Do irrelevant internships (i.e. engineering) count as WE? Forum

[kugjfcreut]

I'm a sophomore at HYPSM majoring in STEM and have done internships in software engineering at FAANG and unicorn type companies, but my ultimate dream is to practice law or develop policy related to defense, national security, and the like. My GPA is 3.93—not the highest but I'm confident I can get it up to 3.95 or higher by the time applications roll around. I'm aiming for YHS. My question is, how will these internships be viewed when applying to law schools? Additionally, I have one more slot for an internship next summer; should I instead focus on taking summer classes and doing policy research that's relevant to what I actually what to do in the future, or should I chase another SWE internship for the sake of the rat race? Any advice is appreciated!

[420gamer69]

Internships (whether "irrelevant" or not) aren't really work experience of the kind that people tend to talk about bolstering their law school applications. Internships are useful for demonstrating interest in a particular field and getting exposure to (as well as making connections in) the professional world. But they generally don't lead to the professional competencies that typically result from more substantive post-graduate "work experience."
In my mind, it would make sense to do a SWE internship if you wanted to spend a couple years in the field and develop substantive work experience before law school. Because it sounds like that's not your goal, it seems like it might be beneficial to get some exposure to the field you think you'd want to work in as a lawyer.

[ksm6969]

Internships are worth less than actual work experience but worth more than no internship.

It is up to you to tie your internship (or other engineering work experience) to relevance to your law career (not just for law school applications, but your career as a whole). Having a software development internship gives you more software experience than probably 90% of lawyers, including nat sec lawyers. You got to find a way to tie that to law. Cyber security, privacy, whatever. "I understand how software development works, I understand the software industry, and where security concerns/protocols come in" bla bla bla. I have heard lawyers tie some 6 month WE 25 years ago to their career now. That's marketing yourself. You have to be creative enough to find relevance (and honestly, don't discount your internship relevance. you do know more about the electronics industry -- which is vastly important for nat sec-- than international studies majors who want to be nat sec lawyers)

[nealric]

Law school is mostly a numbers game. Your GPA puts you in range of top schools, so the LSAT is going to be the primary deciding factor for whether you are in the running. Nobody cares much about your internships one way or another. Do them if you think they would be helpful for other reasons than your law school applications. I'd personally do them in order to help your chances of post-undergrad employment without the JD. I advise most prospective law students to spend at least a year or two working before going to law school. Save some money, get some real world experience.

Where work experience would matter to Yale or Stanford is if you do something truly extraordinary. If you started a company that became a household name or got bought at unicorn valuation, then the Stanford adcom will take note. You'll get some consideration for an impressive career trajectory (like making VP at F500 company at a young age). Slightly lower down the law school chain, you may get a meaningful bump for having solid career track record (like spending 5 years in ibanking or something). But beyond that, it's not likely to move the needle much. Other major life achievements beyond work (i.e. Fulbright scholarship) could also move the needle.

Of the top 3 schools, Harvard is almost all numbers. Stanford and Yale can be more soft factor focused. But again, a random undergrad engineering internship isn't going to stand out in the applicant pool of those schools. They are going to look at you as a K-JD applicant regardless.