Resume gaps harmful for K-JD? Forum

[jkhalfa]

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[ph14]

I'm shooting for a T6. Would it harm my chances if I did "nothing" this summer?

Background: I'm a college sophomore. I work part time during the academic year and have been working a shitty retail job at home since I was in high school. I don't want to return to retail hell this summer, but my majors (philosophy and english) aren't really in demand, so idk if I could get an internship anywhere. Ideally I would like to just use the summer to enjoy life and improve myself (destress, finally get in shape, start my LSAT prep, do the reading I never have time for during school, etc.).

So, what's the consensus on this? Is a 4 month gap on my resume going to keep me out of a top school if my numbers are at median? Does it hurt if your resume is lacking resume fillers, or do top schools really just focus on GPA and LSAT like so many people on TLS like to say?

Can you at least volunteer somewhere? It's not going to hurt you (pm me if you want some more specifics). But just volunteer one day a week somewhere. Make yourself look good.

[xRON MEXiCOx]

Oh course you can get an internship somewhere. It will probs be unpaid tho.

[iamgeorgebush]

well, you should aim for like 3-4 decent items in your resume. if you can fill your resume with 3-4 interesting positions, i doubt a missing summer would have any effect whatsoever.

however

being a philosophy and english double major does not in any way preclude you from getting a decent internship. contrary to whatever sort of nonsense you may hear on TLS, generic liberal arts majors can get summer internships just fine. talk to your career services office, and they can probably help you out. or network with alumni via your school's alumni network. or hit up friends and/or family. or all of the above.

[jkhalfa]

I'll confess that my resume is quite bare at the moment. I've worked the same job at college for almost two years now, and I'm not involved in any clubs or anything. I have a 4.23 LSAC GPA though.

[cron1834]

Plenty of privileged slackers get into good law schools. This sounds like you. 95% of the game is numbers.

But, if you were a law firm partner, would you want to hire someone who never did shit in their life except make grades? If you could choose between someone who had grades + lots of experience & accomplishments, and someone who just had grades, who would you choose? I'm a 0L, but I have experience in hiring, and I know who I'd choose.

[iamgeorgebush]

ok, well go get involved in a club, even if it's just a resume fluffer where you only spend a couple hours per week doing club activities. you're clearly doing incredibly well in school and could spare those couple hours, whereas if you're involved in NOTHING, it probably will hurt you a bit. write for a literary magazine or try to get published in a philosophy journal, if you want to do things that will overlap with school.

then go see career services, talk to them about your interests, and ask them to help you identify some summer internships to which you can apply. if you have family and/or friend connections, use those too.

done. not that hard.

[jkhalfa]

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[cron1834]

Hardly a "privileged slacker."

If you would or could just take a summer off, then I disagree. Clearly we hail from different rust-belt small towns.

[jkhalfa]

Meh, my parents are neither rich nor generous, but they will let me live in their house and eat their food for 4 months. That doesn't exactly make me some 1% trust fund baby.

[Clearly]

If you are in a financial position to be asking this question, you should consider treating the LSAT like a fulltime job. Two extra points on that will have a more meaningful effect than just about anything you do this summer.

[scoobysnax]

One empty summer wouldn't hurt if you had other things going on. But I don't see why you wouldn't want to do something. Don't you get bored? I get hopelessly bored over the summer. Anyway, I would suggest getting an internship. Pretty much anyone from any major (and especially with your gpa) can get an internship, and if it's unpaid, it's basically like volunteering for 10hours a week but you can put it down as an internship.

[Crowing]

At CCN and I definitely took a summer off during UG

[Cicero76]

Plenty of privileged slackers get into good law schools. This sounds like you. 95% of the game is numbers.

But, if you were a law firm partner, would you want to hire someone who never did shit in their life except make grades? If you could choose between someone who had grades + lots of experience & accomplishments, and someone who just had grades, who would you choose? I'm a 0L, but I have experience in hiring, and I know who I'd choose.

lol 0L

If by "just had grades" you mean law school grades, then yeah, every employer is 100% taking the dude with "just grades" over all the people with wonderful accomplishments and work experience from before law school.

EDIT: Every employer remuneratively worth it.

[Tiago Splitter]

Plenty of privileged slackers get into good law schools. This sounds like you. 95% of the game is numbers.

But, if you were a law firm partner, would you want to hire someone who never did shit in their life except make grades? If you could choose between someone who had grades + lots of experience & accomplishments, and someone who just had grades, who would you choose? I'm a 0L, but I have experience in hiring, and I know who I'd choose.

lol 0L

If by "just had grades" you mean law school grades, then yeah, every employer is 100% taking the dude with "just grades" over all the people with wonderful accomplishments and work experience from before law school.

