If you have investigated the law school application process, you likely know how important test scores and your GPA are. Additionally, you have probably learned about the standard application materials that everyone must submit. However, there are differences in applicants beyond “hard” factors such as their stats, and these “soft” factors are referred to as “softs.” Generally, softs are factors that could tip the scale in your favor but cannot be not quantified in terms of their impact.
In this blog post, we at Stratus offer insight on softs and tips on showcasing your softs in law school applications.
What Are Softs?
Softs help differentiate applicants. Some common softs are extracurricular activities, such as holding a leadership position in a college club and participating in college athletics; completing an internship; and having notable work experience. Unique softs include publishing a book, holding a world record, and having an unusual hobby.
What Is the Strongest Soft?
Because the application process is not completely transparent, it is difficult to know the precise impact that softs have. However, work experience is generally perceived to be the strongest soft. Law schools have been open about wanting students with more work experience.
Some prospective applicants feel that they need a paralegal or legal assistant job in order to impress the admissions committee, but this is not necessarily the case. However, certain jobs might have a stronger impact on your law school application.
First, law schools like service. So, for example, serving in the Peace Corps, the military, or AmeriCorps might hold more weight with law schools than an office job.
Second, having an established career before applying to law school might elevate your application. For example, if you have worked for three or more years in a particular field and were promoted, that might impress the admissions committee. Furthermore, if your work experience is in line with the type of law you want to practice, such as working in tech when you want to be a tech lawyer, your work experience might make you look more focused.
Finally, sometimes a truly unique career can generate interest, such as if you were a professional athlete.
But even if your work experience does not fit any of these parameters, it still holds value in your application. Law schools will appreciate any work experience, though certain experience might be valued more by one school than another.
What Impact Do Softs Have?
It is important to note that softs are not a magic wand that will get you into law school. Softs can help if you are a little below the median stats for a school, but they won’t offset stats that are far below a school’s medians. With this in mind, you should not pursue softs to the detriment of your other application components. For example, some applicants make the mistake of serving as president of five clubs in college at the expense of studying for classes and for the LSAT, and all of those softs end up hurting their application.
If you feel that you need to offset some subpar stats, given the perceived value of work experience, you might consider working for a year or two before applying, as it could tip the scale in your favor.
How Do I Showcase My Softs
There are a few key ways to showcase your softs. As noted above, all applicants must submit a resume, so be sure to include your softs there. Quality over quantity is important. Don’t just list every activity that you participated in during your school years. It’s better to zero in on an activity or two and discuss the substantive experience you had. If you have a unique fact to share, such as holding a world record or publishing a book, you can list it in the “Interests” section of your resume.
For work experience, write about it on your resume just as you would when applying for a job, as you want to describe your skills, responsibilities, and accomplishments. If you are short on work experience and your leadership positions in college extracurricular activities required the same amount of time and responsibility as a job or internship, list such experience in the “Work Experience” section of your resume.
Additionally, you should discuss your softs in your application essays. But rather than saying that you have “held x role” or “received y award,” you should explain how these softs contributed to your desire to go to law school, as well as how they will make you a good law student and lawyer. Even if your softs don’t have anything to do with law, you likely learned lessons, demonstrated leadership, and developed passions by pursuing them. This is all great essay material, and it’s relevant to many types of prompts.
What If I Don’t Have Softs?
If you don’t think that you have any softs, reflect on all of your experiences. Softs are not limited to leadership positions such as student government president. For example, if you were treasurer of the history club and you invested a lot of time and effort keeping the club afloat, that is a soft. Similarly with jobs, working at a service job while in college is a soft, even if it doesn’t hold the same weight as post-grad work experience.
If you are still in college, consider getting involved in one activity. Is there a skill you want to learn? What activities are your friends involved in? You could also consider taking some time off after college to gain work experience.
Again, it is important to not pursue softs at the cost of your GPA or test scores, as they ultimately matter more than any softs when applying to law school.
If you still have questions on how to best leverage your softs or how to gain them, consider setting up a free consultation with one of Stratus’s team members.