Work Experience/Taking Time Off

[desmail]

Hi Anne,

I have a question regarding work experience before law school. Just to give you a little background info:

I graduated in May of 2011, and I was just wondering how much work experience really matters in applying to law school. I have no real experience, only volunteer work, I was a chairman in my business fraternity, and I worked as a cashier for a while in college. I took the year off after graduation to solely devote my time to studying for the lsat.

My diagnostic was a 140, so to somewhat make up for my low gpa (2.9) I'm trying to score in the high 160's early 170s. The improvement is coming but very slowly. Im looking to apply in October 2012.

So my question is, is it a bad idea to be taking off so much time devoted to studying for the lsat and not trying to get some work experience? I've been participating in some volunteer work, but I was just unsure if admissions officers would question this gap year in my application. I tried applying after graduation to many jobs/internships, but my low gpa is somewhat of an obstacle in even getting any interviews.

Taking off so much time to study seems right to me, and honestly I really enjoy the lsat and I'm having a lot of fun with it. But I feel as if law schools maybe won't look at it favorably. I'm really confused and I don't know if I'm doing the right thing.

I would really appreciate your help!
Thank you,
Dana

[Anne Chaconas]

Hi desmail,

Given your GPA, I agree with you that your sole focus should be on getting that LSAT as high as you can possibly get it. When measuring the impact of a year of job experience versus the impact of an LSAT score in the high 160s/low 170s, the LSAT will win out.

Schools might question the gap year, which is why you need to explain it in an addendum (or as a notation on your résumé, where the gap will be most noticeable). You should also continue on with the volunteer work, and try to, if you can, accrue 20 hours a week of it so that you are at least keeping up with part-time hours.

Law schools, for the most part, don't place a huge amount of importance on the amount of work experience you have (the most notable exception to this that I can think of is Northwestern, which definitely looks most favorably upon applicants with at least two years of work experience--however, with your GPA I have to say that, unfortunately, your chances of admission at Northwestern would be less than 50% even with a perfect LSAT Score, so there's really no use worrying about it); they care about the LSAT more. In addition, the more time you put between you and your GPA, the better--just make sure to keep volunteering so that there's more to your profile than a high LSAT score.

I hope that helps! Best of luck with the test and your applications!