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3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 7:19 pm
by swzhai
Hi everyone,

I'm a Biology/Chinese double major, and also an agency signed actor and model at UW-Madison. Initially, I was on the medical track but made a late decision. Now I'm wondering what my chances are at a T14 preferably Harvard, Stanford, NYU. I have a lot of volunteering on my resume, earned a lot of fellowships as a research scientist + a publication, but now I realize that it probably isn't very beneficial for law school because they are mostly medical related. I've heard of people getting summer internships, and I have an opportunity to internship at Morrison Foerster in Shanghai, China. I was wondering how beneficial this would be to my overall application. Also, does anyone have experience on how my majors might change the dynamics on how admissions views my application.

Thanks very much,

SZ

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 7:21 pm
by paulinaporizkova
waddup fellow badger

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:04 pm
by cinephile
Sounds like a great opportunity. You should take it just for the experience. Your internships and majors won't really affect admissions, though. And you're certainly not at a disadvantage having been pre-med. People do all kinds of non-legal related careers/majors before law school.

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:07 pm
by glitter178
i call troll.

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:21 pm
by swzhai
cinephile wrote:Sounds like a great opportunity. You should take it just for the experience. Your internships and majors won't really affect admissions, though. And you're certainly not at a disadvantage having been pre-med. People do all kinds of non-legal related careers/majors before law school.
Thanks, I guess I just figured it might be a waste of time considering I have zero experience with law and I'd just end up doing some silly paper work or bringing people coffee for half a year.

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:25 pm
by swzhai
glitter178 wrote:i call troll.
lol I was a lurker for a long time and now that I finally signed up I'm a troll. whateves :twisted:

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:35 am
by AFS
In the chance that you're not a troll, you're looking good for schools in the bottom half of T14. Your GPA is a little on the low side for the schools you mentioned, though, so you'll likely have more difficulty getting into those.

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 2:36 am
by swzhai
AFS wrote:In the chance that you're not a troll, you're looking good for schools in the bottom half of T14. Your GPA is a little on the low side for the schools you mentioned, though, so you'll likely have more difficulty getting into those.
Thanks, ill have to bring up my gpa in my last two semesters. Was hoping a more difficult major would help my app but maybe not so much.

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 4:43 am
by 8ballistic
Of course he's looking good, he's an agency signed actor and model. He'd not only be good-looking for the bottom half of T-14, he'd probably be good-looking for T2 schools.

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 6:02 am
by legaleagle9
AFS wrote:In the chance that you're not a troll, you're looking good for schools in the bottom half of T14. Your GPA is a little on the low side for the schools you mentioned, though, so you'll likely have more difficulty getting into those.
wait, how is OP's 3.86 gpa, which is NYU's 75th percentile, a little low for NYU?

im not arguing, im just curious

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:34 pm
by glitter178
legaleagle9 wrote:
AFS wrote:In the chance that you're not a troll, you're looking good for schools in the bottom half of T14. Your GPA is a little on the low side for the schools you mentioned, though, so you'll likely have more difficulty getting into those.
wait, how is OP's 3.86 gpa, which is NYU's 75th percentile, a little low for NYU?

im not arguing, im just curious
think he's referring more to Harvard and Stanford

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 3:51 pm
by Corwin
The only way in which such an internship will benefit your application is if you get a stronger LOR from someone there than what you already have. The extra bullet on the resume doesn't help that much. Also realize that once in law school you will find the connections you make at your internship useful as well, as thy can potentially make your L2 summer internship search easier.

Another random bit of advice. Is that 170 on the first try? How much prep did you do? You have good chances at the bottom of the T14. To break into the top you'll need a 172+.

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 5:34 pm
by ahduth
swzhai wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm a Biology/Chinese double major, and also an agency signed actor and model at UW-Madison. Initially, I was on the medical track but made a late decision. Now I'm wondering what my chances are at a T14 preferably Harvard, Stanford, NYU. I have a lot of volunteering on my resume, earned a lot of fellowships as a research scientist + a publication, but now I realize that it probably isn't very beneficial for law school because they are mostly medical related. I've heard of people getting summer internships, and I have an opportunity to internship at Morrison Foerster in Shanghai, China. I was wondering how beneficial this would be to my overall application. Also, does anyone have experience on how my majors might change the dynamics on how admissions views my application.

Thanks very much,

SZ
Dude, MoFo internship, do it up. If you speak Chinese MoFo will eat you alive at OCI. Or such is my impression.

Also retake.

Re: 3.86/170, should I get internship before law school?

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 12:59 pm
by swzhai
First try yeah prepped for couple months,
but certainly could have done more. I took the MCAT before the LSAT and was burned out. Maybe I'll try to retake, worried about a fluke that I do worse though.