Resume for Law School Forum

[cmartin5970]

This may be a dumb question, but is a resume a part of the application process for law school? I am registering for the LSAC Credential Assembly Service and I noticed that your resume is not a part of that service. So is the resume not a part of the application process, and if it is do you send it in separately from your online application through LSAC?

Thanks in advance!

[PDaddy]

The resume is absolutely an essential element of your law application proifile, and you need to submit it online with the rest of your materials.

As a general rule, list your education history and academic honors first, followed by community service and employment.

If you have been out of school for a number of years and have established significant work history, it is fine to list your work experience first.

When you list your academic honors, be sure to give the bases for the awards in short sentences.

Although they are not necessary, you may list extra-curricular activities (classic pianist, scuba instructor, etc.) that are meaningful and/or in which you have had deep, long-term involvement, but do not sacrifice the essential elements (W.E., Community Service, Academic Honors, etc.) to include them. Ideally you want the resume to be 1-2 pages with at least 11-point font. If you can keep it at a single page, that's great.

References are not necessary, although you can list the names of professors who will provide LOR's if you have room.

No abstract, mission statement or cover-letter is needed.

Be sure your resume matches up with info given in other parts of your profile, and be judicious about what you include.

Emphasize projects in which you have had leadership roles and/or involvement for extended periods of time. Deep, long-term involvement in one or two activities is always more impressive than involvement in a bunch of short-term projects in which you took no leadership role.

This goes without saying (yet, here I am saying it. lol): do not misrepresent or embellish your accomplishments! If you need a template, PM me.

[LockBox]

I'd add that if you've been out of school for a significant period of time list your employment first, then education history.

A question I had for everyone is where would should I list a summer internship that was paid and not for school credit. I guess under employment even though I was in school at the time, yes?

[rinkrat19]

LSAC CAS allows you to upload whatever documents you need to, to be included with your applications. This includes your personal statement, any addenda, optional essays, and your resume.

[meatball122]

(Didnt want to create a new thread for this simple question, so just piggy-backing.)

I took two graduate level classes. Do i need to include that on my resume? I more or less took them for shits and giggles.

I presume no, but since they were from the same school as my UG degree, when they sent my transcripts to LSAC, they sent UG and grad grades.

[bball1997]

Do people put their LSAT on their law school resume?

[target]

Do people put their LSAT on their law school resume?

No, that is what your LSAC report is for.

[SarahKerrigan]

i found this podcast to have a lot of info on this topic, you might want to take a listen!

http://www.lawschoolpodcaster.com/2010/ ... on-resume/

[Tiago Splitter]

(Didnt want to create a new thread for this simple question, so just piggy-backing.)

I took two graduate level classes. Do i need to include that on my resume? I more or less took them for shits and giggles.

I presume no, but since they were from the same school as my UG degree, when they sent my transcripts to LSAC, they sent UG and grad grades.

I vote no. You don't have to put everything you've ever done on your resume.

[yikes0117]

I'm confused. TLS says that resumes should be no more than 1 page in length, but the admissions sites of several law schools (Stanford, Columbia, UT) say that resumes can be up to 2 or 3 pages in length. Will it kill me if my resume is 3 or 4 lines over a page?

[Tiago Splitter]

It's not a big deal. I think the consensus is that for job hunting you should do what you can to keep it one page, but it's less important for law school admissions. In spite of my own previous posts I ended up extending mine past one page.

I do think that most people in school or just 1-2 years out don't need to go past one page. It looks best at one page, but don't freak out if it goes to a second. In fact, I think just going 3-4 lines over looks a bit tacky. Either shrink to fit down to one page or extend it out a bit so a whole section goes onto that second page.

[Samara]

^ +1
Just don't engage in obvious padding.