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Hi Guys! I'm interested in applying to Berkeley and have a good GPA and am writing the LSAT in Oct. With Boalt's emphasis on softs, I'm wondering what exactly constitutes good softs by Boalt's standards. Thanks for the help!

Also sorry if this is in the wrong category....wasn't exactly sure where to put it

Would the law school want to brag about having a student with that soft? If yes, it's a good soft. If no, then it won't hurt you but it won't help either.

imagine some guy saying "our students are more than just law students. they are also ___"

INVESTMENT BANKERS???

Olympic Athlete
Olympic Medalist
Published Author


etc...things along those lines.

I know it's the TLS consensus, but I have difficult believing it's really the case that if you're not an Olympic athlete, your WE/softs are close to irrelevant. It's counter-intuitive that someone would say "it won't hurt you, but it won't help either" about all non-epic softs, regardless of what they are.

I'm betting that people with interesting experiences that can tie it into a compelling narrative are much better off than people with no softs/WE or people who volunteer at an animal shelter every few months but have nothing to say about it.

02889 wrote:I know it's the TLS consensus, but I have difficult believing it's really the case that if you're not an Olympic athlete, your WE/softs are close to irrelevant. It's counter-intuitive that someone would say "it won't hurt you, but it won't help either" about all non-epic softs, regardless of what they are.

I'm betting that people with interesting experiences that can tie it into a compelling narrative are much better off than people with no softs/WE or people who volunteer at an animal shelter every few months but have nothing to say about it.

The guy volunteering at an animal shelter every few months can turn that into an interesting experience for law school admissions purposes.

Out of curiosity, do personal things count as softs too, or is it just work exp and things of that ilk? Like, say you've lived in 6 entirely different countries and learned the languages, is that interesting enough to be a soft? Or say one of your parents died mid-semester, you're under 21, losing all your financial support and landing you essentially on your own money-wise and everything else-wise, and then acing university... does that count?

Ixiion wrote:Out of curiosity, do personal things count as softs too, or is it just work exp and things of that ilk? Like, say you've lived in 6 entirely different countries and learned the languages, is that interesting enough to be a soft? Or say your parent died mid-semester, you're under 21, losing all your financial support and landing you essentially on your own money-wise and everything else-wise, and then acing university... does that count?

Yes, it can. It's part of the "diversity" that schools look for. The more nontraditional, the better.

BlaqBella wrote:

Ixiion wrote:Out of curiosity, do personal things count as softs too, or is it just work exp and things of that ilk? Like, say you've lived in 6 entirely different countries and learned the languages, is that interesting enough to be a soft? Or say your parent died mid-semester, you're under 21, losing all your financial support and landing you essentially on your own money-wise and everything else-wise, and then acing university... does that count?

Yes, it can. It's part of the "diversity" that schools look for. The more nontraditional, the better.

Awesome, thanks. Would you imagine things like that are decent/good softs or weak ones?

02889 wrote:I know it's the TLS consensus, but I have difficult believing it's really the case that if you're not an Olympic athlete, your WE/softs are close to irrelevant. It's counter-intuitive that someone would say "it won't hurt you, but it won't help either" about all non-epic softs, regardless of what they are.

I'm betting that people with interesting experiences that can tie it into a compelling narrative are much better off than people with no softs/WE or people who volunteer at an animal shelter every few months but have nothing to say about it.

Softs will rarely, if ever, overcome a good lsat score. The 170/4.0 with 0 softs beasts out the 166/3.7 with exceptional softs 99 times out of 100.