It was a GOOD week for…
SOUTHERN INTELLECT, after Charlotte Law School — the only law school in the North Carolina city — won for the second year in a row at the International Moot Court Competition in South Africa.
The mock Abbey Mrkus and Jeff Poulsen took home trophies for “Best Overall Team” and “Best Engish Team” during the two-day competition in early October. Family law-focused arguments covered an array of topics, including child custody to international law.
After beating out 13 other English-speaking teams, they defeated the best Afrikaan team, University of Pretoria, to win the top honor. The judging panel consisted of, naturally, judges that included a retired President of the Supreme Court Justice.
The feat is pretty impressive, considering Mrkus and Poulsen had just the summer to research and learn South African and international law and ended up beating out an Afrikaan team.
It was a BAD week for …
GETTING BUSTED BY ONLINE STALKERS, after 41 percent of top law school admissions officers polled by Kaplan Test Prep admitted to Googling applicants to learn more about them, and 37 percent have checked out an applicant’s Facebook page or another social networking site.
Business school applicants have a bit more privacy; just 27 percent of business school admissions officers have Googled a potential student and 22 percent have perused a Facebook page. The percentages are even lower for undergraduate candidates.
So, why do more law school admissions officers resort to checking applicants’ online profiles when their LSATs , GPAs and essays are at their fingertips?
“An overarching theme to the entire [law school] application is whether an applicant is able to exercise good judgment,” said Jeff Thomas, director of pre-law programs, Kaplan Test Prep. “Clearly, an applicant’s digital trail can be an indicator of whether or not he or she possesses this quality.”
Just a recommendation for future law school applicants: best to hide those pot-smoking, beer bonging pics on Facebook and any other evidence of bad behavior. Nearly a third of law admissions officers who researched an applicant online – 32 percent – said they found something that negatively impacted an applicant’s admissions chances.
The survey was conducted this summer and included responses from 128 of the nation’s 200 American Bar Association-accredited law schools.
