Worth it to become a 1L SBA rep? Forum

[corporatelaw87]

I was wondering if there was any REAL benefit to this. I've always been kind of active in school and thought it might be good to be a part of SBA. However, grades are the most important things and if SBA takes up a bunch of time as oppose to other clubs, then I wouldn't do it. Would it even have a marginal impact in OCI, maybe show leadership skills? Also does anyone know the time commitment for SBA reps? Btw I am a 0L but interested in this.

[XxSpyKEx]

I had a buddy that was in our SBA last year. Honestly, I think it was retarded. They literally did nothing but jerk around, go out drinking, and then have meetings where they talked about going out drinking. They wasted a TON of time. I doubt there was any benefit from this in terms of OCI. The only things that seem to matter to employers during OCI are journal membership and/or moot court (and you can't technically even do moot court prior to 2L OCI). I've never head of employers asking questions in relation to being in "XYZ club," "SBA," or anything like that. But I didn't do SBA last year, so I could be wrong.

[Renzo]

I want to push my section rep down the stairs every time he sends out an email, so I'm going with no.

[JPeavy44]

I want to push my section rep down the stairs every time he sends out an email, so I'm going with no.

amen.

[macattaq]

It depends. Do you want to be active in SBA beyond 1L year? If you would like to have an elected position (president, vice president, etc), then being a 1L rep is beneficial. The people who vote for you will see (or think) that you have been active on SBA, and will be more likely to vote for you over a candidate who has no SBA experience. That being said, if you don't want to be on SBA beyond 1L year, then just being a 1L rep probably isn't going to provide you any benefit.

[A'nold]

There is like a mob of students in my class that pretty much run for every position they can at the school. There are a few students that I think are in like 7 clubs and members of the managing staff (treasurer, VP, etc.). I think they think it is like high school or something where doing stuff like that "separates" you from the crowd. I'm happy for them if it makes them happy, but I just get this feeling that they think it will mean something to employers and it makes me feel bad for them b/c they could probably be using their time more wisely. But, on the other hand, I am posting on TLS and I could be using my time more wisely right now.

[WhiskeyGuy]

OP, if you'd like to do something meaningful and believe you can by serving as a SBA rep, then do it. Just because other SBAs are filled with folks who drink and party doesn't mean you will.

[chicagolaw2013]

I love that the last response came from WhiskeyGuy. It just seems so ironic, given that your tar is many glasses of whiskey...not a bottle, many glasses, insinuating an SBA party.

[solidsnake]

Why would you want to do anything 1L year other than study?

[A'nold]

Why would you want to do anything 1L year other than study?

Dude, tons of people at my school were signing up for this mediation tournament that absolutely drained these students' time.....I just couldn't believe it.

[Bankhead]

I've always thought the stupidest fucking thing you could do 1L year is to sign up for a bunch of clubs. I even know a 1L who is the "marketing czar" for an organization, and spends an inordinate amount of time hanging flyers, setting up decorations, etc. It's not even technically a position so he can't put it on his resume.

Then there are the people who baliff. I won't even go into the people who waste time baliffing.

And then there are the people are engage in something called "tabling", or is it "tableing" -- whatever, it might be the worst verb ever. These people just sit at tables for hours at a time.

Just study 1L year, for god sakes!

[Cupidity]

As a current undergrad SGA president, member of several faculty senate/board of trustees committees, president/officer of multiple clubs and general go-to guy whenever the school needs to have someone meet with a former ambassador to the UN or something...


I look foward to being totally un-involved in law school. Academics and nothing else. Any employers ask me "why no extra-currics", I'll pull out my undergrad resume and kindly explain that I figured I've gotten enough to see me through a few decades.

[A'nold]

I've always thought the stupidest fucking thing you could do 1L year is to sign up for a bunch of clubs. I even know a 1L who is the "marketing czar" for an organization, and spends an inordinate amount of time hanging flyers, setting up decorations, etc. It's not even technically a position so he can't put it on his resume.

Then there are the people who baliff. I won't even go into the people who waste time baliffing.

