Top Law Schools

Like the title says, what exactly does Harvard Law look for in resumes?
Since it is one of the top three schools along with YLS and SLS, I would think that softs matter.
But what would happen if someone hypothetically has the numbers for HLS, but have a very bland and mediocre resume? What advice would you give a person in that position?

Most of the class won't graduate with honors and law review. They want to make sure you have enough on your resume to land a big-law gig anyway. If you slapped "Harvard J.D. 202X" at the top of the resume, would some random big-law partner find you interesting and impressive enough to hire? If so, that's good enough.

It's always better to do something interesting and talk about it (volunteer work, legal related professional work, awards/honor, leadership activities, etc). If you really have nothing, just talk yourself up as best you can, and try to come across as a likable person by having a "personal" section with interests at the end of the resume (which may seem dumb, but is actually standard advice for 1L's going on the recruiting circuit).

The only lackluster resume is one without any real work experience on it. And if you haven't gotten any work experience, then you need to spend some time working. My advice would be to not go to law school right now and to spend some time figuring out what you actually like to do.

I would also advise not focusing on Harvard to the exclusion of all other law schools.

CLS2020 wrote:Since it is one of the top three schools along with YLS and SLS, I would think that softs matter.

On a related note, I've never been convinced that the "YSH" lumping makes sense. A more accurate grouping would be Yale, then Stanford, then Harvard/Chicago, then Columbia/NYU, in terms of prestige and placement power. Harvard is a terrific, top-notch school, but by no means is it interchangeable with Yale or Stanford. IMO it's a hair above Chicago (just as Columbia's a hair above NYU), but much closer to Chicago than to Yale or Stanford.

QContinuum wrote:

CLS2020 wrote:Since it is one of the top three schools along with YLS and SLS, I would think that softs matter.

On a related note, I've never been convinced that the "YSH" lumping makes sense. A more accurate grouping would be Yale, then Stanford, then Harvard/Chicago, then Columbia/NYU, in terms of prestige and placement power. Harvard is a terrific, top-notch school, but by no means is it interchangeable with Yale or Stanford. IMO it's a hair above Chicago (just as Columbia's a hair above NYU), but much closer to Chicago than to Yale or Stanford.

Don’t follow your logic w.r.t Chicago QC. Sure it’s better for clerkships than CLS or NYU but when it comes to firm placement it’s certainly behind CLS. Same goes for PI w.r.t NYU. And it’s certainly not more prestigious than CLS. If you look at the USWN reputation rankings Chicago and Columbia are tied (4.7/5), as they should be considering they’re direct peers. I, like tons of my classmates at CLS, turned down Chicago because I had no desire to practice/be in the Midwest. HLS is better than Chicago and CLS, but I agree it’s only marginally so. Columbia and Chicago will remain direct peers, with NYU ever so slightly behind. I also promise not to change my stance when Columbia goes back to #4 and Chicago slides to #5.

derekne wrote:

QContinuum wrote:On a related note, I've never been convinced that the "YSH" lumping makes sense. A more accurate grouping would be Yale, then Stanford, then Harvard/Chicago, then Columbia/NYU, in terms of prestige and placement power. Harvard is a terrific, top-notch school, but by no means is it interchangeable with Yale or Stanford. IMO it's a hair above Chicago (just as Columbia's a hair above NYU), but much closer to Chicago than to Yale or Stanford.

Don’t follow your logic w.r.t Chicago QC. Sure it’s better for clerkships than CLS or NYU but when it comes to firm placement it’s certainly behind CLS. Same goes for PI w.r.t NYU. And it’s certainly not more prestigious than CLS. If you look at the USWN reputation rankings Chicago and Columbia are tied (4.7/5), as they should be considering they’re direct peers. I, like tons of my classmates at CLS, turned down Chicago because I had no desire to practice/be in the Midwest. HLS is better than Chicago and CLS, but I agree it’s only marginally so. Columbia and Chicago will remain direct peers, with NYU ever so slightly behind. I also promise not to change my stance when Columbia goes back to #4 and Chicago slides to #5.

I think we generally agree, except w.r.t. to how close Chicago and Columbia are. I agree the gap is not huge. I do think Chicago has the edge, because accepted wisdom is that any of the Chicago grads heading in to A3 clerkships could easily have gone straight to a firm instead if they'd wanted that path. In contrast, I don't think we can argue that anyone with a BigLaw position out of Columbia could've landed an A3 clerkship had they wanted to clerk. I'll agree that there's more of a BigLaw culture at Columbia, more of a clerkship culture at Chicago, and more of a PI culture at NYU, and that those cultural differences go some way to explaining the differences in those schools' job placements. But Chicago's clerkship rate is high enough that I believe there's something more to it than simply more Chicago students wanting to clerk. (Plenty of Columbia/NYU students are highly interested in clerking too!)

Anyway, I'm happy to subscribe to a "Harvard/Chicago/Columbia/NYU" lumping, with Harvard a hair above CCN. The differences between those schools are very fine and for most 0Ls, cost should be the key consideration in choosing between those schools.

- formatting / polish
- ability to describe past experiences in a positive light
- relevant work experience
- engagement with your school/community

But it's probably not a huge deal. If they required a good resume they wouldn't accept clueless KJDs year after year. I got accepted with a great resume and a few years at a prestigious job. Then my younger cousin got in with lines like "Volunteered at ASPCA" and "Enjoys Hula Hooping" because our GPA/LSAT were the same and that's primarily what matters.