Last Updated on October 1, 2026
Quick answer: Do extracurriculars matter for law school? Yes, though your GPA and LSAT or GRE scores carry the most weight. Law schools review applications holistically, so activities that show leadership, writing, advocacy, and commitment help. Depth and results matter more than the number of activities, and work experience counts too.
Do extracurriculars matter for law school? They do, even though your LSAT score and undergraduate GPA carry the most weight. While those two factors remain crucial, admission committees now seek qualities that make you memorable among a diverse swath of candidates. Today, law schools review applications holistically; as Yale Law School puts it, no single part of an application is determinative. [1] They go beyond your academic credentials and delve deeply into what you can contribute to the classroom, school, and community. They also want you to have an impressive resumé. Engaging in extracurriculars is a significant part of law school application strategy!
In addition to your personal statement, supplemental essays, and letters of recommendation, admissions committees will also look at your activities, which shape your individuality. Your choice of extracurriculars for law school, on campus and in your community, reveals a lot about you. Consequently, it is imperative to ensure you have a coherent application persona or theme based on these “soft” factors beyond test scores and GPA. In this blog, I have outlined four of the more typical activities prospective law students engage in, followed by some unconventional ways you can make yourself memorable through extracurriculars for law school. Whatever you choose to participate in, the activities should be true to your interests! Remember that the depth of your engagement matters more than the breadth.
Do Extracurriculars Matter for Law School?
Yes. Law schools do look at extracurriculars, usually through the résumé you submit with your application. Grades and test scores come first, but your activities show what you will contribute to the class.
So how important are extracurriculars for law school? No single activity is required, and committees care far more about depth than volume. Two or three commitments where you held responsibility and produced results tell a clearer story than a long list of memberships. Full-time work counts as well, so if you are applying after college, your job can carry much of this weight. Our guide to gap year jobs before law school covers roles that build relevant skills.
Still in high school? Our overview for high school students interested in law covers where to start.
Best Extracurriculars for Pre-Law Students
First, here are a few common pre-law extracurricular activities that can help boost your law school application:
Debate Team. Debate can be an excellent training ground for future lawyers. It will help you develop solid communication skills, form persuasive arguments, and learn to present them extemporaneously. Memorization comes in handy, but it won’t matter if you do not know how to analyze and interpret logical relationships between texts. Debate teaches you that and allows you to practice it. Law schools will recognize your ability to distill nuanced arguments from complex sets of facts and present them cogently to an audience. Even outside the courtroom, you will need to present ideas clearly.
Pre-Law Society. Most, if not all, universities have established organizations that will help their students prepare for law school by initiating law-related activities on campus, such as moot courts, mock trials, negotiation workshops, and cross-examination exercises. Engaging in a pre-law society will help to demonstrate your interest in the law in addition to helping you hone the skills necessary to enter law school.
Model United Nations. Model United Nations and similar competitions, such as Student Congress, will help you test your skills in diplomacy, negotiation, and possibly mediation. These competitions have a slightly less competitive tenor, but are still very valuable for the skills they help students develop during their preparation and participation.
Student Government. What have you done for your school? What changes have you implemented to benefit the student body? Being in student government can showcase your leadership skills when executed appropriately. Participating in student government demonstrates that you have stepped up and are respected by your peers enough to be elected as their representative. However, to maximally improve your law school candidacy, you will want to be able to show tangible results of your tenure in office as a student government representative. Serving is not enough; you should accomplish some of the goals that you set out to achieve and contribute positively to your school community.
Listen to David, a Harvard Law School alum, talk about the importance of diverse extracurriculars for law school here:
Unconventional Extracurriculars That Reflect Your Interests
Now that you have seen the traditional extracurriculars for law schools, let’s look at some activities that could be more catered to your unique interests in law:
Start Your Own Organization. LSAC encourages pre-law students to join student organizations and step up for leadership positions, and starting an initiative in your area of interest takes that one step further. [2] If you’re considering real estate law, gather a group of similar-minded students to form a real estate club in college. Or take it up a notch and start your own company that helps others navigate the world of real estate. Demonstrating leadership skills while engaging in a topic that you’re interested in makes you a solid candidate and dictates a specific application persona.
