAT three times?

[stuckinthemiddle]

If necessary for their career goals, yes. What are yours? If biglaw, clerkship, bigfed, or prestigious PI, then you absolutely need to retake for T14.

[Shooter]

FWIW, my current roommate has done both of these things. As an outside observer, TFA is infinitely more impressive. The WHI program might *sound* prestigious, but it's obvious that my roommate is about as far away from the halls of power as any ordinary citizen. I think he works organizing presidential gifts and getting coffee, making copies, etc. One time he had to write a fluff piece on the chief of staff. Not sure why that was an assignment, I think it was a competition among the interns to determine who could write the best one? None of them were used/published, so I think it was just to keep the interns busy. No way he comes out of this thing with any connections or insights or influence. TFA, on the other hand, while clearly flawed in other ways (as many other posters have mentioned), still looked like hard work and he now has work experience, communication skills, a network of TFA friends that often visit, etc. He's a huge careerist/resume padder, so both of these things are apparently useful in that regard or he wouldn't be doing either.

Note: He does not physically work in the white house either. He works across the street somewhere, so it's not even like he gets to see anything cool happening inside.

Also, retake. People often take the test three times. WAY more important than any of these activities.