Travel/weak softs - will this hurt? Forum

[P.J.Fry]

I graduated from undergrad in 2008, and have since been traveling around the world as well as my country. I've been working most of the time as well with no real resume gaps, but many positions were only held for six months. Also, they are typically in the hospitality industry (ie. bartender/waiter with some management and trainer roles as well). I'm worried that adcoms will view this as a lack of direction in life, noncommittal etc.. Will this significantly hurt me in my applications? Can it be reflected positively in a PS?

For reference, GPA is in the 3.6-3.7 range and I'm shooting for a 173+ LSAT. Will likely be applying to all of T-14 with the exception of HYS.

[Mullens]

You should definitely be able to spin your travel experience in a positive light. Also, you should consider throwing apps at HYS because you're not really below their GPA floors and they might place special value on your experiences, if you can frame them well.

[P.J.Fry]

You should definitely be able to spin your travel experience in a positive light. Also, you should consider throwing apps at HYS because you're not really below their GPA floors and they might place special value on your experiences, if you can frame them well.

You think? The LSN numbers for HYS didn't look very encouraging for 3.6-3.7 and 172-175 especially for YS. H accepted 21% of those applicatants (0% and 8% for YS), though I assume those 21% had pretty fantastic softs which I don't. I suppose the worst that could happen is I spend a couple of dollars and my time. It's all a non-issue anyway until I get my results after writing the LSAT in Sept. I'll worry about that more then.

[Mullens]

In a sea of K-JDs and people with minimal work experience, you have a real chance to make your application stand out. I don't think you have weak softs because while your jobs may not be prestigious, your life experiences sound pretty different from the average vanilla applicant. You just need to find a way to convincingly and positively frame your experiences so that will make adcomms believe you will add varied perspectives and certain amount of life experience diversity to the class. Your personal statement and diversity statements will be important for your application cycle. Even though the admissions process is mostly numbers driven, adcomms do care about those things and while it may not be enough for YS, you could slip into H given a median+ LSAT score.