Research. Your college professors have a lot of knowledge and are often underutilized resources. They’re usually willing to help if you approach them. If you’re interested in environmental law, for example, drop by the office hours of your favorite professor in the Environmental Studies department and see if you can assist them in research about environmental ethics. Conducting research can help you develop skills in data collection and analysis, learn a lot about your field of interest, and engage in one of the best extracurricular activities for law school.
Publications. The ABA lists writing and editing among the core skills for a legal education. [3] To get practice, submit to your school’s pre-law journal or law review if there is one. If not, start one. Plenty of students are interested in journalism, law, or both. You’ll be helping them find an outlet to get their writing out there, while honing your own writing skills and establishing yourself as a leader. If you decide to pursue the research path, take your findings one step further: write a paper and submit it to publications. Being a published author in a law journal would undoubtedly boost your application.
Jobs and Internships. Admissions officers need to see a beefed-up legal resumé, especially if you decide to take a gap year before law school. You could work at a law firm as a legal assistant, or head to Washington, D.C., and intern for a senator. You can be more creative and pursue an opportunity that might seem less “legal” at first glance – such as jobs in education, marketing, or journalism. As long as you can tie back the relevant skills to your JD goals, you can set yourself up for law school success.
Working can provide you with new perspectives on the field of law that you’re interested in, introduce you to mentors and peers who can support you, and help boost your extracurriculars for law school. Plus, you get to form an invaluable network of connections in the field – from supervisors who can write your letters of recommendation to coworkers who can help you navigate the job market once you’re out of school. Even if you don’t plan to take a gap year before law school, you should do this kind of work over your summer and winter breaks!
Volunteer Work. Volunteering is another way to gain legal exposure, and LSAC encourages pre-law students to volunteer, shadow, or intern with people working in the legal profession. [4] Volunteer in your community, or engage in work more relevant to the type of law you see yourself practicing. For instance, if you wish to be an immigration lawyer, you can volunteer with refugee initiatives and even shadow lawyers in the field. You can make this activity your own by organizing drives or documenting immigrant narratives, and you’d be helping a lot of people while you’re at it. No matter where or how you contribute to your community, the experience will make you a better applicant.
How to Present Extracurriculars on Your Law School Application
Most law schools ask for a résumé rather than a fixed activities form, so how you describe your involvement matters as much as what you did. List each activity with your role, the dates, and the approximate hours per week, then add one or two lines on what you accomplished. Specific results, such as “organized a legal clinic that served 40 tenants” or “served as lead attorney for a mock trial team that placed at regionals,” tell the admissions committee far more than a title alone.
Order matters too. Put the experiences most connected to your interest in law, and those where you held real responsibility, near the top. Full-time work after college belongs on the résumé as well, since many applicants apply after working, and admissions committees value professional experience.
Your activities should also connect to the rest of your application. If your personal statement describes why you want to practice immigration law, the committee should see that interest reflected in your volunteer work, research, or employment. When your résumé, essays, and recommendation letters point in the same direction, your candidacy feels coherent and credible. Our guide to the law school personal statement shows how to connect the two.
Finally, be honest and precise. Exaggerating a role can raise concerns about character and fitness, a standard that follows you into bar admission.
Choosing the Right Extracurriculars for Law School
Your involvement and membership in organizations, especially when you hold a leadership role, should be relevant to your chosen career path and make you memorable as a candidate. Since law school involves a heavy dose of reading, writing, and advocacy, activities that help to develop and showcase these skills will aid you in your pursuit of a legal education and career. Choose activities that genuinely interest you, then commit the time to achieve tangible results. Those results also give your recommenders concrete examples, as our guide to law school recommendations explains. At the end of the day, admission committees look at your commitment and your ability to make a difference.
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