Top Law Schools

People always refer to their softs so confidently as strong, weak, etc. How do you know?

Is it possible to have "average" softs with no leadership? I did a summer study abroad, have one year decent work experience in a law-related field, wrote for the school newspaper, held substantial internships and jobs throughout college (including one at the White House), and graduated with pretty decent academic honors including PBK. How would those rate? Do I need to explain to law schools the reason I didn't do more leadership stuff was because I was working all the time?

carlos_danger wrote:People always refer to their softs so confidently as strong, weak, etc. How do you know?

Is it possible to have "average" softs with no leadership? I did a summer study abroad, have one year decent work experience in a law-related field, wrote for the school newspaper, held substantial internships and jobs throughout college (including one at the White House), and graduated with pretty decent academic honors including PBK. How would those rate? Do I need to explain to law schools the reason I didn't do more leadership stuff was because I was working all the time?

"Average" is contextual. Do you mean "average" for HYS? For a T14 school? For a T30 school? etc.

But yes, it's possible to have above average softs at all of these levels with no leadership positions. There's no formula to "softs." That's why people call them softs.

I think pretty much any UG/person with 2 years work experience is gonna have the "average" softs. I think of average relative to what's above-average or unique. Fulbright, Rhodes, PhD, NYT best selling author, I think those are unique/above-average. Don't think there's much of a difference from the kid who played D-1 football to the kid who wrote a senior thesis to the kid that was on the mock trial team, all pretty much the same.

DCfilterDC wrote:I think pretty much any UG/person with 2 years work experience is gonna have the "average" softs. I think of average relative to what's above-average or unique. Fulbright, Rhodes, PhD, NYT best selling author, I think those are unique/above-average. Don't think there's much of a difference from the kid who played D-1 football to the kid who wrote a senior thesis to the kid that was on the mock trial team, all pretty much the same.

I disagree. I think D-1 football counts as "above average" just about everywhere. I think being on your mock trial team (assuming nothing more) counts as "below average" just about everywhere. Things like "NYT best selling author" are going to be exemplary softs even at HYS. That doesn't mean if you're a NYT bestselling author you're automatically getting into HYS. But your softs will definitely help.

It's really impossible to say much more, though, without knowing what range of schools we're talking about.

4.5"

abl wrote:

DCfilterDC wrote: That doesn't mean if you're a NYT bestselling author you're automatically getting into HYS. But your softs will definitely help.

Lollll, Elizabeth Wurtzel anyone???

blerggggg wrote:

abl wrote:

DCfilterDC wrote: That doesn't mean if you're a NYT bestselling author you're automatically getting into HYS. But your softs will definitely help.

Lollll, Elizabeth Wurtzel anyone???

Prozac Nation isn't just any NYT bestseller. Also, she went to Harvard for undergrad and scored in the 80th percentile on her LSAT (pretty unimpressive for YLS, but also far from embarrassing). And she's pretty much the "wait, really, she got in?" extreme example for HYS.

But in any event, I think this illustrates my underlying point, which is that "NYT bestselling author" is more than an "above average" soft.

abl wrote:

DCfilterDC wrote:I think pretty much any UG/person with 2 years work experience is gonna have the "average" softs. I think of average relative to what's above-average or unique. Fulbright, Rhodes, PhD, NYT best selling author, I think those are unique/above-average. Don't think there's much of a difference from the kid who played D-1 football to the kid who wrote a senior thesis to the kid that was on the mock trial team, all pretty much the same.

I disagree. I think D-1 football counts as "above average" just about everywhere. I think being on your mock trial team (assuming nothing more) counts as "below average" just about everywhere. Things like "NYT best selling author" are going to be exemplary softs even at HYS. That doesn't mean if you're a NYT bestselling author you're automatically getting into HYS. But your softs will definitely help.

It's really impossible to say much more, though, without knowing what range of schools we're talking about.

I think abl's right. On LSN you see D1 athletes get in with way lower numbers than median/median.