Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - What to do between graduation and law school?

politicophile · 05-18-2006, 04:28 PM

Here's my situation, generally. I am just finishing up my junior year of college and plan on attending law school after graduation. My GPA is currently 3.42, but it will be approximately 3.48 to 3.49 at the end of the semester. Thus, if I were to apply to law school this fall, I would have about a 3.48 on my transcript. I would, of course, not be able to include any graduation-related honors.

The second possibility is for me to take a year off before returning to school. My GPA at graduation will be somewhere between 3.56 and 3.62. This number being in excess of 3.50, I will receive my diploma Magna. By this point I'll also have graduated with honors in philosophy, having completed my thesis.

My goal is to attend a top U.S. law school. Generally speaking, I would like to break into the top 15 or so schools on most ranking systems, with Yale being my first choice.

Given my goal of attending an extremely competitive law school, taking a year off seems to be a no-brainer, as doing so would vastly improve my credentials and therefore my odds of being accepted.

So much for background. My question is this: what sort of job or activity should I do for my year off if my primary goal is to maximize my probability of getting into a top school? It would ideally be a unique enough experience to make the application committee take another look at my file. Since we're talking about a single year, I'm willing to entertain even exotic suggestions. What can I do that would make me look different from the other prospective law students?

05-18-2006, 04:28 PM	#1 (permalink)
politicophile Addict	What to do between graduation and law school? Here's my situation, generally. I am just finishing up my junior year of college and plan on attending law school after graduation. My GPA is currently 3.42, but it will be approximately 3.48 to 3.49 at the end of the semester. Thus, if I were to apply to law school this fall, I would have about a 3.48 on my transcript. I would, of course, not be able to include any graduation-related honors. The second possibility is for me to take a year off before returning to school. My GPA at graduation will be somewhere between 3.56 and 3.62. This number being in excess of 3.50, I will receive my diploma Magna. By this point I'll also have graduated with honors in philosophy, having completed my thesis. My goal is to attend a top U.S. law school. Generally speaking, I would like to break into the top 15 or so schools on most ranking systems, with Yale being my first choice. Given my goal of attending an extremely competitive law school, taking a year off seems to be a no-brainer, as doing so would vastly improve my credentials and therefore my odds of being accepted. So much for background. My question is this: what sort of job or activity should I do for my year off if my primary goal is to maximize my probability of getting into a top school? It would ideally be a unique enough experience to make the application committee take another look at my file. Since we're talking about a single year, I'm willing to entertain even exotic suggestions. What can I do that would make me look different from the other prospective law students? __________________ The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty