Harvard and work experience Forum

[willwilliams1334]

How important is work experience to Harvard admissions. If I'm shooting for HYS, should I have work experience before I apply? LSAT:171 GPA 3.95. HYS or nothing.

[willwilliams1334]

bump

[willwilliams1334]

bummp

[Winston1984]

Not with your numbers.

[willwilliams1334]

really? Well that's a relief! You don't think the LSAT is a little low?

[willwilliams1334]

bumping for more input, trying to whether to work first or apply now

[hq2x]

2 questions in the OP.

How important is WE to Harvard admissions? Not critical.

Should you have work experience before you apply? Yes.

[Winston1984]

really? Well that's a relief! You don't think the LSAT is a little low?

An increase in your LSAT would make you almost a lock at Harvard, but I don't think work experience is going to get you in where your numbers don't. If you have retakes and feel like you can do better, then go for it. Don't gain work experience with the hopes of landing YHS, do it to grow up and make sure law school is really what you want to do.

[willwilliams1334]

Thanks for the input guys!

[sinfiery]

Your numbers are not great for Harvard and they will only allow them to admit you but will definitely not be the reason you are admitted. What's left? Softs which are heavily WE centric.

If you retake and hit 173, no worries about softs at Harvard

[Dr. Dre]

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

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

[Total Litigator]

Yeah... Are you a URM or just a Fresh Prince fan? If you are a URM, you're a lock no matter what, if your a white guy who's a fresh prince fan, you have a pretty good chance at Harvard and work experience probably isn't going to matter much anyway for Harvard unless it's ibanking, 'big'-consulting, etc. - and even then it would barely matter.

[willwilliams1334]

I'm not URM, just a fresh prince fan haha. So are we saying i need a higher LSAT score? Remember, Im also applying to Y and S. Any of the three is what im shooting for. Do ya'll think i can at least one of these 3 with these stats. Or do i need a boost?

[supernma]

You're not getting into Harvard with those numbers because you're LSAT simply isn't high enough. Those are the facts. And Harvard could give three flying fucks about your WE. Neither Harvard nor any other school for that matter cares about WE to any significant degree.

[Dr. Dre]

[sinfiery]

You're not getting into Harvard with those numbers because you're LSAT simply isn't high enough. Those are the facts. And Harvard could give three flying fucks about your WE. Neither Harvard nor any other school for that matter cares about WE to any significant degree.

What?

Above 1 median,.below the other equals all about your softs which good WE matters a lot in

As of now, you are definitely not guaranteed one of HYS but have a chance at all 3

[willwilliams1334]

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

[Dr. Dre]

not guaranteed one of HYS but have a chance at all 3

have a chance = 40-50 percent of getting in

[willwilliams1334]

not guaranteed one of HYS but have a chance at all 3

have a chance = 40-50 percent of getting in

If it were you, would those odds be good enough to not worry about a retake?

[Dr. Dre]

not guaranteed one of HYS but have a chance at all 3

have a chance = 40-50 percent of getting in

If it were you, would those odds be good enough to not worry about a retake?

not good enough bro

[willwilliams1334]

not guaranteed one of HYS but have a chance at all 3

have a chance = 40-50 percent of getting in

If it were you, would those odds be good enough to not worry about a retake?

not good enough bro

So you think a retake is in order?

[Dr. Dre]

If you want H, yes.

But if you want S, no.

[John_rizzy_rawls]

Harvard is more numbers based. A 173 should give you a very solid chance there.

Stanford and Yale value work experience and soft factors a lot more, as does Berkeley.

With your numbers as is, and if you don't have any notable softs at all, then I would say you're in everywhere except HYS, probably with quite a bit of money. And again, H becomes likely with a retake a 2+ point improvement.

[willwilliams1334]

If you want H, yes.

But if you want S, no.

Decisions, decisions... my softs are weak, so im not so sure on S. Do you really think they would bite on that GPA? I'd be totally cool with S, I just hear tons of "black box" rhetoric and im not sure i want to dive into that; its just not terribly reassuring, especially when compared with the relative transparency and reliability of H, even if it implies a retake... what kind of work experience is going to make me competitive at S?

[sapien]

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.