It is once again the time of year to start thinking about law school admissions! Whether that excites you or makes you groan in frustration, one way to boost your application is through construction of a great resume. When they read your file, law schools are looking for different things than prospective employers. Therefore, your resume should be carefully crafted to highlight different aspects of your achievements and personality. Here are some helpful tips to get you on your way to a great law school resume!
- For most schools, your resume can be up to 2 pages.
You get an extra page to list all the experience, jobs, and service you’ve done in four years of college. That means that you should describe your experiences thoroughly and clearly. Don’t leave out anything important!
- Omit the “Objective” section.
If you’re submitting a resume with your application, it’s clear that your objective is acceptance to law school. Removing this section frees up extra space to talk about the important things—all of your great experiences!
- Include detailed information about your education as the first section.
This is the place to list your degree-granting university, any other universities you’ve attended or taken classes at, or study abroad institutions.
List any minors or concentrations you have or expect to have.
Highlight your GPA in your major, especially if it’s higher than your overall GPA.
If you’ve presented any papers or been published in a journal, this is a great place to include these honors.
If you have taken classes relevant to the law or show a background in legal knowledge, consider including your relevant coursework here. Alternatively, coursework can have its own section if space allows.
- No more high school experiences.
You’ve had 4 years of college to do great things—high school was so long ago that things you did during that time don’t have much impact. Unless you had a life changing experience that you can’t leave out towards the end of your high school career, you should include only experiences from college.
- Include more than just legal experience.
While law schools are definitely looking for some experiences to show your dedication to pursuing a legal education, they also want to find out what you’re interested in and passionate about. Including all your professional jobs and internships, as well as extracurricular involvement, gives the admissions offices an idea of the things that you’re excited about.
- Interests make you unique; Microsoft word doesn’t.
Undoubtedly, anyone who is sending in his or her application has a solid grasp of Microsoft Office. Save some space and describe your interests instead—professional and otherwise. Interests can often make for great conversation starters in an interview. Keep it appropriate, though!
- Fix your formatting
With the extra page of space, there’s plenty of opportunity to widen your margins, increase your font to a readable size, and play with different font types. Your margins shouldn’t go below half an inch all the way around, and the size shouldn’t be below 10.5 Times New Roman.
Stop by the CEC in 162 MVR to get your resume critiqued, schedule a mock interview, or get more information about law school and the application process!
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