Extracurricular Activities and COVID Grades Forum

[gaubeo3008]

Hi fellows,

I am a mathematics major from a solid state flagship university. I am going to be a teaching assistant for a gerontology course next semester, where we try to help the elderly with or without dementia/Alzheimer's to enjoy their senior years through arts, such as poetry and songs.

I have one year of Japanese up to this point and it just so happened that a few minutes ago, my Japanese professor informed us that the Japanese Language and Culture Club is in sore need of people for executive positions, such as president, vice-president, and so forth.

I have been teaching English in my home country in Southeast Asia to underprivileged, orphan children. I actually run an English class of my own for them.

I expect my GPA to be roughly 3.90 (+/- 0.02). My LSAT score is not out yet. Do you guys think I need more extracurricular activities?

I have had no internship so far, only community service. On the other hand, I am striving to graduate by Fall 2021, which means I will have finished my degree in Math in 2 and a half years.

Also, in addition to the Spring 2020 semester when all college students were thrown into chaos, I also took all courses in Fall 2020 on Pass/Fail basis. I have not failed any classes so far.

In totality, do you think I stand a good chance for T6, particularly Harvard, if my LSAT is 170 and above?

Any comments on my current situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[crazywafflez]

It is pretty hard to predict, in my opinion, the top 3 schools. However, I can tell you your softs (extra activities etc) are fine. I think admissions would be way more enthralled by you teaching English etc for awhile rather than taking on 20 different activities that you just do for a weekend (although, if you do do that and help your community out, good on you!) but admissions just wants to see you're committed or learning or helping etc- they don't care if you volunteer once a week at the old folks home for 2 years vs. doing that twice a week for 2 years. Do the Japanese club if you want to, and only if you want to.
Your admissions to law school will be mostly predicated on your LSAT score and GPA. A 170 and 3.9 GPA gets you into a lot of T14 schools. Keep up the good work.

[cavalier1138]

Stop doing extracurriculars for resume-building; just do things that interest you. There is literally no benefit to treating every opportunity in life as the chance to "build a narrative." And as mentioned above, 90-95% of your application is going to be LSAT/GPA.

On a related note, don't go K-JD.