How badly will taking a lighter spring semester hurt my application? Forum

[wewlad]

I'm top 5% 2L at a top 25 law school that punches above its weight with clerkships and have good extracurriculars (journal, moot). I'm feeling pretty burnt out after last semester and really want to take a lighter semester for my own sanity. I'm strongly tempted to drop my admin law class and just take two classes (including corporations, which I've heard some judges like to see) along with my clinic and moot court competition. I definitely plan on taking admin next year along with all the other classic clerkship classes like fed courts (which wasn't offered this semester unfortunately). Realistically, is this likely to make a big impact with my application? I know it would be better to take admin and do well in it, but I'd really rather spend this semester doing more practical stuff rather than spending all my time in the library if its not going to be a big deal.

The rest of my transcript shows that I can handle rigorous courses. I've gotten an A in all of my 1L doctrinals and I booked both my civpro and conlaw 2 classes. I've also taken environmental law and gotten an A in it, which was really an applied admin law class. I'm mostly looking to clerk in the southeast, so I won't be applying to the most competitive districts.

[talons2250]

If you were at a T14, then I would say just take two doctrinal classes and do well in them. However, the further you go from the T14, the more perfectly perfect you need to be. This is all to say that there is a small chance that it could make a difference, but if that small chance is worth having a saner semester, then go ahead and do it.

[Anonymous User]

As a clerk, if I saw a transcript with just two graded classes that would look a bit weird. Is the clinic also graded or have a component that is graded?

[wewlad]

As a clerk, if I saw a transcript with just two graded classes that would look a bit weird. Is the clinic also graded or have a component that is graded?

Yes, the clinic has both a graded portion and a pass/fail portion.

[Anonymous User]

As a clerk, if I saw a transcript with just two graded classes that would look a bit weird. Is the clinic also graded or have a component that is graded?

Yes, the clinic has both a graded portion and a pass/fail portion.

Ok. Honestly not ideal but I wouldn't auto ding you for it. My advice is take it and work really hard—it's only four months. If that is truly not possible, i think you can still get clerkships even if you drop it.

[Anonymous User]

Can you take a less intense class? If your school has a legal research or writing class that isn’t too much work, that would look good and be useful - some schools have judicial-opinion-writing classes, often taught by judges themselves. Agree that there’s no need to take 3 doctrinals though, especially if you’re feeling burnt out.