And then there are the people are engage in something called "tabling", or is it "tableing" -- whatever, it might be the worst verb ever. These people just sit at tables for hours at a time.

Just study 1L year, for god sakes!

Maybe they do think they are "making a difference" or something but my impression is that they think doing grunt work for these pointless (to us outsiders only maybe) organizations and just waste gobs of time. I've noticed that it seems people feel like they have to do multiple clubs or have some kind of leadership role in some kind of club to put on their resume and that it will make a huge difference and be a gaping hole if they don't have it, but I just don't think it matters and hurts their study time. / rant I guess.

[Bankhead]

I've always thought the stupidest fucking thing you could do 1L year is to sign up for a bunch of clubs. I even know a 1L who is the "marketing czar" for an organization, and spends an inordinate amount of time hanging flyers, setting up decorations, etc. It's not even technically a position so he can't put it on his resume.

Then there are the people who baliff. I won't even go into the people who waste time baliffing.

And then there are the people are engage in something called "tabling", or is it "tableing" -- whatever, it might be the worst verb ever. These people just sit at tables for hours at a time.

Just study 1L year, for god sakes!

Maybe they do think they are "making a difference" or something but my impression is that they think doing grunt work for these pointless (to us outsiders only maybe) organizations and just waste gobs of time. I've noticed that it seems people feel like they have to do multiple clubs or have some kind of leadership role in some kind of club to put on their resume and that it will make a huge difference and be a gaping hole if they don't have it, but I just don't think it matters and hurts their study time. / rant I guess.

It seems like the people who tend to do this are also the people who tend to go out drinking every night, and then rinse and repeat. Very little gets studied/learned.

[Thomas Jefferson]

As a current undergrad SGA president, member of several faculty senate/board of trustees committees, president/officer of multiple clubs and general go-to guy whenever the school needs to have someone meet with a former ambassador to the UN or something...


I look foward to being totally un-involved in law school. Academics and nothing else. Any employers ask me "why no extra-currics", I'll pull out my undergrad resume and kindly explain that I figured I've gotten enough to see me through a few decades.

I am so with you on that.

[smalltown]

Why would you want to do anything 1L year other than study?

Well, the general answer is that studying sucks donkeys and if that's all I did I would jump out of the god damn building.

Dude, tons of people at my school were signing up for this mediation tournament that absolutely drained these students' time.....I just couldn't believe it.

Some people may value skills learned in mediation more than what's in the text books. But any of these things are a tremendous drain on time. They can break up the incredibly boring day-to-day life that is law school.

The SBA at my school requires clubs to send a rep to the meetings, and I did it for my club this year. My involvement in my club has been more beneficial to me in my education and finding potential employment than Torts, which I bombed, that's for sure. But a friend and I spent most of the time in the SBA meetings sending the best quotes from the casual encounters section of Craigslist back and forth.

It can provide opportunities to give input to faculty and administration, but it's all really just for the benefit of the handful of people who are really into student government.

But, as you maybe can tell, I'm not the person you should model your law school career after.

[solidsnake]

Ironically, it's typically the low-end GPA students who end up in these clubs. And these are the last people you want interfacing with faculty and administration on issues that are adverse to the administration's agenda.

[A'nold]

Oh yeah, I think it is necessary to add, for the 0Ls' sake, that we are not talking about networking opportunities. We are talking about meaningless (at least in our perspective) clubs that high school or UG students would usually become involved with.

[OGR3]

As a current undergrad SGA president, member of several faculty senate/board of trustees committees, president/officer of multiple clubs and general go-to guy whenever the school needs to have someone meet with a former ambassador to the UN or something...


I look foward to being totally un-involved in law school. Academics and nothing else. Any employers ask me "why no extra-currics", I'll pull out my undergrad resume and kindly explain that I figured I've gotten enough to see me through a few decades.

+1

I did a million and a half things in undergrad. As an OL I can safely say that the only extracurricular that I will do is (hopefully) law review.

