"extracurricular activities" Forum

[senorhosh]

What do "extracurricular activities consist of for law school?

I'm a 4th year student (staying for 5th year) but I have no club membership, no volunteer work, etc.

1. How important is this for law school?
2. Should I start volunteering?
3. As a chemistry major, I'm not sure if I should work in labs or not because they might be "irrelevant" to law school.
So what should I do?

Thanks

[beaniew]

your admission status will depend only upon your LSAT score and gpa.

[Mustard Blood]

your admission status will depend only upon your LSAT score and gpa.

From what I've read, this seems to be about 95-98% true.

[TheTallOne0602]

your admission status will depend only upon your LSAT score and gpa.

This isn't entirely true, or even if it was, we have no way of knowing this.

Are LSAT/GPA the most important part of your application? By far? Yes. But tons of other applicants will have basically your exact numbers, and the tiebreakers have to come from somewhere else.

Also, if you are interested in certain schools (Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern and Yale have this reputation from the T-14, anyway), softs can matter even with good numbers.

But as far as answering the OP's question: do what you want to do and do it well. Volunteer, certainly (why haven't you? Time constraints?) but do it because it might be a decent thing to do, not because it is a magic key into law school. Do research. Start a club. Work. Do whatever. But trying to get into schools through softs is not really going to work, so don't fret over it much. The numbers open doors, the softs are more like tiebreakers for the vast majority of schools.

[prezidentv8]

do what you want to do and do it well.

[BrianGriffintheDog]

I've been adding various volunteer experiences that last 1-2 days and sometimes even less on my application. You should try doing the same if you're that desperate. Better than not having anything there.

[thegor1987]

Most law school apps require resumes. It would kind of suck to have to leave it blank even with good numbers.

[ran12]

It's kind of late to be adding clubs and community service going into your 5th year of college. Law schools care if you have significant leadership or accomplishments through orgs. A laundry list of orgs will not help.

[lawschool12345]

i volunteer as both a tutor at an elementary school and a coach for numerous youth athletics, and do not get paid for either. how would this look on an app?

[BrownBears09]

i volunteer as both a tutor at an elementary school and a coach for numerous youth athletics, and do not get paid for either. how would this look on an app?

Those are pretty generic softs.

(I was a 4-year special needs volunteer at a local elementary school, among other things.)

[lawschool12345]

thats what i figured, it did give me something to focus my ps about so i guess it wasnt that much of a waste ha

[tttlllsss]

I think good ECs/softs are necessary but not sufficient for apps. Perhaps LS apps seems like a numbers game, but I'm willing to wager that it's b/c nearly everyone has solid resumes to begin with.

On almost every LS app, there is a section where you have to enter your ECs, honors, job history, and so on. I can't imagine that having these sections partially or totally empty would be acceptable. I've never heard of an applicant w/ strong numbers yet VERY weak ECs/softs getting into top schools

[rocktower3]

What I can't figure out is what's important enough to be included in the 'non-academic activities' section. Student gov- ok. Classical music- ok. What about running marathons? Do they really care that I run every day? I've never really volunteered in any capacity that's resume-worthy. Ugh!

[rinkrat19]

What I can't figure out is what's important enough to be included in the 'non-academic activities' section. Student gov- ok. Classical music- ok. What about running marathons? Do they really care that I run every day? I've never really volunteered in any capacity that's resume-worthy. Ugh!

Include a section called 'Personal' or 'Interests' on your resume where you can put your hobby-type stuff. It makes you sound well-rounded and normal and shows a hint of your personality. I wouldn't necessarily include things like video games and dumpster diving, but competitive distance running is definitely valid.

Look at some of the things people included on the Harvard example resumes: --LinkRemoved--

FWIW, mine says 'Interests include snowboarding, recreational ice hockey, camping, digital photography and art, cooking, and reading fiction.'

[Sandro]

Almost everyone on TLS will tell you they dont matter. I didnt put any extra curriculars on my resume - I'm kind of regretting it now as I feel like I run the risk of coming off as someone who just went to class and didnt participate much at school.

[Bosque]

From the quotes in the title, I thought this was going to be about drug use or sex with professors. The actual subject of this thread is significantly less entertaining.

[JazzOne]

What do "extracurricular activities consist of for law school?

I'm a 4th year student (staying for 5th year) but I have no club membership, no volunteer work, etc.

1. How important is this for law school?
2. Should I start volunteering?
3. As a chemistry major, I'm not sure if I should work in labs or not because they might be "irrelevant" to law school.
So what should I do?

Thanks

I was a hard science major, so I will just suggest that you consider the following. If you work in a laboratory, could you expect to be published? If you can snag a publication out of it, then I would say it's worth it even though it's not directly relevant to law school. Publications are the kinds of things that just stay on your resume forever, even if you switch fields. And if you ever consider drug patent law, or something similar, a publication certainly wouldn't hurt.