Self-paced
Hello! I was wondering if anyone knew the importance of your resume for law school applications straight out of undergraduate. I've had a few jobs and internships, but they are fairly eccentric (psychiatry, teaching, education, religion, etc). I've basically got nothing that would indicate I have an interest in the legal field.
Does anyone know how much significance T14 or T30 schools put on your resume and previous legal experience? I want to go to law school to become a lawyer, but I haven't been able to find any opportunities as an undergraduate.
Thank you!
2
2 comments
For what it's worth, @KCC56, I think you're conflating two different areas of the app!
As an admissions officer reading your file, I am trying to figure out why you want to go to law school and be a lawyer. But I'm expecting to learn that on your personal statement rather than your resume.
So then what's the purpose of the resume? 1) To give me a sense of your personal, professional, and experiential background. What have you devoted your time to doing, what's important to you, etc etc etc. 2) To back up what I learn about your on the personal statement and the other areas of the app. In your case, it's ok to have pursued a number of different interests during college! That's very normal! So I would guess your PS would be something along the lines of "through the process of trying out this and that, I've found that I'm really interested in pursuing a legal career; here's what I'd like to do _____."
Reach out to your local firms. Most are hiring some kind of legal assistant or file clerk position in some form. From what I've heard, legal experience isn't a big factor for admissions. Schools mainly want work experience that shows you can be a professional, and ideally something that ties into the rest of your application. Compared to your GPA and LSAT, your resume matters very little. Do something you actually enjoy.
Where it matters more is 1L recruiting. I spoke with the former head of admissions at UChicago, and he said firms weigh professional experience heavily, especially since those interviews happen before your first semester grades come out. (Though, I am no expert. This is just my opinion and what I have learned through my process thus far).