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summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:08 am
by philly93
hey guys, I have a tough decision to make and would like some input. I have 2 options over summer and they are: summer classes or government internship. I could DEFINITELY benefit from the summer classes because i could take a couple light courses and raise my GPA into the t-14 range. OR i could do a congressional internship unpaid and try to get a rec and maybe a soft for admissions. I am a rising junior at a t-25 university and am studying history (not sure if this helps!) and intending to apply to t-14 schools. what would be the best option?

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:15 am
by star fox
Raise your GPA. Schools aren't going to be reporting that you worked an unpaid internship. Look for some easy part-time unpaid internship to take in addition to summer classes if possible.

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:16 am
by dr123
why cant you do both?

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:18 am
by philly93
the reason i cannot do both is because the internship is in DC and the summer school is at my home institution which is couple hours from DC

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:19 am
by dr123
you could take a couple classes at a community college in DC.

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:20 am
by philly93
thanks for the reply but i have a question. you say "Look for some easy part-time unpaid internship ". does this have to deal with my major, pre law, govern't or can it be ANYTHING? i could work at local stores and make money but i am not sure what looks favorable to the eyes of admission officers.

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:20 am
by philly93
wouldn't taking classes at a community college look bad though?

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:21 am
by dr123
philly93 wrote:wouldn't taking classes at a community college look bad though?
no

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:25 am
by philly93
ok i will look into that option to see if the timings don't interfere with my internship schedule. but i was hoping if you could comment your thoughts about my previous post about the KIND of internships i should be looking for.

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:44 am
by philly93
bump

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:44 am
by star fox
philly93 wrote:thanks for the reply but i have a question. you say "Look for some easy part-time unpaid internship ". does this have to deal with my major, pre law, govern't or can it be ANYTHING? i could work at local stores and make money but i am not sure what looks favorable to the eyes of admission officers.
Anything. Internships are just a soft as far as Law School Admissions go. I don't think the type of internship would have any real effect on your admissions. More useful for finding a job out of college.

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:46 am
by hopingtogetin
philly93 wrote:the reason i cannot do both is because the internship is in DC and the summer school is at my home institution which is couple hours from DC
Law school is incredibly expensive. Living in DC is also incredibly expensive, especially in the summer when interns flood the city.

Stay at your home school, boost your GPA, and use that higher GPA to get some scholarship $$ for law school. Trust me, as someone who went to undergrad in DC, unpaid internships are a dime a dozen and unless its a legit white house internship, probably not worth the "prestige" or whatever. In fact, Congressional internships are regarded as mostly bitch work, and frequently, kind of a joke. We've all had them and they're really not particularly exciting for the most part. Usually you're just paid nothing and going broke in metro fares to listen to people yell at you on the phone.

You would be way better just boosting your GPA, taking some extra time to study for the LSAT, and if you want to work in DC, use your now-high GPA to get some scholarship $$ at Georgetown when you go to law school.

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:48 am
by dowu
Get that GPA up as high as possible. Do a ton of scholarly reading so that you can prepare for RC on the LSAT.

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:09 am
by Lagunitan
.

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 5:18 pm
by philly93
the difference would be about from a 3.5 to a 3.55-3.56. this would mean i can enter junior year having 2 semesters to raise that to a 3.7. i think the summer school option is looking more viable so it makes sense to have a higher gpa. do you think that difference in GPA warrants letting go of summer internships?

Re: summer school to raise GPA or non-paying gov't internship?

Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:42 pm
by philly93
bumpp