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Is an internship with a US senator's office considered a good soft at HYS or is it just average?

Very average and unremarkable. Probably not much of a soft even at your average tier one law school, let alone HYS.

TheSpanishMain wrote:Very average and unremarkable. Probably not much of a soft even at your average tier one law school, let alone HYS.

This is not true. But it is an average soft. Not spectacular, but okay. It helps more if it's relevant to the narrative of your application.

Think so? I may be biased as I spent several years living/working in DC, and the place was overrun with Capitol Hill interns. It seemed like a very common/not difficult to acquire internship.

I could be underestimating it, though.

Basically the definition of an average soft.

TheSpanishMain wrote:Think so? I may be biased as I spent several years living/working in DC, and the place was overrun with Capitol Hill interns. It seemed like a very common/not difficult to acquire internship.

I could be underestimating it, though.

In my legislation class at YLS, the professor asked if anyone had spent any time working in Congress. Three of us raised our hands in a class of 80--though, granted, the rest of the class probably had more legit experience. If you think about it, there's only a couple thousand each year, out of millions of college students. It's not incredibly hard to get (well, the Senate ones maybe are), but it's not the incredibly lame "involved in student government" or "interned at local law firm" either. It's something interesting to talk about in an interview and an average resume filler.

My hatred for seersucker suit wearing interns may be shining through.

TheSpanishMain wrote:My hatred for seersucker suit wearing interns may be shining through.

Anti-Southern bigot

I married a Floridian, I'm bulletproof.

Cicero76 wrote:

TheSpanishMain wrote:Think so? I may be biased as I spent several years living/working in DC, and the place was overrun with Capitol Hill interns. It seemed like a very common/not difficult to acquire internship.

I could be underestimating it, though.

In my legislation class at YLS, the professor asked if anyone had spent any time working in Congress. Three of us raised our hands in a class of 80--though, granted, the rest of the class probably had more legit experience. If you think about it, there's only a couple thousand each year, out of millions of college students. It's not incredibly hard to get (well, the Senate ones maybe are), but it's not the incredibly lame "involved in student government" or "interned at local law firm" either. It's something interesting to talk about in an interview and an average resume filler.

See, I think your anecdote actually proved that a hillternship means zilch as a soft. There weren't many in your class at Yale, because, as you said, people probably had more legit experience. I had a House and a Senate internship in UG, and they were the two easiest "jobs" I ever got, and all you do is sort mail and answer phones. If you're really qualified, you may get the honor of crafting a form letter to send to the crazy constituents who write in. I almost left them off my resume.

I did a semester internship at the state legislature in undergrad, and I remember drafting form letters for batshit constituents too. My favorite was the lady who wrote in expressing concern that "the Arabs and the Chinese" are taking over, and then in the next paragraph asked if the state would buy her a new air conditioner.

TheSpanishMain wrote:I did a semester internship at the state legislature in undergrad, and I remember drafting form letters for batshit constituents too. My favorite was the lady who wrote in expressing concern that "the Arabs and the Chinese" are taking over, and then in the next paragraph asked if the state would buy her a new air conditioner.

Love it. When I was in the House, some guy called complaining about the government harassing him. Being a naive freshman, I asked him what he meant. He proceeded to tell me it was through microwaves that were causing him pain. I realized he was crazy, asked him when he was from, and when he responded "California," I transferred him to the first California office I could think of: then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

TheSpanishMain wrote:I did a semester internship at the state legislature in undergrad, and I remember drafting form letters for batshit constituents too. My favorite was the lady who wrote in expressing concern that "the Arabs and the Chinese" are taking over, and then in the next paragraph asked if the state would buy her a new air conditioner.

To be fair, DJ Khaled does have a song called "we takin' over."

I don't think you're going to outperform your numbers with the internship, but it might help as a tie-breaker decision.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I didn't expect it to super good or anything but I have one lined up for over the summer so I figured I might as well ask.

Don't buy a seersucker suit.

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Just throwing my hat in...I interned at a pretty well respected think tank in DC my senior year and got hired right after as a research assistant. Is this a strong soft or are the good ones like boren fellowships and fullbrights etc..

In general, no one cares about softs. The sooner everyone ITT figures that out, the better. Just have something on your resume. If it's not actual real-world work experience or literally curing cancer, it won't make a difference. If you want to improve your application, take the LSAT again or study harder for your classes.

Robbin Blue wrote: actual real-world work experience or literally curing cancer

One of these things is relatively easy to get, one of them is virtually impossible. I get what you're saying, but I think you're exaggerating a bit. I think most K-JDs think of "softs" as things like joining clubs on campus. You're right; no one gives two shits about that kind of stuff. Stuff like prestigious fellowships, military service, real-world work experience, though, does help. Is it going to rocket you way past where your numbers should put you? Of course not. But it does help at the margins and may put you over the edge at schools where you're borderline.

TheSpanishMain wrote:

Robbin Blue wrote: actual real-world work experience or literally curing cancer

One of these things is relatively easy to get, one of them is virtually impossible. I get what you're saying, but I think you're exaggerating a bit. I think most K-JDs think of "softs" as things like joining clubs on campus. You're right; no one gives two shits about that kind of stuff. Stuff like prestigious fellowships, military service, real-world work experience, though, does help. Is it going to rocket you way past where your numbers should put you? Of course not. But it does help at the margins and may put you over the edge at schools where you're borderline.

People seem to think the prestigious fellowships, military service, etc. will rocket their way past their numbers, and that anything "juuuust below that" (every internship/club ever) will help still help them get into Harvard with a 3.0/165. You're right, I'm exaggerating, but there is no reason to imply that an average soft like a congressional internship will allow an applicant to outperform their numbers. If the applicant had spent the summer studying harder for the LSAT instead of interning, they would probably be better off.

Robbin Blue wrote:

TheSpanishMain wrote:

Robbin Blue wrote: actual real-world work experience or literally curing cancer

One of these things is relatively easy to get, one of them is virtually impossible. I get what you're saying, but I think you're exaggerating a bit. I think most K-JDs think of "softs" as things like joining clubs on campus. You're right; no one gives two shits about that kind of stuff. Stuff like prestigious fellowships, military service, real-world work experience, though, does help. Is it going to rocket you way past where your numbers should put you? Of course not. But it does help at the margins and may put you over the edge at schools where you're borderline.

People seem to think the prestigious fellowships, military service, etc. will rocket their way past their numbers, and that anything "juuuust below that" (every internship/club ever) will help still help them get into Harvard with a 3.0/165. You're right, I'm exaggerating, but there is no reason to imply that an average soft like a congressional internship will allow an applicant to outperform their numbers. If the applicant had spent the summer studying harder for the LSAT instead of interning, they would probably be better off.

I don't think anyone is claiming these will help you outperform your numbers. At YS and to some extent H, however, numbers aren't enough. Random things like prestigious internships, fellowships, and military service are required just to perform at your numbers' level. That's why they're important

Cicero76 wrote: I don't think anyone is claiming these will help you outperform your numbers.

I think some softs will help you outperform your numbers. Something got me in (early in the cycle, RD) to two schools that LSN gave me an 8 and 14% chance of getting into. They didn't rocket me in to HYS territory obviously, but I think they definitely gave me a push.

I think that's mostly what softs do. They can take a slim chance applicant and push him/her into the more likely pile. They just won't take you from no-chance to an acceptance.

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