Are my "Softs" any good? Forum

[Questions4people]

Varsity sport, Student Senator, worked 3 part-time on-campus jobs (no research or anything involved with these), research assistant for one semester, a couple of congressional internships, by the time I apply will also have some overseas teaching experience

[loblaw]

Yes. Your softs are good. Varsity sports are looked upon quite favorably. But, remember, depending on where you're applying, you're competing with peace corps members, business owners, Rhodes scholars, the Jersey Shore cast, etc. These are necessary to level the playing field, but they won't write checks that your LSAT can't cash.

[shoeshine]

Your "softs" are good. By the standards of TLS they are not great but they are definitely good.

[Questions4people]

Your "softs" are good. By the standards of TLS they are not great but they are definitely good.

What would be great by TLS standards? TFA? Peace Corps? Consulting?

Does TLS generally just have better applicants compared to the general pool of applicants?

[jmill]

Your "softs" are good. By the standards of TLS they are not great but they are definitely good.

What would be great by TLS standards? TFA? Peace Corps? Consulting?

Olympic gold medalist, Rhodes Scholar, Senator/Representative, best-selling author, etc. <-------those are great/stellar softs

Go do those before you start law school.

[blsingindisguise]

They're solid, but nothing that's going to drastically change your admissions picture. Almost all law schools are numbers-obsessed. In my class, off hand, I can think of an army officer, a former college newspaper editor in-chief, former reporter for a high-circulation publication, people who worked for big investment banks, people who had capitol hill internships, etc. Of course there are also people who went straight through and people who just paralegalled for a year or two. Bottom line is that an adcom might look at your softs and say "sounds like a promising, hard-working young person." But they're not going to say "wow, in spite of an LSAT below our 25th percentile, we just have to have this person."

[loblaw]

What would be great by TLS standards? TFA? Peace Corps? Consulting?

They're good but not game changers. I'd say real soft "bumps" go to olympic medal winners, Y Combinator/x prize winners, professional sports, published authors, etc. There enough TFA/peace corps/consulting folks that it's not a huge bump.

[JoeFish]

Well, it is called Top Law Schools, and students pursuing T14 schools make up a large percentage of its users. That being said, there are people on here who attend all kinds of law schools, and have all kinds of numbers. What everyone means by "you have good softs" is that you have a good shot of beating out most applicants who have the exact same LSAT as you and very similar GPAs. A Great Soft would be something that would give a very large boost akin to, perhaps, a bump of a few LSAT points or tenths of GPA points. Like, as has been said, Gold Medalist, Rhodes Scholar, etc. You're looking better than people who were members of a fraternity for a couple years and joined the ping pong club. Or... whatever. But it'll still come down almost entirely to the LSAT and GPA. If you're right on medians, or just above, or, if you're lucky, just below one, those softs might give you a slight edge.

[Questions4people]

So this seems like a situation where it helps by not hurting me. The softs will neither hurt nor help me...

Does that seem about right?

[shoeshine]

So this seems like a situation where it helps by not hurting me. The softs will neither hurt nor help me...

Does that seem about right?

Yep

[blsingindisguise]

So this seems like a situation where it helps by not hurting me. The softs will neither hurt nor help me...

Does that seem about right?

Probably, or maybe a little better. Like someone said above, it could certainly lead to schools picking you over a student with identical numbers but a less interesting or accomplished background.

[Questions4people]

Thanks so much for all the help guys!

[r6_philly]

So this seems like a situation where it helps by not hurting me. The softs will neither hurt nor help me...

Does that seem about right?

Probably, or maybe a little better. Like someone said above, it could certainly lead to schools picking you over a student with identical numbers but a less interesting or accomplished background.

This is not a given. Only a guess - may not even be a good one. I can tell you based on personal experience that while interesting personal stories are cool, they are not sufficient for a school to pick you over someone with similar numbers.

Truth is we don't know what they want, so how do we know what are good softs? We hear people with low numbers get in with good softs and assume that softs do the job. It won't necessarily apply to anyone but that person in that circumstance.

[Gizmo]

Varsity Ultimate Frisbee? You should try and get a CPA first. I also heard that adcoms love it when you write a few chapters for a book.

[weejonbu]

Varsity Ultimate Frisbee? You should try and get a CPA first. I also heard that adcoms love it when you write a few chapters for a book.

lol... can't believe taxguy keeps coming up... hilarious.

[Questions4people]

Huh?

Varsity Ultimate Frisbee? You should try and get a CPA first. I also heard that adcoms love it when you write a few chapters for a book.

lol... can't believe taxguy keeps coming up... hilarious.

[Rock1234]

Huh?

Varsity Ultimate Frisbee? You should try and get a CPA first. I also heard that adcoms love it when you write a few chapters for a book.

lol... can't believe taxguy keeps coming up... hilarious.

Taxguy was a person who came to this site and bitched about how his amazing son couldn't get into a decent law school despite his prolific accomplishments (which included a CPA and the chapters). This was because his son had done very poorly on the LSAT. Interestingly, taxguy also paid a visit to College Confidential's law school page, where he met with a much warmer reception.

[thecilent]

Those softs are moat certainly average. Not going to help or hurt you at all

[El_Gallo]

Your softs are neither too squishy nor too firm. They are just right.

[bartleby]

varsity sports will help more during interviews, i think. good softs - no game changers.