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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]New poster. Thanks to OP and others. I have actually found this thread very helpful (for my current college sophomore Math major and my high school junior) even though posters seem to be contradicting each other.

The takeaway seems to be: where you went to undergrad and what you majored in really don't matter for law school admissions (there's no gatekeeping as long as you get excellent grades and esp a strong LSAT) BUT both of these can make a difference in your experience in law school (critical thinking, writing, high rigor are a big part of law school).

The one contradiction I am left unsure about is the poster who said that since Covid, you need a compelling narrative. Is this true? I have heard from 99 different people that there is no such thing as holistic admissions.[/quote]

You can read the transcript from a Spivey Consulting podcast with a person who worked in Admissions at Harvard Law for the past 7 years here:
https://www.spiveyconsulting.com/podcasts/sam-parkers-top-admissions-advice

A couple of quotes:

"The strategy of law school admissions has evolved ... with regards to personal statements, but it very much has developed in the direction of, 'Okay, no, you really need to be getting into, what are your actual motivations for going to law school, for becoming an attorney,' in a way that wasn’t necessarily the case before."

"This cycle, I don’t know why, but we saw hundreds and hundreds of applicants who had graduated and they did not pursue full-time employment, and it wasn’t obvious from their resume or their application form that they were up to anything else. No volunteer work, nothing going on with their family. We chose to pass on most of these applicants. ... Reason being, again, work work experience is tantamount.

It also shows that you’re developing professional maturity and professional skills that you’re going to bring to the law school classroom. It means you’re exploring potential interests that you might want to explore in law school. You’ll probably have a better idea of what you wanna do with your law degree if you’ve worked beforehand. You’ll have more context to bring to the classroom. You’ll be more employable. Experience going into law school matters more now than ever before."

But you can decide for yourself who you want to believe, a Harvard Law Associate Director of Admissions or message board experts who haven't been involved in the law school admissions process for multiple decades

[/quote]

lol, they are basically saying they passed on the people who had been out of school and yet seemed to have been doing literally nothing with their lives. [/quote]

Exactly. She’s saying that ifyou take a year or two after college and have zero to show for it - no work experience, no volunteering, no substance - then yes, you are a crappy candidate for law school.

This is not the same as saying that law school admissions are holistic or that they expect a hugely compelling story like T20 undergrad admissions.

Bottom line: Don’t bother applying to law school if you can’t put together a basic essay that (1) offers a simple and clear reason you want to go to law school; and (2) connects that reason to some life experience or job or club/activity or volunteer experience you’ve had in the past year or two. It’s a LOW bar, but you need to make the basic effort. [/quote]

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