What if you haven't gone to law school, but have been working closely with a superlawyer for over five years? Shouldn't that really count as well? Here in CA there is a way to get your JD without law school. If I really wanted, I could get the permission to take the bar exam. I haven't thought seriously about doing that, but my experience should still really help my application, right?
I would also assume that a high caliber aerospace company should also really help. I have been doing that concurrently with the legal job for three years.
I have a low GPA right now (before transfer) and the above two actives (full time) + full time school were a major part of the reason for some bad grades and very few ECs. I will be delighted if they will give me a good support. Someone told me that the aerospace stuff won't matter to med schools. I don't know the veracity of that.
All employment is valuable and I would mention both of yours. However without a professional degree you don't have the track record of having completed a professional school, and without a license you don't have the experience of having been a professional, both of which are big selling points when selling yourself to another profession. So sure, I would mention any employment and whatever strengths and skills you got from that, but don't expect to get the same impact, or anywhere close, as compared to having been a practicing lawyer or other professional. Working with a lawyer is a fine entry into your employment EC, but you don't get to call yourself the equivalent of a lawyer until you get the degree or license, and no med school is going to look at you as such; and might even look at you negatively if you claim you were the unlicensed equivalent -- far too many doctors work with quasi-professionals --NPs, PAs who make the same claim and it doesn't go over well with many. (And I wouldn't refer to your lawyer as a "superlawyer"; that is a distinction given to folks by various magazines, based on peer nominations, but won't give
you any more credibility. You can toot your own horn, but you aren't allowed to toot someone elses with the same effect).
If you sit for the bar and pass, then that might be different, but saying "I could have" really gets you no credit, and to some will actually hurt you for not doing so. If you say you were effectively working as a lawyer the obvious next question from an adcom would be "well then why didn't you go ahead and get licensed"? (And BTW you can get
licensed without the law school, but I doubt you can get a
JD without law school, as you claim). The other concern is that you probably would be admitting unauthorized practice of law if you claim to have done anything more than paralegal work - which could be problematic if you get an adcom with a law degree or family member with a law degree reviewing your claim. I would also point out that while some states do let folks sit for the bar without law school, the passing percentage tends to be much much lower than those who have attended law school, so you kind of need to actually pass to demonstrate the "could have". Could have is meaningless. For example, both Mike Tyson and Cindy Crawford have said they "could have" become a doctor if they didn't pursue their current paths. You get credit for
doing, not saying you could have.
But no, med schools don't accept employment as a valid reason for poor grades. You are expected to be able to work and maintain good grades. There are enough folks in the applicant pool who are able to. And the grades and scores are what dictates most of the cut offs as to who gets interviewed, not the ECs, I'm afraid. Med schools would rather have the straight A student over the one who held down two jobs. And in this market they often get a few who did both. Which kind of makes sense when you get to the clinical years and find yourself trying to study for shelf exams on top of working 70 hour work weeks.
