Hello everyone! Leading up to admissions I always thought that campus involvement, working, and volunteering was essential to law school applications. As I get further in, I hear more and more that softs aren't really that important.
So how much do law schools actually care about softs? Do they care about E-Board positions, campus work, working during school, community service, or law experience really? Is this one of those things that most applicants have so it doesn't really matter that much? What constitutes as strong softs, if any?
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Think about if you were in charge of admissions. Would you only care about GPA and LSAT? While I would say that is a short-sighted approach, there are probably certain admissions departments that are of this mindset. Alternatively, there are probably others that look at much more than numbers. What if you have a job lined up once you become an attorney because you have been working at a law firm for many years as a paralegal? I think a reasonable person would consider this a strong factor to admit you. Law schools also care about their ability to get graduates jobs.
Additionally, what if you did poorly at the start of your undergraduate, took a break for many years, and then came back as a straight-A student? Would it be shortsighted for the admissions department to just look at the GPA or understand that maybe the student you are now is much better than when you were younger? The same could be said for the circumstances of the LSAT. Maybe you are working full-time and taking the LSAT while someone who had no responsibilities only studied for the LSAT and produced a higher score. Which applicant would you be more interested in? Potentially, the one who is able to put up an adequate LSAT while managing a full-time job.
Just keep in mind that while 7Sage is a great tool, they are selling you on the LSAT being very important to admissions. While it certainly is, how important is always up for debate. Always remember that everyone has motivations to push their agendas, and you never know what is actually going to get you admitted until you put forth your application.
Adding to what everyone else has written, I'll add this from direct experience - all components of your app are important.
But I'll also reframe things in a way that may help. I really don't like the term "softs." My rationale is that the word "soft" could be defined as "not challenging, difficult, or important." "Soft" is also - obviously - an antonym of "hard." Culturally, we tend to value accomplishing difficult tasks. You aren't reading books or watching movies of tasks that were easy ("Lord of the Rings" would have been a pretty short movie if Gandalf could have just hit the ring with a big hammer and been done with it).
When I was a director of admissions, the terms we used were "academic record" and "non-academic record." Someone's academic record were their LSAT history, undergrad and grad history, major, grade trends, academic letters of rec, and all that. Their non-academic record was their resume, written pieces, professional letters of rec, etc. To be admitted, you had to be strong enough in your strengths so as to overcome the weak spots in your weaknesses.
I hope that helps!
a lot of different schools and people have a lot of different opinions on that.
Recruiters like to see diversity in the educational environment, but their GPA and LSAT would be like the floor to get considered, softs admittedly might be what is interesting depending on who’s judging. They say to just be yourself, it’s the most interesting part of your application.
People argue and stress all day about what a strong soft is, idk man
Look up the t1-4 softs for law school. Id say if you are posting on here you're probably low t3 to t4 in softs. Considering that most ppl are around that tier, id mostly focus on your scores now since it's hard to really change your tier/stand out (like, every guy applying has like some corporate job, mock trial, political campaign job, etc). At that point, if your scores are high/above median all you gotta do is make your softs presentable. If your scores are poor/below median you better start praying to whatever deity you wish, or changing your name to Obama, or doing whatever the law school equivalent of curing cancer is 🤣 cuz it's gonna be an uphill battle ngl.
I think Dean Andy, an administrator at Georgetown, put it best: your lsat and gpa set the bar, and your sifts determine if you clear it. What you need to understand is that top schools have many people with stats that could help them lock in their medians. What will differentiate them is factors such as essays, WE, and other softs. I think when people dismiss softs, they’re being overly cynical.
I don’t necessarily think there is such a thing as a universally strong soft. The tier list we use was actually created by a Redditor. A strong soft likely depends mostly on how it contributes to the overall cohesiveness of your application. If you want to go to law school for immigration law, for instance, working for a non-profit that helps connect immigrants to legal services will likely be a strong soft.
Listen to the harvard/yale law school admissions podcast and a2z with dean z podcast, they have episodes where they evaluate applications and you can see how they weigh softs based on that. IDK if it's the same for every school but if the ones you're interested talk about holistic admissions and emphasize that, it may be similar.