Harvard and work experience Forum

[Dr. Dre]

sapien: wut were ur numbers, bruh.

also, answer OP's question about what KIND of WE one ought to acquire.

Would being a team leader at Target suffice? Not everyone can get a jerb with a liberal arts degree—homie

[sapien]

Edit: to answer your question, anything that is interesting or competitive is the way to go. Most people with a 3.9x GPA in English/Anthro/etc. probably can find something worthwhile to do with their lives for a year or two.

[Dr. Dre]

so what TYPE of WE is sufficient, bro. still haven't answered dat question.

[sapien]

Sorry, answered above. Art gallery person, consulting, musician, teacher, journalist, whatever. Barista/Target employee/office temp probably won't cut it. Something blue collar but unique in the law school applicant pool might work, though (maybe bus driver, ice cream guy, electrician, etc.).

Also, I'm a girl so cool it with the "bro" stuff, please.

[Dr. Dre]

personally, i'd rather do the blue-collar stuff

i don't like the cookie-cutter jobs you listed

but if it pleases the adcoms or potential employers or whoever, i'd be willing to do anything

[willwilliams1334]

I got into both with your numbers (and my LSAT was a retake), although I did have a couple of years of work experience.

Things get easier every year now that apps are down. Just apply now and see if you can get in. I'm at SLS and there are plenty of folks here (including myself) who don't have mind-bogglingly impressive softs. If you don't get in, just retake, get a job, and try again next year.

But regardless, you should absolutely get work experience. SLS and HLS both make it easy to defer law school for a year or two. There's just no scenario in which that's a bad idea. Plus, getting in is just a means to an end; your likeliest scenario is Harvard and when you have to distinguish yourself among 600 classmates on the H/P grading system, you're going to wish you had something interesting/relevant/impressive in your resume.

Great advice, especially insofar as what kind of job appeals to these schools. I'm probably going to follow your advice, and if i dont get the cycle i want, get a job doing something like this. I am a history major so it might be a little tough, but i definitely think your on to something, definitely with regard to OCH. thanks alot!

[mr.hands]

So i realistically need to be above and at 1 median to have a really nice shot of getting in?

You *need* to go have a beer an chillax

[LexLeon]

HLS doesn't give a shiet about em' softs.

Your GPA is excellent. If you are URM, enjoy Harvard bro.

Please stop giving terrible advice and speaking from ignorance.

This post is not an ad hominem. I genuinely don't want people to be misled by what you say.

[Dr. Dre]

Lol okay dude.

Harvard:


I want you to guess what the sole input is for this graph.

Is it:

(A) EXCELLENCE

or

(B) NUMBERS

[sinfiery]

HLS doesn't give a shiet about em' softs.

Your GPA is excellent. If you are URM, enjoy Harvard bro.

Please stop giving terrible advice and speaking from ignorance.

This post is not an ad hominem. I genuinely don't want people to be misled by what you say.

Acceptance = (numbers) x [1 + (softs)] with the vast majority of softs registering something that is far from a statistically significant change in acceptance.

They always matter, but rarely do they impact the decision and so they rarely matter.

[LexLeon]

HLS doesn't give a shiet about em' softs.

Your GPA is excellent. If you are URM, enjoy Harvard bro.

Please stop giving terrible advice and speaking from ignorance.

This post is not an ad hominem. I genuinely don't want people to be misled by what you say.

Acceptance = (numbers) x [1 + (softs)] with the vast majority of softs registering something that is far from a statistically significant change in acceptance.

They always matter, but rarely do they impact the decision and so they rarely matter.

Aren't hundreds of people, who have higher numbers than hundreds of people who are admitted, rejected by the best schools?

Do you agree that "softs" are what explain that phenomenon?

I believe applicants' softs do explain this phenomenon, primarily if not entirely.

I do not want to make an example of your numbers to support my position. (It may be interpreted as implying that you have poor softs, or some other negative remark. You may well have excellent softs and be an exceptional person who is anomalous with regard to my position.) But because you have monstrous numbers, I would expect you to be more apt to understand my idea.

[sinfiery]

Aren't hundreds of people, who have higher numbers than hundreds of people who are admitted, rejected by the best schools?

Do you agree that "softs" are what explain that phenomenon?

I believe applicants' softs do explain this phenomenon, primarily if not entirely.

I do not want to make an example of your numbers to support my position. (It may be interpreted as implying that you have poor softs, or some other negative remark. You may well have excellent softs and be an exceptional person who is anomalous with regard to my position.) But because you have monstrous numbers, I would expect you to be more apt to understand my idea.

When people refer to numbers, they don't generally mean sheer numbers. It's largely based on medians. So for HLS, a 173 and a 174 with 3.81s are numerically the same. Then it comes down to softs, yes. But a 172/3.81 with superior softs to either of the 173/174 is very much at a disadvantage. It would take ridiculous softs (less than 1% of the applicant pool type softs) to overcome the numbers.

That is why numbers matter. Hundreds of 172/3.81 do not get in over 173/3.81, or even tens. Maybe like 5. 174/3.81 vs 173/3.81, sure, hundreds.

The numbers are and will always be the driving force for most applicants decision.
Softs are something we cannot really define when giving advice. We know they matter after hitting medians, but there are no charts or statistical attributes to most of them. So we say you have a chance at X with those numbers because what else can we suggest?

Yes, I have weak softs...like probably worse than the majority of all LS applicants...and yet, numbers still get you something.

I also said ITT softs matter. Just rarely and almost always after the numerical criteria has been checked, almost never before.