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I have noticed on a couple of apps (Duke and W&M so far) that they have an employment section. If I am submitting a resume, is this section not redundant? I do not mean to come off as lazy but I also want to be efficient about this whole thing. Do I have to fill out the employment section of an app even if I attach a resume? From the looks of it, the responses to the employment questions are not even required (no asterisk). What impression do you think the admissions folks would have if I leave it blank? Thanks much.

Yes. You do.

Law school applications are not a place to put "see resume." It's not a place to make up your own instructions. Just do what they say. At most, it's like 30 minutes of your life. I had 10 jobs on my resume, and I filled each one out. It didn't take that long. Plus, fill it out once and LSAC saves it for the rest.

bobkat12 wrote:I have noticed on a couple of apps (Duke and W&M so far) that they have an employment section. If I am submitting a resume, is this section not redundant? I do not mean to come off as lazy but I also want to be efficient about this whole thing. Do I have to fill out the employment section of an app even if I attach a resume? From the looks of it, the responses to the employment questions are not even required (no asterisk). What impression do you think the admissions folks would have if I leave it blank? Thanks much.

The resume and the app are for different purposes. There will people who see one, but not the other (adcomm v. Fin aid v. Afinity groups v. Marketing), and many who see them weeks apart (ie initial sorting/close reading. Duplicate if they ask.

Sweetneers wrote:Yes. You do.

Law school applications are not a place to put "see resume." It's not a place to make up your own instructions. Just do what they say. At most, it's like 30 minutes of your life. I had 10 jobs on my resume, and I filled each one out. It didn't take that long. Plus, fill it out once and LSAC saves it for the rest.

+1 - "just do what they say"

There are a lot of points where it is just flat out stupid. I've got a pretty spiffy resume, but I still put my employment info in that section when asked. Another thing I found really stupid and annoying is when a state law school REQUIRES you to fill out a residency affidavit even when you're not requesting in-state tuition - it's usually a long, clunky form that you need to fill out painstakingly in word because they've provided it in word, and you basically have to delete a few lines of just underlined space and then write in your answer with underlined text. It's stupid, its annoying, but if they ask for it, provide it.

Sweetneers wrote:Yes. You do.

Law school applications are not a place to put "see resume." It's not a place to make up your own instructions. Just do what they say. At most, it's like 30 minutes of your life. I had 10 jobs on my resume, and I filled each one out. It didn't take that long. Plus, fill it out once and LSAC saves it for the rest.

Sweetneers and others: I appreciate the responses. Sweetneers, with all due respect, I am not trying to make up my own instructions. I have filled out applications for other things in the past where if you didn't use the right color of ink you got disqualified for it. I know better. I was just seeking some insight/clarification on an area of the application where I saw some redundancy and to which their instructions--which I fully intend to follow--were not clear to me because it was not presented as a required field with an asterisk.

Again, thank you all for the insight, exactly what I needed.