Based on my experience, soft factors and essays are VERY important in law school admissions, especially at T-14 schools (I believe that the more you go up in the rankings, the more softs and essays matter). Strong numbers matter a lot too, but they’re usually not enough on their own to give applicants a strong shot…
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30 entries matching "softs"
Admitted to Harvard University…Mike Kim’s LSAT Trainer helped me a lot as well. On softs/your narrative as an applicant: I think a better question than asking what tier softs someone has is what tier narrative they have. Someone can have a bunch of softs that are impressive individually (elite internships, unique upbringing, published work, etc),…
…your answers concise as well since you are in a group. – Softs: 6’1, 405 deadlift, midwest charm. – Other notes: Stanford: These thoughts come attending from their admitted students day. They love students who have a prestigious undergrad background + are from a unique state. I met people from Kansas, Missouri,…
…number of high-quality applicants increases each cycle, softs become extremely valuable and are your opportunity to stand out. I have no doubt that my life story, upward trajectory, essays, and LORs played a major role in my admission to HLS, and in being waitlisted at almost every other T14 school. Work your ass…
I had a pretty tight resume with plenty of softs related to mentorship, athletics, and research, as well as demonstrated success in a field (IP/tech) where there are very few URMs.
LSAT: 167 -> 168 -> 174 I used LSAT Demon + The Loophole (highly recommend both) GPA: 4.0/4.0 (top 1% – humanities classes only) softs: average for a KJD who knew they wanted to go to law school early (summer legal internship, legal research assistant, a handful of undergrad awards, a couple leadership roles in…
Very proud of all my statements. Wrote all optionals. Several T3 and T4 softs. FGLI. 1 year of relevant WE (I think not having more hurt me for YLS). Did everything I could to make my GPA the weakest part of my application. Applied late oct-early nov. Would recommend waiting until jan/feb to apply for YLS if you…
…education after undergrad. Those schools who value those “softs” may admit me in spite of my sub 25 percentile GPA. Those who do not either simply don’t have enough spots or value numbers in a way that probably would not work well with the kind of producer I am.
Softs and a cohesive matter so much more than you think.
Ivy+ undergraduate degree, one year Master’s degree (’23-’24 year) from prestigious school in legal-adjacent field. On the strong side of T4 in terms of softs. Reapplicant to 7/14 schools. Took LSAT 4 times, scoring well below PT numbers until the 4th attempt. Applied with public interest as the goal and many of my…
…to be a very strong application. I have multiple ~T2 softs and sharpened my essays for nearly a year. Strategy Lesson - write all optionals I wrote all the “optional” essays. This seems to be common sense to me but apparently some people don’t understand this. If you can neatly slip a variant of Why X into essays…
…don’t have prestigious awards/internships or other T1/T2 softs (I didn’t), it just means you have to have a well-rounded application with a compelling personal statement and cohesive narrative for law school. Without giving away too much personal information, I had some fairly unique aspects of my childhood that…
T3.5 softs (2 yrs WE in marketing and education). Applied to UChicago and UVA with a 171 in November. Applied to the remaining T8 schools with a 174 in February.
Softs matter.
…can please focus on your grades. Unexciting University Softs (president of fraternity, student-athlete in non-revenue sport, mild research opportunities, study-abroad, worked part-time all through undergrad) PS focused on an incident from my childhood -> experience I had somewhat related in uni -> neatly tied…
Bi, pretty mediocre softs. Research and some student org stuff, all somewhat relevant to my PS topic though. Good LORs Wrote Yale 250 Wrote Stanford Three Songs Why X for Berk, Duke, and Michigan, Core Values for Penn. GULC Top 10 UChi UR3 12/21, UR4 1/18. NYU HTE 1/21 Duke UR3 2/16 GULC date disappeared 1/5.
…as much as you can!! Stop worrying about what tier your softs are; what matters is how they contribute to the story you tell. When you’re thinking about chasing big law, remember that your work doesn’t magically get to be morally neutral. Read On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy,…
Softs: 4+ years of work experience in progressive advocacy, 2+ of which have been at a legal org that has worked on multiple Supreme Court cases Letters of Rec: 2 from professors (one of whom was my thesis advisor) and one from my direct supervisor. ASK EARLY. I gave my professors a heads up in April, sent the…
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