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I'm taking 1.5 years off before law school to work, but what else should I do with this time?


I finished my undergrad in December 2011 with a 3.4 GPA, and I then wrote the LSAT in Feb and nabbed a 170 (which I’m happy with). Together, my mediocre GPA and my more respectable LSAT score make me a splitter.

I took a job in San Francisco, where I’m now working for a small architecture/development business. I get to do a lot of work with urban planning and research, especially in terms of green building and agricultural landscaping. I’m becoming familiar with development laws in California, which I hope will be relevant to my degree and career later. (I’m also waitressing nights and weekends to earn some extra cash.)

However, I feel like I should be doing more to augment my application. I am certainly not the only splitter out there taking time off to work, so I want to do something else that will help me stand out in the application process. I have a little less than a year and a half now to really do something that could impress a law school admissions council, and I want your opinions!

So, based on your guys’ experience, what would be a good use of my time? What can I do aside from working a corporate job that would really impress an admissions council?

Thanks in advance!


(For what it’s worth, I have my heart set on UCLA. This is partially because my late father's family lives in LA and I want to be with them, but aside from that, UCLA is a wonderful school in itself and I could see myself situating in LA.)

You should be fine with your current job, if you enjoy it. From what I've learned this past admissions cycle, they don't really care what you do, just that you're doing something and hopefully you're doing a good enough job to get a thoughtful letter of rec out of it.

For UCLA/SoCal specifically, I had extremely similar numbers and got UCLA but was waitlisted at USC. California schools are known to be GPA-centric, but 170/3.4 should comfortable for UCLA. I say this because although I withdrew before I got scholarship info, (because I want to move away from the west coast and work in NY) you should be looking at some good money since Dean Schwartz made it pretty clear during the admission phone call that they were willing to be very generous. /endhumblebrag

Good luck!

ETA: FWIW I worked in finance and then as an assistant at a law firm, but I've also met people at admitted students weekends who have done anything and everything so I don't really think it matters.

Thanks JDizzle -- that does make me a feel more confident in what I'm doing now!

Does anyone else have any other opinions/experience they'd like to share? I'm open to hearing anything...