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Long story short: I'm lucky enough to have received both 1) a fairly decent job offer in tech industry and 2) a fully-funded (~$50K) fellowship at Oxbridge to "read" for a 1-yr MPhil in a humanities field (my UG major). Are their compelling reasons why I should take one or the other with respect to law school admissions? Shooting for HYSCCN. Top-5 USNWR for undergrad, +/-3.88 gpa;.

The fellowship is not Rhodes/Marshall/Gates, which I know are golden tickets to HYS. But it is the top fellowship that the academic dept offers, FWIW. Feel free to ask clarifying qs.

I'd definitely do the cambridge mphil just for the intellectual experience, unless you have no legitimate interest in the subject and hate winter. For law school admissions it's meh, but if you want to be an academic or clerk it could be nice to get something published or near publishable quality before you start law school. Keep in mind, though, that the mphil can be a lonely experience; if you're doing one in history or philosophy, it's reading intensive and highly personal, lots of pizza and red bull and jerking off, you're stuck hours outside london, and you can't really go outside for much of the year. IME your classmates will not be super collegial. But it can be deeply enriching if you're committed to it.

I would only take the full time job if you really care about money or if it was something you were passionate about; I wouldn't take some random tech support gig unless you might go for an MBA instead of the JD, or it's at Google or Musk's* think tank or some really incredible organization that you could see a lot of growth in

Also congrats on doing so well in college!

I think calling any Cambridge M.Phil "reading intensive and highly personal" might be a bit of a stretch. Basically it's an opportunity to hangout in Cambridge, read what you want, and work in short bursts. Most M.Phils require something like two long essays (5,000-6,000 words) and a 15,000-20,000 word dissertation. If you're at all interested in the subject it will be painless. The real question is whether you'd like to live in the UK for nine months. If it's being paid for, then I'd go for it, although I agree that it's unlikely to provide a noticeable advantage in the admissions process.

I'd go with school on the grounds it's a one-time thing and a good job could still follow. I'm also skeptical of the TLS wisdom that only "highly unique" softs matter. You'll be competing with many applicants with similar numbers as you, and you probably can't all be admitted.