3 Year Undergrad Forum

PintoA · Post by **PintoA** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:32 am

I have the option to graduate from my undergraduate university in three years with a double major in political science and legal studies. I am uncertain if graduating in three years would be advantageous or if taking more classes, not necessary for my majors, would look better in my application. Also I would be graduating virtually dept free if I graduated in 3 years.

debdeb2 · Post by **debdeb2** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:39 am

Being the youngest person in a law school class seems like it would be fairly miserable, IMHO. Anything else you'd like to do for a year?

AlanShore · Post by **AlanShore** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:51 am

Whether you want to graduate in 3 or 4 years is up to you and will not matter for law school admissions. However, I strongly strongly STRONGLY suggest you work for a minimum of 2 years. Unless you're going to HYS (maybe a few others), going straight through and having no work experience will not be helpful come OCI time. I know several people on law review who are otherwise normal, nice, good candidates who are struggling because they have no work experience. I also know others with lower gpas who do have substantial work experience and they have many offers. Interviewers have outright said they are happy to see they have work experience and they value it very much. Go work - paralegal, admin job, whatever. Save a little money, get some real world experience, and go to law school in a few years.

Single-Malt-Liquor · Post by **Single-Malt-Liquor** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:02 pm

Maybe rethink those majors as they are "law school or bust" for the most part.

gnomgnomuch · Post by **gnomgnomuch** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:05 pm

AlanShore wrote:Whether you want to graduate in 3 or 4 years is up to you and will not matter for law school admissions. However, I strongly strongly STRONGLY suggest you work for a minimum of 2 years. Unless you're going to HYS (maybe a few others), going straight through and having no work experience will not be helpful come OCI time. I know several people on law review who are otherwise normal, nice, good candidates who are struggling because they have no work experience. I also know others with lower gpas who do have substantial work experience and they have many offers. Interviewers have outright said they are happy to see they have work experience and they value it very much. Go work - paralegal, admin job, whatever. Save a little money, get some real world experience, and go to law school in a few years.

I am curious, what constitutes substantial work experience?

AlanShore · Post by **AlanShore** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 2:53 pm

Yeah, when I wrote "substantial" I did think.. oh thats a dumb term.

I mean theres a range.. of course big firms love finance, banking, consulting etc but very few of our peers did that. Any entry level job in a company is fine.. even admin work is fine. Retail (starbucks or clothing store) is probably not what I'm referring to but who knows. If you can spin it, it's fine. The big thing is being able to talk about your work, talk about what you learned, new skills you learned, etc. The main thing is that the firm is relieved that you're not super weird or socially incompetent and that you have worked in a professional environment before and know how to work with coworkers and managers. This sounds small but it is extremely important.

CanadianWolf · Post by **CanadianWolf** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:27 pm

Need more information. Your numbers (LSAT score & undergraduate GPA) are much more important to law school admissions folks then is the time spent completing your undergraduate degree. Do you have any work experience ?

P.S. If you elect to delay law school for a year, then consider working rather than taking unnecessary classes & going into debt. Another option is to concentrate on increasing your LSAT score--assuming that you have below a 174.

debdeb2 · Post by **debdeb2** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 7:06 pm

re: work experience, I found this article illuminating - http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/ ... xperience/

The change was not a fluke. When Martha L. Minow assumed her position as the new dean of the Law School in July of 2009, priorities, at least in the admissions process, shifted.

“When I became dean, I directed our admissions team to give extra weight to applicants with experience since college,” Minow wrote in an email.

Now, since after 2009, roughly three-fourths of each incoming class of Harvard Law students comes to campus having spent some time beyond their college campuses.

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