[macattaq]

I've always thought the stupidest fucking thing you could do 1L year is to sign up for a bunch of clubs. I even know a 1L who is the "marketing czar" for an organization, and spends an inordinate amount of time hanging flyers, setting up decorations, etc. It's not even technically a position so he can't put it on his resume.

Then there are the people who baliff. I won't even go into the people who waste time baliffing.

And then there are the people are engage in something called "tabling", or is it "tableing" -- whatever, it might be the worst verb ever. These people just sit at tables for hours at a time.

Just study 1L year, for god sakes!

You would be surprised to find out that some, if not many of these positions are paid. The Westlaw/Lexis/Rigos/BarBri tables, yeah, those are all paid positions. At the very least, these people are getting paid to sit around. Even better, they are being paid to study. I can't imagine that this is such a bad thing that it should be avoided.

I know this is TLS, and people here are much more gung-ho about getting good grades than may be found elsewhere. That being said, 90% of all law students fall outside the top 10%. To differentiate yourself beyond the grade factor, you will need extracurriculars. Without them, you won't be able to make a decent argument as to why you should be hired over that other person who has the same grades as you. You will have few, if any, conversation starters. The few you do have will be the result of being a club president in undergrad. Whoop-de-fucking-do, please raise your hand if you were a club officer at some point during your four years of higher education. Being 'the cool guy' isn't going to carry as much weight as it did in undergrad, and quite frankly, no one gives a fuck what you did back then. You'll need to show that you are willing to step up, take charge, and do what it takes to keep things going. By this I mean, employers want leaders. They want individuals who are willing to suck it up, and do the crap work without complaining, because they know this is what needs to be done. If you're angling for a biglaw position, or other competitive position, I imagine that showing these traits will get you further in the long run than saying, "I studied all through 1L year". Yes, saying that you studied for nine or ten months straight shows your dedication. No, a lot of people do not want to work with a fucking Poindexter-ass bookworm who doesn't socialize. Once you consider the intangibles, such as people skills or ability to mediate conflict, you can see that having spent time away from books is invaluable. This is particularly true when you consider that, once again, most students fall outside of the BigLaw/clerkship-autoselect-range. While taking on positions such as 1L SBA rep may not give you any real legal experience, the fact that you were willing to enter into the non-academic world around you can be used an advantage.

[rando]

I've always thought the stupidest fucking thing you could do 1L year is to sign up for a bunch of clubs. I even know a 1L who is the "marketing czar" for an organization, and spends an inordinate amount of time hanging flyers, setting up decorations, etc. It's not even technically a position so he can't put it on his resume.

Then there are the people who baliff. I won't even go into the people who waste time baliffing.

And then there are the people are engage in something called "tabling", or is it "tableing" -- whatever, it might be the worst verb ever. These people just sit at tables for hours at a time.

Just study 1L year, for god sakes!

You would be surprised to find out that some, if not many of these positions are paid. The Westlaw/Lexis/Rigos/BarBri tables, yeah, those are all paid positions. At the very least, these people are getting paid to sit around. Even better, they are being paid to study. I can't imagine that this is such a bad thing that it should be avoided.

I know this is TLS, and people here are much more gung-ho about getting good grades than may be found elsewhere. That being said, 90% of all law students fall outside the top 10%. To differentiate yourself beyond the grade factor, you will need extracurriculars. Without them, you won't be able to make a decent argument as to why you should be hired over that other person who has the same grades as you. You will have few, if any, conversation starters. The few you do have will be the result of being a club president in undergrad. Whoop-de-fucking-do, please raise your hand if you were a club officer at some point during your four years of higher education. Being 'the cool guy' isn't going to carry as much weight as it did in undergrad, and quite frankly, no one gives a fuck what you did back then. You'll need to show that you are willing to step up, take charge, and do what it takes to keep things going. By this I mean, employers want leaders. They want individuals who are willing to suck it up, and do the crap work without complaining, because they know this is what needs to be done. If you're angling for a biglaw position, or other competitive position, I imagine that showing these traits will get you further in the long run than saying, "I studied all through 1L year". Yes, saying that you studied for nine or ten months straight shows your dedication. No, a lot of people do not want to work with a fucking Poindexter-ass bookworm who doesn't socialize. Once you consider the intangibles, such as people skills or ability to mediate conflict, you can see that having spent time away from books is invaluable. This is particularly true when you consider that, once again, most students fall outside of the BigLaw/clerkship-autoselect-range. While taking on positions such as 1L SBA rep may not give you any real legal experience, the fact that you were willing to enter into the non-academic world around you can be used an advantage.

