Law school is an intellectually challenging experience based upon rigorous reading, analysis, and oral and written argumentation. Law school admissions officers most value applicants who have demonstrated their capability to handle this workload under pressure. Primarily, they look to applicants' grades and scores on standardized tests, typically the LSAT but increasingly the GRE.
Each applicant's grade point average and standardized test score are often converted into a single "index score." Law schools differ in how they calculate index scores -- some put extra weight on grades, for example. Law schools do not make this formula or their calculations public.
Beyond grades and scores, law school admissions offices account for many "soft factors" to assess candidates holistically. These soft factors are easy to undervalue because they are intangible and hard to compare. Admissions officers, however, pride themselves on looking beyond numbers. Choosing applicants based only on their grades and scores would be like blindly buying a house based solely on its price and location.
[Read: Why Is It So Hard to Get Into a Top Law School?]
Here are some soft factors that may enable applicants to stand out despite low grades or disappointing test results:
-- Work experience.
-- Overcoming adversity.
-- Military or public service.
-- Extracurricular activities.
Work Experience
Many law schools, such as Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and Harvard Law School, now prefer applicants with at least one year of full-time work experience.
The best kinds of work experience are law-related, but even jobs far from the courtroom -- in science labs or film studios or corporate offices -- can show skills relevant to legal practice. Law schools value applicants who have handled competing responsibilities and worked on solving real-world problems.
[READ: How to Explain an Unconventional Background When Applying to Law School.]
Undergraduate students without significant work experience might consider taking a gap year to build out their resume and potentially secure a recommendation letter from a supervisor in an environment outside the classroom.
Overcoming Adversity
Sheer brainpower is not enough to meet the demands of law school. Mental qualities like discipline, resilience, flexibility, and a positive mindset can be even more important in the long run. Over the course of three years, every law student will face stress, disappointment and self-doubt, and those who can take hardship in stride are best equipped to thrive.
Applicants can show how they have dealt with difficulties through their personal statements, diversity statements, and recommendation letters. Law schools are not necessarily looking for superheroes; sometimes a humble story about learning from setbacks can be more effective.
Law schools take diversity seriously and seek to evaluate applicants in the context of the disadvantages they have faced. Beyond race and ethnicity, law schools look for applicants who have faced adversity because of their age, disability, immigrant status, socioeconomic background or sexual orientation. Increasingly, law schools are attuned to the specific challenges facing first-generation college students.
Military or Public Service
Veterans have demonstrated discipline, maturity and judgment under stressful conditions. They tend to be people undaunted by the demands of law school. Thus, law schools see military service as a big plus factor, particularly for veterans with a record of leadership, specialized training, honors or promotion.
To provide more context on their service, such applicants should consider securing letters of recommendation from commanding officers and elaborating on their experience in their resume, personal statement, and diversity statement.
[READ: See 2 Successful Law School Diversity Statements.]
There are other ways to serve beyond the military. Applicants with experience in law enforcement or emergency response can make a good case for performance under pressure. Service in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps or Teach for America show commitment and resilience. Many forms of paid or volunteer community service can provide evidence that an applicant can handle responsibilities and work with others toward higher goals.
Extracurricular Activities
An applicant with a flawless college transcript may lose out to one who managed strong grades while juggling work, extracurricular activities or other responsibilities.
Campus leadership, varsity sports and law-related activities are not the only ways to stand out. Applicants can show commitment and teamwork by actively participating in lower-profile activities like volunteering with local youth or taking part in social or religious organizations.
Ultimately, applicants should work hard to achieve high grades and master the LSAT, because these factors are paramount in the admissions process. But law schools also seek to build a balanced class that represents a range of personal strengths and life experiences. The soft factors listed above can help applicants show they are more than the sum of their numbers.
Gabriel Kuris is a contributor to the U.S. News Law Admissions Lowdown blog, writing about issues relating to applying to law school. After advising law school applicants for more than 15 years with Powerscore and JDMission, he founded Top Law Coach to directly help applicants master the LSAT, find their voice and make their best case to law schools.
Kuris has worked as a legal researcher focused on human rights, corruption and policy reforms for Columbia Law School, the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, the World Bank and the American Bar Association. He has done field research to support judicial reforms and transitional justice efforts in more than 20 countries. Previously, he taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and practiced global finance law at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in New York.
Kuris received a Fulbright Fellowship in creative writing and his work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Harvard Review, Policy and Society and ForeignPolicy.com. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Yale University.
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