How do law schools respond to activism experience? Forum

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mutare

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How do law schools respond to activism experience?

Post by mutare » Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:18 pm

Hello everyone,

I haven't been able to find anything in the forums on this so far, but I was curious if anybody knew how law schools responded to applicants who have experience with student activism (rallies against school administration, unionizing with grad students, etc). My dabbling in activism is not a focal point of my application, but I do think it constitutes a significant part of my undergrad experience and wanted to do my due diligence before mentioning it (whether in my resume or in my essays). I have trouble imagining school administrators being eager to admit students who might give them trouble in the future.

Any guidance/thoughts would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance

Splurgles23

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Re: How do law schools respond to activism experience?

Post by Splurgles23 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 9:26 pm

It won't play a big role in their decision unless there's some further consequence of the activism that shows up somewhere in someone's record of you -- like a disciplinary record of some kind that would have to be disclosed down the road. Law school admissions is overwhelmingly about your UGPA and your LSAT. Essays and "softs" (which is what an interest in activism will be categorized as) play a smaller role, but it's *much* smaller. Whether you mention activism in your essays/resume will allow law school admissions officers to "slot" you into/out of a bucket or two, but even within the bucket you'd be compared to others within that bucket, or a similar one.

Long story short, this sort of stuff is not likely to be dispositive one way or another unless it's very unusual (i.e., they Google you and find that you've been arrested for stopping traffic in Seattle during rush hour, or there's a picture of you breaking windows in a shopping mall, or the particular issue you've "active" about is an eye-raising one).

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