You must be the one law student ever that has benefited from being a 1L SBA rep. Or any other club membership for that matter. You want to do something outside of classes that is beneficial? Do research for a professor. Write a legal article. Don't join a club and commit time to it.
Employers want well-rounded individuals, sure. I can guarantee you that most of them don't determine this by 1L rep. They look at grades, then look at your grades some more.
You are totally mistaken to think that you can get a job through intangibles and being a "leader." While lacking those skills may ding you from employment, a resume filled with that crap will get more laughter from firms than respect.

[macattaq]

Wrong. Not a 1L SBA rep.

[macattaq]

I've always thought the stupidest fucking thing you could do 1L year is to sign up for a bunch of clubs. I even know a 1L who is the "marketing czar" for an organization, and spends an inordinate amount of time hanging flyers, setting up decorations, etc. It's not even technically a position so he can't put it on his resume.

Then there are the people who baliff. I won't even go into the people who waste time baliffing.

And then there are the people are engage in something called "tabling", or is it "tableing" -- whatever, it might be the worst verb ever. These people just sit at tables for hours at a time.

Just study 1L year, for god sakes!

You would be surprised to find out that some, if not many of these positions are paid. The Westlaw/Lexis/Rigos/BarBri tables, yeah, those are all paid positions. At the very least, these people are getting paid to sit around. Even better, they are being paid to study. I can't imagine that this is such a bad thing that it should be avoided.

I know this is TLS, and people here are much more gung-ho about getting good grades than may be found elsewhere. That being said, 90% of all law students fall outside the top 10%. To differentiate yourself beyond the grade factor, you will need extracurriculars. Without them, you won't be able to make a decent argument as to why you should be hired over that other person who has the same grades as you. You will have few, if any, conversation starters. The few you do have will be the result of being a club president in undergrad. Whoop-de-fucking-do, please raise your hand if you were a club officer at some point during your four years of higher education. Being 'the cool guy' isn't going to carry as much weight as it did in undergrad, and quite frankly, no one gives a fuck what you did back then. You'll need to show that you are willing to step up, take charge, and do what it takes to keep things going. By this I mean, employers want leaders. They want individuals who are willing to suck it up, and do the crap work without complaining, because they know this is what needs to be done. If you're angling for a biglaw position, or other competitive position, I imagine that showing these traits will get you further in the long run than saying, "I studied all through 1L year". Yes, saying that you studied for nine or ten months straight shows your dedication. No, a lot of people do not want to work with a fucking Poindexter-ass bookworm who doesn't socialize. Once you consider the intangibles, such as people skills or ability to mediate conflict, you can see that having spent time away from books is invaluable. This is particularly true when you consider that, once again, most students fall outside of the BigLaw/clerkship-autoselect-range. While taking on positions such as 1L SBA rep may not give you any real legal experience, the fact that you were willing to enter into the non-academic world around you can be used an advantage.

You must be the one law student ever that has benefited from being a 1L SBA rep. Or any other club membership for that matter. You want to do something outside of classes that is beneficial? Do research for a professor. Write a legal article. Don't join a club and commit time to it.
Employers want well-rounded individuals, sure. I can guarantee you that most of them don't determine this by 1L rep. They look at grades, then look at your grades some more.
You are totally mistaken to think that you can get a job through intangibles and being a "leader." While lacking those skills may ding you from employment, a resume filled with that crap will get more laughter from firms than respect.

Oh, and I never said this. What I said is that it can help, and can be used to your advantage. Question: when was the last time you interviewed for a legal position? For me, it was about a month ago. The non-academic things came up much more than grades. Oh yes, and I got the job.

[mhernton]

I've always thought the stupidest fucking thing you could do 1L year is to sign up for a bunch of clubs. I even know a 1L who is the "marketing czar" for an organization, and spends an inordinate amount of time hanging flyers, setting up decorations, etc. It's not even technically a position so he can't put it on his resume.

Then there are the people who baliff. I won't even go into the people who waste time baliffing.

And then there are the people are engage in something called "tabling", or is it "tableing" -- whatever, it might be the worst verb ever. These people just sit at tables for hours at a time.

Just study 1L year, for god sakes!

You would be surprised to find out that some, if not many of these positions are paid. The Westlaw/Lexis/Rigos/BarBri tables, yeah, those are all paid positions. At the very least, these people are getting paid to sit around. Even better, they are being paid to study. I can't imagine that this is such a bad thing that it should be avoided.

I know this is TLS, and people here are much more gung-ho about getting good grades than may be found elsewhere. That being said, 90% of all law students fall outside the top 10%. To differentiate yourself beyond the grade factor, you will need extracurriculars. Without them, you won't be able to make a decent argument as to why you should be hired over that other person who has the same grades as you. You will have few, if any, conversation starters. The few you do have will be the result of being a club president in undergrad. Whoop-de-fucking-do, please raise your hand if you were a club officer at some point during your four years of higher education. Being 'the cool guy' isn't going to carry as much weight as it did in undergrad, and quite frankly, no one gives a fuck what you did back then. You'll need to show that you are willing to step up, take charge, and do what it takes to keep things going. By this I mean, employers want leaders. They want individuals who are willing to suck it up, and do the crap work without complaining, because they know this is what needs to be done. If you're angling for a biglaw position, or other competitive position, I imagine that showing these traits will get you further in the long run than saying, "I studied all through 1L year". Yes, saying that you studied for nine or ten months straight shows your dedication. No, a lot of people do not want to work with a fucking Poindexter-ass bookworm who doesn't socialize. Once you consider the intangibles, such as people skills or ability to mediate conflict, you can see that having spent time away from books is invaluable. This is particularly true when you consider that, once again, most students fall outside of the BigLaw/clerkship-autoselect-range. While taking on positions such as 1L SBA rep may not give you any real legal experience, the fact that you were willing to enter into the non-academic world around you can be used an advantage.

You must be the one law student ever that has benefited from being a 1L SBA rep. Or any other club membership for that matter. You want to do something outside of classes that is beneficial? Do research for a professor. Write a legal article. Don't join a club and commit time to it.
Employers want well-rounded individuals, sure. I can guarantee you that most of them don't determine this by 1L rep. They look at grades, then look at your grades some more.
You are totally mistaken to think that you can get a job through intangibles and being a "leader." While lacking those skills may ding you from employment, a resume filled with that crap will get more laughter from firms than respect.

Oh, and I never said this. What I said is that it can help, and can be used to your advantage. Question: when was the last time you interviewed for a legal position? For me, it was about a month ago. The non-academic things came up much more than grades. Oh yes, and I got the job.

Having gone to grad school (MBA) I can attest to the fact that employers want well rounded candidates. The assumption is that you made it into the room so you must have the hard skills. They would like for you demonstrate the soft skills. If I was stuck in an airport with this person for 8hrs would I want to kill them. That really has nothing to do with 1L SBA rep or any of the other club memberships. Those memberships are talking points for the interviewee to bring up, if they can't hold a conversation and be an interesting person outside if it, but not really necessary. If your interested in what the SBA does, then join up. Don't do it as resume builder, its transparent. Companies I interviewed with after grad school (MBA) were interested in my grades as a representation of how hard I worked as compared others, and what experience I brought. I did financial planning while in grad school, and real world business consulting, and I could talk about those things. They didn't really care about the clubs I was in unless it related directly to what their organization was about.

[wiseowl]

i did a couple extracuriculars this year, will probably do more next year, but steered clear of SBA.

some folks here need to realize that people are getting jobs these days from networking and good interviewing, especially outside the T14. if your extracurricular choices help you do that, as mine did, all the better.