Top Law Schools

Per common TLS wisdom, Northwestern seems to be the one T14 school that allows its applicants to bolster their sub-par numbers with significant work experience.

My question is: what exactly counts as significant work experience and what tends to be brushed away as simple resume filler?

I'll basically be going straight into law school from UG (well, I just graduated and will be applying this Fall, but I planned it out like this so that I can use the year during which I wait out my cycle to travel. The point being, I won't be pursuing a year's worth of employment in the meantime), thus I've never held a traditional 9 to 5. I've worked various waiting jobs the last three years of college (to fund myself and my upcoming travels). Further, each summer I've worked what on paper appear to be basic internships but in actuality included 2 months of 35-40 hours/week each.

Will this satisfy the adcom at NU? Or would this generally not suffice, making it worth my while to delay my trip for something like 5 months and work in the meantime (obviously, on such short notice it wouldn't be anything too prestigious - was thinking of tutoring for Kaplan)?

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong section. Thought it might be okay considering its relevance to my chances at NU.

Thanks a lot everybody.

ImTheWiz wrote:Per common TLS wisdom, Northwestern seems to be the one T14 school that allows its applicants to bolster their sub-par numbers with significant work experience.

My question is: what exactly counts as significant work experience and what tends to be brushed away as simple resume filler?

I'll basically be going straight into law school from UG (well, I just graduated and will be applying this Fall, but I planned it out like this so that I can use the year during which I wait out my cycle to travel. The point being, I won't be pursuing a year's worth of employment in the meantime), thus I've never held a traditional 9 to 5. I've worked various waiting jobs the last three years of college (to fund myself and my upcoming travels). Further, each summer I've worked what on paper appear to be basic internships but in actuality included 2 months of 35-40 hours/week each.

Will this satisfy the adcom at NU? Or would this generally not suffice, making it worth my while to delay my trip for something like 5 months and work in the meantime (obviously, on such short notice it wouldn't be anything too prestigious - was thinking of tutoring for Kaplan)?

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong section. Thought it might be okay considering its relevance to my chances at NU.

Thanks a lot everybody.

WE only applies to full-time post Bachelor's

They're looking for WE post-Bachelor's degree.

That said, a few people who don't have it with numbers at/above both medians do get in each year.

They also offer really hefty scholarships to people with stellar numbers and without WE if they defer for a year to get some experience.

It's not like sub-par numbers are forgiven because you have WE (though we are the only T14 to consistently take sub-3.0s) it's that you have to have WE to expect to get in.

IAFG wrote:It's not like sub-par numbers are forgiven because you have WE (though we are the only T14 to consistently take sub-3.0s) it's that you have to have WE to expect to get in.

This. There's an extremely broad range of what WE people have, ranging from legit i-banking or policy work to slackers like myself who bounced around grad school for a while.

I get it. Thanks for the responses everybody.