Volunteering vs full-time job for applications Forum

[kinge]

Job is a pretty menial entry-level job I wouldn't particularly enjoy. Volunteering would either be for a political campaign or legal-related (or I'd split my time between them), both of which I would enjoy way more. Graduated college in June so I'm basically a K-JD. Which would look better on my application?

[The Lsat Airbender]

Personally I think a full-time job would be a much better choice here for a number of reasons but I'm not sure the narrow criterion of "looking good on a LS app" is one of them. It's not obvious that you'll be treated as non-KJD if you take a gap year to volunteer while your parents support you but that's a subjective thing that will depends on who reads your application, and it's not like ~4 months in some office is wildly more impressive. Neither is going to add a ton.

[kinge]

Personally I think a full-time job would be a much better choice here for a number of reasons but I'm not sure the narrow criterion of "looking good on a LS app" is one of them. It's not obvious that you'll be treated as non-KJD if you take a gap year to volunteer while your parents support you but that's a subjective thing that will depends on who reads your application, and it's not like ~4 months in some office is wildly more impressive. Neither is going to add a ton.

How will a K-JD -> year of volunteering compare to just a straight K-JD? It won't look worse, right?

[QContinuum]

Personally I think a full-time job would be a much better choice here for a number of reasons but I'm not sure the narrow criterion of "looking good on a LS app" is one of them. It's not obvious that you'll be treated as non-KJD if you take a gap year to volunteer while your parents support you but that's a subjective thing that will depends on who reads your application, and it's not like ~4 months in some office is wildly more impressive. Neither is going to add a ton.

How will a K-JD -> year of volunteering compare to just a straight K-JD? It won't look worse, right?

Nope. At worst you will be viewed the same as a straight K-JD - barring something very controversial and possibly illegal like volunteering for Hamas or something along those lines.

[The Lsat Airbender]

Personally I think a full-time job would be a much better choice here for a number of reasons but I'm not sure the narrow criterion of "looking good on a LS app" is one of them. It's not obvious that you'll be treated as non-KJD if you take a gap year to volunteer while your parents support you but that's a subjective thing that will depends on who reads your application, and it's not like ~4 months in some office is wildly more impressive. Neither is going to add a ton.

How will a K-JD -> year of volunteering compare to just a straight K-JD? It won't look worse, right?

To be clear, it's definitely at least as good as just being K-JD. That's the whole problem with being K-JD: literally anything else is more impressive a fortiori. (It could look worse if you frame it hilariously badly, I guess (ETA: or yeah, Hamas would be a bad look too).) How much it adds depends on what you're doing, on a spectrum between "providing translation services in the field for Doctors Without Borders" and "working part-time at a local charity while your parents support you".