<p>I’m a current sophmore at a top-15 university with a 3.7 gpa. I plan on taking my lsat for the first time this summer. My question is with being a student athlete, double majoring (poli sci and finance), and working an internship with the FBI about 25 hours a week, I haven’t really been able to get involved with other things around campus. I wonder if anyone thinks that this will hurt me or if being a student athlete and my internship will make up for that hole in my application.</p>
<p>And keep in mind that i’m hoping to get into a school like Stanford, Penn, Georgetown, Columbia or at the worst someplace like Ohio State</p>
<p>Peculiar list of schools and preferences, but none of the above things will hurt. In fact, I think you present a very compelling resume. Keep at it.</p>
<p>Well i’m from columbus so thats why ohio state is in there… and the reason for my list is this, I lived in Washington DC and Georgetown is easily my favorite campus i’ve ever been on. I’m interested in Penn because of the ability to do their dual degree JD/MS in criminology (not sure yet if I want to practice law or try out some sort of work in the CIA or FBI), I have family in New York and almost went to Columbia (waitlisted and then rejected), and of course there is something appealing about living in california. So thats where the list came from.</p>
<p>The Law Center is in a separate facility near Union Station.</p>
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<p>And you’re excluding NYU because?</p>
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<p>I’d be a little more rational in choosing your schools.</p>
<p>Rank is hugely important in determining your ability to get a job, and the Top 14 (at least prior to the economic crisis) was considered the gold standard in terms of law schools. Even within those 14 schools, there are tiers.</p>
<p>All things being equal, it would be foolish to, say, take Georgetown above Chicago. Unless Georgetown offered a more substantial sum of money, Chicago would be the better choice by far.</p>
<p>I’d focus, if I were you, on where I want to work, how much money each school will give me, and what’s the highest ranked school I can get into and how is their placement with respect to my geographical preferences.</p>
<p>ok thanks for the advice, and I wasn’t necessarily excluding NYU I just didn’t mention it, and I didn’t realize that Georgetowns law school wasn’t on campus. Thats good to know. I think my dream job would be to work for the Justice Department as a Federal Prosecutor (and hopefully at some point a federal judge), does this mean it would be better to go to school at Georgetown? Or would I be better off just going to the best possible law school even if it is Stanford and I want to work in the DC area. </p>
<p>Btw I do realize that the Justice Department has offices all over the country but it is my understanding that they only hire directly out of law school through their intern program which is based in the DC area. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though.</p>
<p>The DOJ recruits from every T-14 (and elsewhere) but since it is the federal government it is prestige-whorish. You submit online applications normally. </p>
<p>I go to Michigan and the DOJ came and gave a presentation on our campus. It is very competitive to get into the DOJ, especially ITE when many people are locked out of corporate law and are looking at federal work and elsewhere. You pretty much need top 10-15% grades at a top 14 school, clerk afterwards, and then apply to work the DOJ. They give “minor” preference for people who intern there during the summer, but the most important are your grades.</p>
<p>Everyone who worked for the DOJ who presented clerked after law school, meaning they graduated very high in their class. Flowerhead brings up good points: consider cost of schooling, tiers, and geographical preferences. (I think saving money is very important ITE btw.) (Also I don’t think you will get into Stanford with a 3.7 GPA. You need to bring it up to at least a 3.85+ to have a decent shot because Stanford values GPA more than LSAT.)</p>
<p>Fwiw, Georgetown is the worst for job prospects in the top 14. Unless you get a scholarship to go there, I’d recommend going elsewhere. Rumor has it that at this past OCI, only the top 1/3 (if that) found jobs via OCI. It’s pretty brutal this year everywhere, but it was particularly bad there because of Georgetown’s very large class size and the difficulty of breaking into the DC market (it has the most competitive jobs and GPA requirements for entry are typically very high). A lot of top students from every top 14 target DC and hence being within DC doesn’t really provide much benefit.</p>
<p>How did people at Michigan fare? I hear they did pretty well relative to their peer schools, though I personally know a lot of 2Ls who struck out.</p>
<p>Ya, of course I realize its not something thats easy to do. Btw I am a transfer at my school after taking 3 semesters at another school and taking 2 here (I have sophmore standing because of lost credits when transferring) but my Gpa in three semesters at my old school was 3.91 so i’m guessing my LSAC Gpa is 3.82 or something of the sort. Also this may be a dumb question but what is OCI? </p>
<p>Last question, I realize a lot of people do clerkships after law school and i’m wondering what do clerkships usually include? Is it a lot of writing/research for the court?</p>
<p>Interesting advices. I am wondering if you would care to shed some light on what does it take to get into SEC? Does the law degree have to be from a T14 law school? Would a business UG degree (accounting/finance) + a law degree help the chance?</p>