Law-Related Social Activities in Law Campus

Since you're interested in law, it's natural that you will be interested in activities that are related to law. Your campus will offer a wide variety of such activities-so many, in fact, that you may have difficulty in choosing among them. One strategy is to seek activities that will help you develop skills you will use in law school, or that will give you the opportunity to show off law-related talents. Some newspaper jobs pay salaries. All hold out the possibility of publication, and clips of published work can be sent along with law school applications.

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If you feel the need to develop your speaking skills and your campus doesn't have a suitable forensics program, investigate the possibilities offered by Campus Theater. Don't laugh: many outstanding lawyers and politicians have had theatrical experience. The trouble with theater is that it is very time-consuming during the six weeks or so that are needed to prepare and perform a play.

Students interested in political careers often participate in student government. I hesitate to recommend this for everyone because on many campuses "school politics" has become an ineffectual joke; too often, student government attracts the windy, the self-serving, and the self-important. You'll have to judge your own campus for your-self. At its best, student government can be an excellent teacher of group deliberation-that is, of making decisions by discussing, compromising, and voting. It may also be the best way to meet other students interested in law. At its worst . . . well, let's just say that at its worst it's not worth your time.

Most campuses offer other government-related activities. Model United Nations and model legislature programs offer good practice in deliberation and may be free of the posturing and cynicism that affect traditional student government. But the best choice for students interested in governmental careers is to avoid student activities entirely and get involved in real-world political campaigns, or to schedule internships in state or local government. Campaigns recruit numerous volunteers and will let you do as much responsible work as you are willing to take on. The best way to learn about politics is to go out and do politics. However, campaigns will make demands on your time in the fall, and you shouldn't let this work interfere with getting good grades. And although some campaigns pay part-time workers, most do not. You may not be able to afford to spend enough time doing campaign work to get the full benefit from it.

Prelaw Clubs

Alternatively, you can seek out activities specifically designed to ac-quaint prelaw students with law school and legal careers. Many campuses have prelaw clubs. At their best these are small organizations with a strong social component; they bring like-minded students together to exchange information, tutor the laggards, and, in whatever ways are required, support each other's efforts to get good grades and present themselves well to law schools. Prelaw clubs often bring law students, young lawyers, and others to speak on campus, and they may arrange trips to nearby law schools. Sometimes they publish newsletters and keep track of alumni who have gone to law schools. As a result, prelaw clubs are often good places for you to collect the information that you'll need to put together a list of law schools to apply to. You may still find prelaw clubs that run cram courses for the LSAT, although the private proprietary schools have taken over the lion's share of this work. Some prelaw clubs, especially on large campuses, field teams that participate in court simulations. Local and national "moot court" competitions are a specialized kind of debating; they combine the attention to presentation that forensics teams stress with research on legal topics.

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Phi Alpha Delta

Phi Alpha Delta national legal fraternity has about 120 coed chapters on undergraduate campuses and is currently expanding at the rate of ten to fifteen new chapters a year. These prelaw chapters do much the same things that local prelaw clubs do. But because Phi Alpha Delta chapters are members of a national organization, they have more informational resources, and they can communicate and share information across campus borders. Because national officials assist them, they have more continuity from year to year than other prelaw groups. Finally, because Phi Alpha Delta has more than 135,000 members, organized into 172 chapters at ABA-accredited law schools and about 90 alumni chapters, their prelaw members have unparalleled opportunities for networking and mentoring. For information about Phi Alpha Delta, write to their executive offices, ATTN: Prelaw Program, 10722 White Oaks Avenue, P.O. Box 3217, Grenada Hills, California, 91394; or call (818) 360-1941.

Subject-Related Organizations

Your campus may have "affinity clubs" for other fields. At Bradley, a medium-sized school, there are active clubs in accounting, advertising, marketing, financial management, international business, political science, psychology, journalism, and sociology. There are also several clubs whose name begins "Women in-." In each case, the club will bring you together with like-minded students. In many fields, notably accounting and journalism, working professionals traditionally will take an interest in the education of the next generation. As a result, accountants and reporters often give their time to work with student groups. The clubs are a good way to begin your professional networking.

Honorary Societies

If you are eligible, you should certainly join an honorary society or two. They resemble social fraternities and sororities in that they are national organizations with largely autonomous local chapters that offer lifetime membership, and they resemble affinity clubs in that they bring together people with similar interests. Most honorary societies are open to students in particular majors (or groups of majors in "social science" or "education") who maintain good grades. For example, Pi Sigma Alpha political science honorary society is open to all political science majors who maintain an overall 2.5 GPA and a 3.0 GPA in their political science courses. The Order of Omega is open to good students who are also members of social fraternities. Some larger honorary societies, like Mortar Board, are open to all seniors with good academic records.

Typically, if you are eligible for a campus honorary society, you will be asked to join during your junior year. You should do so. The cost is small, and the work involved is nominal. You may be asked to help organize programs, publish a newsletter, or run a tutoring program. But most honorary societies are largely social. In exchange for minimal participation, you get the opportunity to socialize with like-minded students and the right to list the name of a prestigious organization on your law school applications under the heading "Awards and Honors." In this way, you get another opportunity to call attention to your consistently excellent grades.

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