The Q: Is it to one's benefit to enter the "real world" before attending law school, or is it best to go to law school right after completing a college degree?

The A: It's really a question of what you choose to do in the "real world." I'll give you some possible options.

1. Service. Law schools love service. If you do something positive, like join the Peace Corps or do humanitarian work, then that looks great on an application -- and hopefully helps make you a better person as well.

2. Work. If you take a job in the outside world and then later decide to go to law school, it can help you in your application to law school only if it in some way shapes your desire to attend law school, or allows you to create a focused plan of study for law school. Let's say, for example, that you go work in state government and you get the opportunity to work on policy measures or election campaigns. This might lead you to decide that you want to pursue the public policy/public entity branch of the law -- and would thus strengthen your application. Similarly, if you go work for a record company or recording studio, and your experiences there lead you towards a practice in entertainment law or copyright law, that will also help your application.

I think you get the point: Work experience is helpful if you can demonstrate (usually in your admissions essay) that it has guided you towards a course of study in law school. This is why working at a law firm as a legal clerk does not help you as much as some might expect: Usually, it can only reinforce your interest in the law, which has minimal effect on the admissions committees that must judge the applications of tons of people who are interested in the law.

Don't get me wrong: Working at a law firm isn't all bad. For instance, working at a firm can help you if you use the opportunity to make connections to lawyers at your firm. They might be alumni who can advise you on how to get into a specific school, or they may be able to write you a recommendation letter. Moreover, this type of work *will* open potential doors for you when you are looking for a clerkship after your second year of law school.

3. Travel or "fun." On the surface, it may appear as though this option won't benefit you too much, other than potentially revealing that you are a well-rounded student. However, what's important here is that I don't think it will *hurt* you too much, as long as you don't spend more than a year or two of your life doing it. If you come back with some good stories and you've seen some noteworthy things, it can make for an interesting essay topic. And obviously, if your travel experience somehow forms your plans for law school or gives you a better understanding of your hopes and goals, that can also help in writing an admissions essay.

As a bottom line, I would add this: I think, as a general rule, that taking a year off between college and law school is a good thing. Take some time in the "real world" to experience life before you head back to academia. You have to be on top of your game during your first year of law school, not just academically, but extracurricularly and socially as well. It helps to be fresh when you start out; you don't want to still be burned out from four years of college. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to think, breathe and live nothing but law school during that first year. Doing so will help you get good grades, get ins on being on the right journals, and get you socially acquainted with your professors and alumni, who can be a great help to you professionally.

Good luck!

—Christopher Clough, Prelaw Advisor

This response was written on Feb. 9, 2006.

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