EDIT: Every employer remuneratively worth it.

lol 1L.

Not if grades are equal, as cron was clearly assuming.

OP don't worry about it. One summer with nothing isn't going to make a difference. Just get a really high GPA and LSAT. The internship idea is credited though; doing something this summer will make it easier for you to land other things during the school year and next summer.

[JWalker]

Just have the numbers and you'll get into some great schools.

[Cicero76]

OP don't worry about it. One summer with nothing isn't going to make a difference. Just get a really high GPA and LSAT. The internship idea is credited though; doing something this summer will make it easier for you to land other things during the school year and next summer.

The only super important reason to do an internship over summer is because doing absolutely nothing over summer gets incredibly boring, especially if you live with your parents. By July you'll be getting homicidal OP, internships are a great way to get out of the house.

At least that's how I felt during summers.

[kartelite]

I can't imagine it matters a lot, I doubt they put much emphasis on your college jobs anyway. FWIW I did two National Science Foundation research assistantships and was a club officer in college and those didn't make it onto my résumé or my law school apps. I'm sure they care more about your academic record and your LSAT.

[iamgeorgebush]

If you are in a financial position to be asking this question, you should consider treating the LSAT like a fulltime job. Two extra points on that will have a more meaningful effect than just about anything you do this summer.

this is also credited

[jkhalfa]

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[cron1834]

Plenty of privileged slackers get into good law schools. This sounds like you. 95% of the game is numbers.

But, if you were a law firm partner, would you want to hire someone who never did shit in their life except make grades? If you could choose between someone who had grades + lots of experience & accomplishments, and someone who just had grades, who would you choose? I'm a 0L, but I have experience in hiring, and I know who I'd choose.

lol 0L

If by "just had grades" you mean law school grades, then yeah, every employer is 100% taking the dude with "just grades" over all the people with wonderful accomplishments and work experience from before law school.

EDIT: Every employer remuneratively worth it.

lol 1L.

Not if grades are equal, as cron was clearly assuming.

OP don't worry about it. One summer with nothing isn't going to make a difference. Just get a really high GPA and LSAT. The internship idea is credited though; doing something this summer will make it easier for you to land other things during the school year and next summer.

Yes. JFC, Cicero - consider the context here. The dude's resume is literally barren. Imagine that grades are held equal (which they roughly will be with many others). That was obviously the assumption.

Also, I may be a 0L, but I've worked in hiring for many years. I know a thing or two about interviewing. Only a thing or two, to be sure, but that's better than zero things.

OP, sorry for copping an attitude with you. I think you have the right idea.

[Cicero76]

Plenty of privileged slackers get into good law schools. This sounds like you. 95% of the game is numbers.

But, if you were a law firm partner, would you want to hire someone who never did shit in their life except make grades? If you could choose between someone who had grades + lots of experience & accomplishments, and someone who just had grades, who would you choose? I'm a 0L, but I have experience in hiring, and I know who I'd choose.

lol 0L

If by "just had grades" you mean law school grades, then yeah, every employer is 100% taking the dude with "just grades" over all the people with wonderful accomplishments and work experience from before law school.

EDIT: Every employer remuneratively worth it.

lol 1L.

Not if grades are equal, as cron was clearly assuming.

OP don't worry about it. One summer with nothing isn't going to make a difference. Just get a really high GPA and LSAT. The internship idea is credited though; doing something this summer will make it easier for you to land other things during the school year and next summer.

Yes. JFC, Cicero - consider the context here. The dude's resume is literally barren. Imagine that grades are held equal (which they roughly will be with many others). That was obviously the assumption.

Also, I may be a 0L, but I've worked in hiring for many years. I know a thing or two about interviewing. Only a thing or two, to be sure, but that's better than zero things.

OP, sorry for copping an attitude with you. I think you have the right idea.

My bad, I'm sorry

[cron1834]

My bads all around

[Kimikho]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I gather that a summer off wouldn't be very harmful, but since my resume is looking pretty bare it might be worse for me than for some of you who are involved in a lot of clubs and such. So, I'll search for a law-related internship back in my hometown, though it's a small city and has 4 local colleges so I don't expect to find many openings. Failing that I'll do a small amount of volunteering or get some minimum wage job and start my LSAT prep. I had a pretty good diagnostic but definitely need to work hard to reach my goal, especially with logic games.

OP, I don't have a very practical major. A well-written cover letter and reasons for wanting an internship at this point is way more important than your major. Yeah, you aren't able to apply to a chemical engineering internship--but guess what, neither are physics majors or math majors.

Also, it's not that law-related but campaigns are always looking for interns and midterms are coming up.