Law School Discussion Forums
https://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/
https://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=230980
I think more for YS than H. H is 95% LSAT and GPA.t-14orbust wrote:Your internship won't do much. LSAT and GPA are 95%+ of the law school game outside HYS, and with your GPA you have little to no shot there.
They want diverse classes. Write a Diversity Statement, it could help.tskela wrote:Interesting. Could you elaborate on why you think this counts as a good soft? I'm asking because this was more or less my situation, and I was told not to mention it all when I applied to undergrad.TheSpanishMain wrote:I think the mantra of "softs really don't matter" is actually incorrect, or at least exaggerated. Impressive softs can have a decent impact on your admissions chances. However, people routinely overestimate how impressive their softs are.
Virtually everything that happens on an undergraduate campus is not a super impressive soft. Things like clubs, assisting a professor with research, internships, a part time job...it's all well and good, but pretty meh. Almost all good softs are things that take place after college (as Scott noted, things like military service, Rhodes Scholarships, Peace Corps, TFA, substantial professional work experience), or are things in your background that are super interesting/diverse, ie "I came to the United States as a war refugee when I was five."
I am very skeptical that Eagle or Gold would count as a strong soft, especially Gold.MistakenGenius wrote:Strong softs- Teach For America, Peace Corps, Military Service, Business Owner, published author, well-known blogger, working full-time throughout college, Eagle badge/gold award, professional athlete (but not a super-famous athlete, Michael Phelps could get into Yale with a 2.0 and a 130)
Hmm, I'd agree with most of this, except that being a business owner is a strong soft--you'd be surprised at how many people fudge that achievement. One thing I'd like to mention, OP, is that there are selective work experiences that are viewed strongly. VC/PE is well regarded, especially when someone hails from Goldman/Blackstone (this is rare because many of them don't believe that law school has a good financial return); MBB consulting; Google/other high quality tech careers.MistakenGenius wrote:I told you that would make an interesting diversity statement. It's a nice little soft. It won't let you hit too far above your weight compared to the other softs we discussed in our pms, but it will definitely be a plus in a tiebreaker.tskela wrote:Interesting. Could you elaborate on why you think this counts as a good soft? I'm asking because this was more or less my situation, and I was told not to mention it all when I applied to undergrad.TheSpanishMain wrote:I think the mantra of "softs really don't matter" is actually incorrect, or at least exaggerated. Impressive softs can have a decent impact on your admissions chances. However, people routinely overestimate how impressive their softs are.
Virtually everything that happens on an undergraduate campus is not a super impressive soft. Things like clubs, assisting a professor with research, internships, a part time job...it's all well and good, but pretty meh. Almost all good softs are things that take place after college (as Scott noted, things like military service, Rhodes Scholarships, Peace Corps, TFA, substantial professional work experience), or are things in your background that are super interesting/diverse, ie "I came to the United States as a war refugee when I was five."
Also, Scott, a Rhodes Scholarship will definitely let someone fight above their weight class, but you have to have a pretty good GPA for that in the first place.
OP, there are super softs and then good softs. Super softs will let you outperform your numbers to some extent (some by a LOT) because they're so incredible, strong softs might give you the edge when numbers are equal (and sometimes when they're not for Yale and Stanford).
Super Softs- Rhodes, Marshall, Seal Team 6/ Delta Force, Medal of Honor, started a billion dollar company, celebrity or child of celebrities, royalty, astronaut, cowboy-astronaut-millionaire
Strong softs- Teach For America, Peace Corps, Military Service, Business Owner, published author, well-known blogger, working full-time throughout college, Eagle badge/gold award, professional athlete (but not a super-famous athlete, Michael Phelps could get into Yale with a 2.0 and a 130)
Average- internships, class president, head of pre-law society, less than 2 years WE
Below Average- being just the member of a bunch of clubs
So is Unicyclist. It is hard to believe that riding a bike that is missing a wheel could be worth much more than mild side note to an app.MistakenGenius wrote: ...and notice both the Eagle badge and gold award are mentioned there. So yes, I'd definitely say the Eagle and gold count as strong softs. They take as much dedication as most of those.
I think schools (and other groups) cite it so much because it is a common distinguishing achievement. It definitely t helps an app, but I would count it as an average soft. It's better than most school-specific softs because t is a standardized, national achievement. It also carries more weight with boomers than our generation, so I am interested to see how it's regarded as a soft in the future.haus wrote:So is Unicyclist. It is hard to believe that riding a bike that is missing a wheel could be worth much more than mild side note to an app.MistakenGenius wrote: ...and notice both the Eagle badge and gold award are mentioned there. So yes, I'd definitely say the Eagle and gold count as strong softs. They take as much dedication as most of those.