Rate these soft factors Forum

[Liammurphy1]

First time posting.

I am an undergraduate student applying to law schools next year as part of the class of 2020!

My GPA is a 3.87 at KU honors and am hoping to score a 170+ in order to secure T14.
I was hoping to get some feedback on my soft factors.

Average Soft Factors
- Honors Thesis
- Full time upward mobility at summer job (Lead Assistant Director at Grassroots Campaigns Inc.)
- Double Major (Political Science and Communications)
- President and Secretary of Communications Honors Fraternity

Weak Soft Factors
- Part time job during college (Assistant debate coach of nationally competitive team)
- Honors college
- Leadership positions in 2 community service organizations
- 5 Semesters on honor roll/dean's list
- Departmental honors

The main questions I have are:
1. Are they good enough to consider top 5 law schools?
2. Is there anything that I could do in my last year to improve my soft factors?
3. Will they play any roll in my evaluation?

[Mack.Hambleton]

Below average since very generic and no work experience.

Won't matter for admissions for most of T14, I would recommend getting some work experience though.

[Hand]

not impressed

go take the lsat

[Br3v]

Below average since very generic and no work experience.

Won't matter for admissions for most of T14, I would recommend getting some work experience though.

Stressing the "won't matter" part. Only softs that could really make a difference are if you have post-college work experience or something rather exceptional like being a Rhodes Scholar, or olympic athlete.

[JimmieWhisper]

0L Disclaimer, Please take opinion with a grain of salt

Based on the numerous PreLaw resources I've read, including countless posts on this forum, the only time anything besides your GPA and LSAT combo will significantly affect your chances, especially at a top school, is whether you are an Underrepresented Minority or have faced some sort of extreme hardship that you address in either your Personal Statement or an Addendum. The bottom line is, if your LSAT and/or GPA don't meet at least the school's medians, your chances aren't great (unless you have a very compelling addendum to explain a low GPA/LSAT away). In your case, many law school applicants have likely had work experience, been involved in a few clubs, and done some volunteer work. Every college in the country has opportunities for these types of things.

However, that being said, you have a GREAT GPA and if you hit your goal on the LSAT (170+) you'll have a good shot at any school in the country. Your softs may come into play in your Personal Statement in the event that you have close numbers to another candidate and are on the cusp of being admitted, or if you're being considered for some kind of special scholarship program.

[barkschool]

These soft factors are soft

[NonTradHealthLaw]

Yawn. For OCI, another Midwestern thin-sliced piece of white bread. For admissions, you won't outperform your numbers if your projections are accurate.

Nothing wrong with taking a couple years off to add some spice to your casserole.

[Mack.Hambleton]

Yawn. For OCI, another Midwestern thin-sliced piece of white bread. For admissions, you won't outperform your numbers if your projections are accurate.

Nothing wrong with taking a couple years off to add some spice to your casserole.

Kansas is a plains state not Midwest

[NonTradHealthLaw]

Only a non-"plains-stater" considers Kansas not part of the Midwest.

[NonTradHealthLaw]

Obviously indisputable evidence: https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid ... ted_States

[mornincounselor]

--

[Mack.Hambleton]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/what ... e-midwest/

[personofinterest]

I'm pretty sure the cw is that softs (aside from Rhodes/Olympics) don't matter outside of Yale, Stanford, and maybe Berkeley. Therefore, you should focus solely on GPA and LSAT.

[Troianii]

First time posting.

I am an undergraduate student applying to law schools next year as part of the class of 2020!

My GPA is a 3.87 at KU honors and am hoping to score a 170+ in order to secure T14.
I was hoping to get some feedback on my soft factors.

Average Soft Factors
- Honors Thesis
- Full time upward mobility at summer job (Lead Assistant Director at Grassroots Campaigns Inc.)
- Double Major (Political Science and Communications)
- President and Secretary of Communications Honors Fraternity

Weak Soft Factors
- Part time job during college (Assistant debate coach of nationally competitive team)
- Honors college
- Leadership positions in 2 community service organizations
- 5 Semesters on honor roll/dean's list
- Departmental honors

The main questions I have are:
1. Are they good enough to consider top 5 law schools?
2. Is there anything that I could do in my last year to improve my soft factors?
3. Will they play any roll in my evaluation?

These softs are at best average, but none of them really stand out. What you're looking for with a soft factor is a "wow" factor, something that will make you stand out. You've got a 3.87GPA - if you didn't make the honor roll or dean's list, something's wrong. Your major won't help, your thesis is unlikely to help (it COULD, depending on what it is - but as a rule of thumb, no, won't matter). Based on what you've given, your softs don't really carry any wow factor at the T14. Sure, your softs carry wow factor at Kentucky law, but they're pretty standard at best in the T14. But if you maintain your gpa and score 170+, you have a shot at top 5 (look at Chicago link below). There's not much you can do to improve your softs in a short time, and what you could do isn't worth doing just for that sake. If you're just looking to improve softs to improve admissions chances, however much time it would take would be better spent trying to improve your LSAT and GPA.

Best of luck.

http://chicago.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/1415

[TheodoreKGB]

Don't focus on improving your softs. Focus on the LSAT. In fact, that's all you should worry about in the near future.