LSAT Score on Resume? Forum

[samsonyte16]

I'm applying to paralegal jobs prior to going to law school and am wondering if it makes sense to put my LSAT score on my resume. My resume is otherwise decent and the score is over 175. Would this help me stand out in a good way or come off as tool-ish?

[tommynobody]

I'm applying to paralegal jobs prior to going to law school and am wondering if it makes sense to put my LSAT score on my resume. My resume is otherwise decent and the score is over 175. Would this help me stand out in a good way or come off as tool-ish?

If your resume already stands on its own, I wouldn't put it on there.

[CanadianWolf]

Seems to be a reasonable idea, especially if you will be proof-reading/editing for others. Rather than listing your actual score, consider writing that you scored in the "top 1%" on the LSAT.

[Anonymous User]

Put it on your resume ---> send it to your Senator or Congressman ---> Enjoy DC

[Anonymous User]

I think that would be a good idea, if only for legal jobs. I applied to a couple relatively prestigious paralegal type positions for the summer before I would be attending law school. My resume got me a couple interviews, but I was never called back for a second interview. Although my undergrad school and my GPA were impressive, I think I was judged partially on the fact that I would be attending a T2 after the position ended.
I think the employers for these types of positions want to employ students who will be going to a T14 or the like, because they want to have an advantage in hiring them for full time employment after they graduate, as T14 students, unlike most non-T14 students, are very valuable commodities to employers.

Had I known then what I know now, I would have not mentioned the law school I would be attending. I would have let my resume speak for itself, and let the employer simply assume I would score well on the LSAT and attend an elite school.

If you can state your LSAT score, I think you have a leg up for these types of positions. The employer doesn't have to play a guessing game of whether the applicant will be capable of attending an elite school, and their hiring decision will be that much easier.

[Connelly]

I will have to disagree. Unless they ask for it, don't put it on there. The HR people will point and laugh.

[micwrecka45]

fwiw, our career services emphatically told us to never post LSAT scores on our resume regardless of the score. it's tool-ish.

[Jarndyce]

I will have to disagree. Unless they ask for it, don't put it on there. The HR people will point and laugh.

I agree. I actually considered this last year (my LSAT score is nine points higher than my school's median), but I decided it would be tacky. You can find something besides a score on a single test to set yourself apart.

[Bumi]

fwiw, our career services emphatically told us to never post LSAT scores on our resume regardless of the score. it's tool-ish.

I will have to disagree. Unless they ask for it, don't put it on there. The HR people will point and laugh.

I agree. I actually considered this last year (my LSAT score is nine points higher than my school's median), but I decided it would be tacky. You can find something besides a score on a single test to set yourself apart.

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure that putting my 99th percentile LSAT at the top of my resume helped to get me my interview with the big company I've been working at successfully for the last several years.

Six years ago I had taken an LSAT but ultimately decided to get work experience prior to going to law school. I had my freshly minted career services resume ready to go - no LSAT score on it, just like career services told me, but that resume wasn't very successful at getting me interviews. Maybe I wasn't getting interviews because I didn't have a great GPA to highlight, so maybe my situation is different from the OP.

Anyways, I eventually had lunch with someone that worked in HR at an actual company to try to help me make my resume more effective. I mentioned to him mid-lunch that I was thinking about law, but wanted to work in consulting or financial services first. He asked me some follow up questions and eventually convinced me to tell him my LSAT score. At that point, he told me I was a damn fool for not putting it in bold at the top of my resume. His reasoning was that companies, particularly those kinds of companies, want to hire smart people, and a high LSAT (or GMAT, or whatever) score gets their attention. I told him that this sounded toolish, and he said that bragging is the entire point of a resume and to get over it if I wanted a job.

Once I started resubmitting my LSAT-score-resume to companies at which I had previously applied with my career services resume, I got an interview and then an offer almost immediately. A few people within the company who learned about my poor college record have asked me how I even got an interview at the place. When I have suggested that maybe my LSAT score did it, they always seem to think that's the most likely explanation.

Obviously, my experience is anecdotal and causation is impossible to establish. Plus, my situation is completely different from the OP's situation. But I just wanted to chime in.

[sibley]

I will have to disagree. Unless they ask for it, don't put it on there. The HR people will point and laugh.

I agree. I actually considered this last year (my LSAT score is nine points higher than my school's median), but I decided it would be tacky. You can find something besides a score on a single test to set yourself apart.

