What EC's and internships should I do to get into Columbia?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I just finished my first year of college and have now decided that I want to go to law school. I am ready to get right into any type of extracurriculars, jobs, and leadership activities that will help my chances of getting into Columbia (My absolute dream school.)</p>

<p>I am rushing sororities this year and planned on using that as a platform to getting into my school’s student government. My school’s greek system is really small, but has a huge influence on campus - so what I wanted to do was pledge a sorority, run for a leadership chair (which pledges can easily do), and once I have experience with that, move on to running for senator of my department. I think that this year I can gain enough influence within the school to really make a good campaign for next year. So would that help at all? </p>

<p>What else should I be doing? What do they look for? </p>

<p>I want to do civil rights law and work oversees with human rights organizations. What can I do to show Columbia that I’m really passionate about what I want to do and make myself a competitive applicant? I’m a URM by the way, if that helps ! ; )</p>

2

<p>They don’t matter. As in, only having absolutely none together with so-so essays would hurt you.</p>

<p>So, do what you would enjoy, what you will be happy to put your heart (time, and energy) into.</p>

3

<p>Souxsie, don’t try to live someone else’s life. These are your college years, not some script you should be trying to follow. Take the classes you think are best for you, not best for some anonymous law school application reviewer. Do the EC’s that truly interest you. If you still want to go to law school in 3 years, go for that too. But don’t whistle your life away trying to be what you think someone else will be impressed by. Not to mention you could be wrong, since you’re not one of them and can’t read their minds. Law school looks primarily at gpa and LSAT. From what I gather, they don’t look to check off certain specific EC’s.</p>

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<p>Your ECs and internships should be to get a high LSAT and GPA.</p>

5

<p>I agree with Hayden and Flowerhead. (and kwu :slight_smile: )</p>

<p>If you just choose to involve yourself in ECs that you think will be “practical” for means of acceptance to law school, it’ll come across as transparant to the person reading your application. With a T14 school like Columbia, you don’t want to spread yourself out all over the place with ECs that don’t particularly interest you because you will be investing your time doing all these things, when you really should be focused on your GPA as well. </p>

<p>You’re only a Sophomore in college, your interests might change a few months from now. Focus on the things that you like and are best at, the rest will follow. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Well I can’t just do nothing. I want to make myself as competitive an applicant as possible. I’m going to a lower ranked state school because it’s basically a free ride, but I know I’m going to be competing with people from the top schools in the country. I just want to know what I can do to put myself on their level. </p>

<p>There has to be more to it than simply involving myself in things I “love”. I doubt my experience in the yoga, philosophy, photography, or fashion design clubs will really help me in my journey to Columbia. Yes, I enjoy those things, but at the end of the day I love my future more - thus leading me to WANT to become a SGA senator more than anything else.</p>

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<p>^Columbia doesn’t care if you’re SGA Senator. LSAT and GPA is all they care about.</p>

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<p>+1 to what Boston said. You make yourself competitive by having competitive LSATs and GPA. If you become SGA Senator, but have poor LSATs…then no, that won’t help you.</p>

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<p>We’re not even slightly joking when we say that Columbia cares about LSAT and GPA, and not ec’s. Columbia would rather have a 3.9 171 who did nothing in his/her four years of school than a 3.8 170 who was a SGA Senator. That’s just the way it is.</p>

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<p>That’s just the way it is…oh yeah. Things will never be the same…</p>

11

<p>Another point- 99.9% of law schools do not care where you go for undergrad as long as it is an accredited institution.</p>

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<p>^I believe U of Chicago Law plays a bit of favoritism for the Ivies and the top schools (UChicago, Hopkins, Georgetown, etc). Harvard Law is known to be nicer to Harvard undergrads. There is a bit of favoritism for legacies (and sometimes HYP grads) at a few other schools, but nothing too extreme.</p>

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<p>LSU8888; is that true? Because I was factoring that into deciding where I was going to go to my UG. I would think that the “prestige” of your UG school would help in some respects. For example, it would peak the interests of a reader more if they had a 3.8 at Harvard than a 3.9 at like… Some school in the middle of nowhere. Discuss?</p>

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<p>^ Eh, depends on what lawschool. Harvard, Yale, UChicago, and maybe Columbia/Penn/Cornell might care that you went to Harvard and got a 3.8 over Northwestsoutheast Alaska State and got a 3.9. Besides the Ivy and UChicago law schools, law schools don’t really care where you went for UG.</p>

<p>For the most part though:
3.8 170 random state school > 3.7 169 Harvard</p>

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<p>Reputation of undergraduate institution comes into play only if one graduates from an unheard-of school with mediocre or skewed numbers. Harvard and Yale law schools appear to exercise more flexible admission standards for graduates of their own colleges. Graduating with sub-par GPAs from esteemed institutions notorious for grade deflation, such as Princeton or UChicago, will not garner sympathy. The exception to this generalization are applicants with both respectable GPAs in engineering and superior LSAT scores.</p>

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<p>Princeton’s grade-deflation, as a result of changes instituted a number of years ago, is still not that well known. In fact, most people, even in the academy, still believe Princeton is grade-inflated. Therefore, their grade-deflation is hardly notorious.</p>

17

<p>This won’t directly help you get into Columbia, but try to get an internship at a civil rights law firm - if you don’t enjoy it, you have more than enough time to go into something else and if you love it, then that’s just a good experience. I want to be a criminal defense attorney and getting an internship at a courthouse was the best decision I ever made as far as motivating me to do my best to get into an excellent law school.</p>

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<p>99.9% was an exaggeration, 95% realistically.</p>

<p>I have heard Yale, UChicago, Stanford, and Berkeley all give some weight to it, all of those but UChicago are “comprehensive” in their admissions.</p>

<p>People’s perception of Harvard Law School is largely flawed. They are mainly numbers based, as is Columbia. Because Harvard is one of the largest law schools in terms of student numbers (I think it’s second or third behind Thomas Cooley), they concentrate on numbers to keep their 25-median-75 percentiles up. </p>

<p>Lawschoolnumbers.com is a great resource assuming most of the profiles there are accurate. People list their GPA and LSAT, and their admission decisions.</p>

<p>I have a 3.95 GPA, and if I can get a 171 LSAT, my chances at Harvard are quite good based on similar applicants. At a school like Stanford, there will be 3.9 167s admitted and 3.9 175s denied. What the factor is that decided that is hard to say. </p>

<p>The number one factor in choosing your undergrad if you are planning on law school is financial considerations in my opinion. I chose my school primarily based upon that factor. If finances are not a big deal, then comfort should be considered. Go somewhere you feel comfortable and can perform well. </p>

<p>If you are going to Smith, it is reputable enough to the point it will not hurt you. I’ve heard even at a school like Yale, really only HYP or a top liberal arts school like Williams or Amherst gives you any benefit. Then again it might be a chicken and egg case.</p>

<p>Take a look at the schools in the 2012 Yale class. [Yale</a> Law School | Entering Class Profile](<a href=“http://www.law.yale.edu/admissions/profile.htm]Yale”>Profiles & Statistics - Yale Law School)</p>

<p>Most big state schools are represented. </p>

<p>Last mostly useless point: In terms of numbers, a high GPA (3.85+) and a 172 + gives you a great shot at Harvard. At Columbia, LSAT is the biggest admission factor. You will see a lot of 3.5 174s or so at Columbia, but you won’t see any at Harvard (unless it’s a URM of course).</p>