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Hi everyone! I am a rising senior in undergraduate and am really hoping to go straight into law school. However, many advisors and peers have told me that taking a gap year and working in a legal profession is almost always recommended for boosting chances of admission to most T14s. I have been working part time with an attorney since junior year of college, so technically I have legal work experience, but it is not "official" as it was an internship. Would this experience be enough to count as legal work experience, or do I really need a gap year? Moreover, are gap years with legal work experience really that important for admissions? Are there any schools in particular that really really prefer students with gap years? I am seriously so stressed about this, so any responses would be SO appreciated-thanks!
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Like you I was advised to take a gap year, a judge even advised me to take a few gap YEARS! I wanted to get into law school as soon as possible but in hindsight I am glad I followed his advice. I worked at a few law firms and I now work at a T14 law school and I can tell you I am glad I did before entering law school. Working in the legal field before law school in the worst case scenario will give you an idea of whether you really want to go into law or not and if so, what areas of law you don't want to work in. Best case scenario you find an area you like and the experience confirms your desire to enter into the profession and you have some good experience that can boost your application credentials. You will probably be told by a lot of people that they had no idea what they wanted to do when they entered law school. I honestly don't recommend you do that, law school is one of those things where if you want to do well, you have to hit the ground running. The difficulty is not just the "work" itself that law school entails but I'd say the greatest area of difficulty is in the "figuring out, learning and acquiring the skills" of the "how to" of the law school work. You also want to have some idea of what you want to do so you can get a idea of where you want to apply for job during your summer after 1L. In short, take a gap year, or two, or even three. At least get some idea of what you "may" want to do and a more concrete idea of what you definitely do not want to do. If you can, I highly recommend you work at a law school, preferably assisting faculty. That way you can get some idea of what the law school experience is like, how law professors think and you may be able to even audit courses you're interested in that way you can accumulate the content without wasting precious course selection space (and tuition dollars) for when you're a student.
I'm not even close to the league of T14s but the admissions people I spoke with indicated they don't care that I was a paralegal.
Don't be anxious. Honestly, I have heard that legal work in a gap year might be even bad for you in case you are not passionate about what you are doing. That will be a risk if you just take the job because you believe you have to. This article might help: https://abovethelaw.com/career-files/law-school-lowdown-should-you-paralegal-prior-to-attending-law-school/
I'm in a very similar situation to you. It's not an easy decision, but it gives you more time to really think about what school you really want to go to and gives you more time to focus on the LSAT. Just take things at your own pace and keep working towards your end goal.
No you don't "need" a gap year. I would definitely recommend it though.