+1
It can be dangerous also... depending on the law firm. It sucks for them when their paralegals keep going off to law school just as soon as they're well trained. If you put your score on there it makes it all the more clear that you'll be leaving, and soon. It's one thing to have intentions of going, it's another to have started the process.

[bk1]

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure that putting my 99th percentile LSAT at the top of my resume helped to get me my interview with the big company I've been working at successfully for the last several years.

Six years ago I had taken an LSAT but ultimately decided to get work experience prior to going to law school. I had my freshly minted career services resume ready to go - no LSAT score on it, just like career services told me, but that resume wasn't very successful at getting me interviews. Maybe I wasn't getting interviews because I didn't have a great GPA to highlight, so maybe my situation is different from the OP.

Anyways, I eventually had lunch with someone that worked in HR at an actual company to try to help me make my resume more effective. I mentioned to him mid-lunch that I was thinking about law, but wanted to work in consulting or financial services first. He asked me some follow up questions and eventually convinced me to tell him my LSAT score. At that point, he told me I was a damn fool for not putting it in bold at the top of my resume. His reasoning was that companies, particularly those kinds of companies, want to hire smart people, and a high LSAT (or GMAT, or whatever) score gets their attention. I told him that this sounded toolish, and he said that bragging is the entire point of a resume and to get over it if I wanted a job.

Once I started resubmitting my LSAT-score-resume to companies at which I had previously applied with my career services resume, I got an interview and then an offer almost immediately. A few people within the company who learned about my poor college record have asked me how I even got an interview at the place. When I have suggested that maybe my LSAT score did it, they always seem to think that's the most likely explanation.

Obviously, my experience is anecdotal and causation is impossible to establish. Plus, my situation is completely different from the OP's situation. But I just wanted to chime in.

For legal jobs I would say don't put it. If you are applying for jobs straight out of UG it may make you stand out if you don't have an impressive GPA or class rank, but it is still risky.

[seespotrun]

Seems to be a reasonable idea, especially if you will be proof-reading/editing for others. Rather than listing your actual score, consider writing that you scored in the "top 1%" on the LSAT.

More good advice from this guy. After all, it has to be sound advice because he's a lawyer.

[rynabrius]

The official rationale for not putting your LSAT on your resume is that the LSAT is merely meant to be predictive of 1L grades, and so is meaningless once you have those grades. According to this rationale, you could put your LSAT, because it provides a proxy for what your 1L grades would be.

However, the real rationale for not proclaiming your LSAT is probably that we, as a society, don't like tests that are perceived to be 'intelligence tests.' It would be downright un-American to be awarded a job based on aptitude rather than something you have to work for, like experience. The social norm against touting 'aptitude' tests like the LSAT is so strong that I suspect employers who saw your LSAT might hold it against you. What's worse, they might remember their inferior LSAT scores and be biased against you. I mean, would you put that you are a member of Mensa--or triple 9's--on your resume? Of course not.

There's also a legal rationale for not using tests like the LSAT for HR decisions. It tracks pretty closely with why the civil service exam was watered down.

* NB: I'm not saying the LSAT is an intelligence test, I am just noting the perception.

[Jarndyce]

The official rationale for not putting your LSAT on your resume is that the LSAT is merely meant to be predictive of 1L grades, and so is meaningless once you have those grades. According to this rationale, you could put your LSAT, because it provides a proxy for what your 1L grades would be.

However, the real rationale for not proclaiming your LSAT is probably that we, as a society, don't like tests that are perceived to be 'intelligence tests.' It would be downright un-American to be awarded a job based on aptitude rather than something you have to work for, like experience. The social norm against touting 'aptitude' tests like the LSAT is so strong that I suspect employers who saw your LSAT might hold it against you. What's worse, they might remember their inferior LSAT scores and be biased against you. I mean, would you put that you are a member of Mensa--or triple 9's--on your resume? Of course not.

There's also a legal rationale for not using tests like the LSAT for HR decisions. It tracks pretty closely with why the civil service exam was watered down.

* NB: I'm not saying the LSAT is an intelligence test, I am just noting the perception.

I think it is simpler than all of this. The fact is, it is a little tacky. If you got a good GPA, what is the point of putting your LSAT? The GPA speaks for itself. If you did not get a good GPA but did get a good LSAT, it shows that you gamed the system and underachieved. Either way, that is one line of valuable space that could be used for something else.

[03121202698008]

Putting your LSAT score on your resume is just douchey. Don't do it...no one cares except for LS Admissions people.