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Hi all,

Inquiring to see if anyone has information that shows how Adcoms see an advanced designation on one's resume when applying. Note the word designation (industry testing) as opposed to degree (academic pursuits). Specifically, I am referring to business-related certifications (CPA, CFp, for example).

On one hand, a student taking couple years off could arguably use these to reflect quality work experience. The main question then would be if letters after your name add enough value to grant slight exception to your numbers (help get into reach schools).

I suppose the other side of this argument is similar to why law firms would be turned off to JD/MBA graduates; Adcoms simply might not see a commitment to law. Don't take me too literally on that example, I know there are differences.

To those in love with numbers that simply reject the possibility of strong soft factors; please add reasons/examples. I am about to enter my year off and intend to direct all my efforts towards the strength of my application next cycle.

Thanks so much!

My son is applying to schools slightly beyond his LSAT range, but he has a number of advanced designations and very strong soft factors. Frankly, from what I have seen so far, I am sorry to say that I don't think either the advanced designations or soft factors have had any effect on law school admission,but the judge is still out. So far, he has only received rejections based on his LSAT scores. Not one school thus far seems to be giving any significant weight to his CPA, CFP and other soft factors. He even won awards at companys, including the government, that he worked for,which seems to have no effect on admission either. One would think that an applicant, who has been out of school for a while, would be judged more on his post college performance rather than his LSAT. However, so far, early returns seem to show that this isn't the case. I will post his results when the admission picture becomes clearer if that will help you.

Only schools at the tippy top (Yale, Stanford, possibly Harvard, and to a lesser extent Boalt) actually care that much about softs.

They really care about their medians above all else so they aren't going to take somebody who is below both medians and will drag both those numbers down. There just aren't enough people with 170-180 scores to allow them to keep their medians while taking people who don't help at least one median.

If you're devoting time to making your application better, the best thing you can do is study for the LSAT and get the highest score you possibly can get.

taxguy wrote:My son is applying to schools slightly beyond his LSAT range, but he has a number of advanced designations and very strong soft factors. Frankly, from what I have seen so far, I am sorry to say that I don't think either the advanced designations or soft factors have had any effect on law school admission,but the judge is still out. So far, he has only received rejections based on his LSAT scores. Not one school thus far seems to be giving any significant weight to his CPA, CFP and other soft factors. He even won awards at companys, including the government, that he worked for,which seems to have no effect on admission either. I will post his results when the admission picture becomes clearer if that will help you.

Wow, I am surprised to find someone here who has such an immediate firsthand perspective on this. Thanks for the heads-up, and I would absolutely appreciate any further insight you can give into this area of softs. Perhaps the Adcoms may slip your son information regarding their consideration of these factors if they decide to explain whatever decision they had made.

To bk187, my situation is essentially a splitter at the T20 range (LSAT 164, 168, LSDAS GPA would be in the ~3.4). At this point, unless I can grab a 173+ in June (risky), I'm walking into writing addendums for more than my low gpa. Thus, soft factors seems to be only factor under my control.

Thanks again for the input.