Pre-law Advising at Swarthmore

A.E
Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:11:49 +0000

PBailey:

I’m very interested in Swarthmore (either first/second choice, maybe ED), but I’m also interested in going to law school. The Swarthmore website mentions that 9% of Swarthmore alumni have a law degree (Swarthmore College :: Pre-Law Advising :: Guide to Pre-Law Studies) so things can’t be that bad can it?



I agree with the assessment of Career Services that you cited. It is one of the weakest aspects of Swarthmore, and I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed this before. That said, I think getting into a good law school is something you can do if you work on it. You won’t get much help from CS on this front. You just need to do well on your LSATs and maintain a very high GPA. A friend of mine kept her GPA at 3.9 at Swarthmore and did well on the LSATs, but still didn’t manage to get into Yale. She did get into Harvard, though. I will say that she did all the work it took to get into a top law school on her own and that, beyond professor recommendations, she didn’t make use of any college resources to do this.

Years ago, a high GPA at Swarthmore used to be very valuable for law school applicants, as they made adjustments to GPAs of incoming college graduates based on their undergraduate institutions, and Swarthmore was consistently among the schools that received the largest upward adjustment. Unfortunately for current and future Swatties, though, this practice has been all but eliminated in law schools.



momuv2:

My S just graduated ('09) and while it was a very tough year for graduates to find jobs (or interim placements prior to grad school), I felt the advice and direction he received from career Services was superficial and unhelpful. He did find a summer internship which eventaully led to a permanent position, but this was done through the networks he had built during his summer and extracurricular positions, unrelated to the College. I also have never felt the Swat alumni network, strongly touted by the administration, is useful for job hunts. I would love to be enlighted with a different perspective.



I’m unsurprised Career Services was of limited use to your son. That has been the story I’ve heard from just about everyone who didn’t go into one of the narrow fields of focus where Career Services is known to be competent (consulting and certain types of non-profit work). The alumni network is what you make of it. If you’re looking to get a job, you may be able to finagle an interview that you wouldn’t otherwise. Or, you may be able to make inroads via your social network from campus, from your friends and acquaintances who you knew at school. For a person from the class of '09, his friends won’t yet be likely to be in positions where they can offer him jobs, but they may be able to connect him to someone who can. Either way, you have to hustle (especially in today’s economy), and nothing is just going to be handed to you. It took me a little while before I started taking full advantage of my alumni network, but I eventually started to, and it has been fruitful. I have managed to collaborate on several projects with Swarthmore alumni, and it has been enjoyable.



hellohowareyou:

Swat alums have offered me jobs and internships, have taken me out to coffee to discuss career goals etc, and have hired me to tutor their children. Swatties are generally very interested in helping younger swatties, and I think this is true in a wide variety of professions.



I think this is common, and I can count myself among the people who have offered Swarthmore alums jobs. It’s nice because Swarthmore graduates can be expected to have a certain level of competence, and are likely to have ethical integrity. It’s convenient for employers when the Swarthmore admissions office has essentially done most of the work for finding candidates for employment.



arador:

I generally found Career Services rather helpful for the field I was looking at (consulting). The main issue is that very very few non-non-profits seem to schedule trips to campus.



I believe consulting is one of the areas where Career Services is strongest, so there’s a good chance your experiences are not representative of that of the average Career Services user, who would probably have been less satisfied than you. I honestly don’t know anyone who didn’t go into a non-profit or consulting who has much positive to say about Career Services.