I go to UW Wisconsin. I am in my mid-30's. Top 1/3 of my class. No journals or other law school related activities. I got callbacks and offers from every significant firm in Madison and Milwaukee. The reason grades are so significant your first year is to get your foot in the door. At the initial interview they simply want to make sure you are potty trained and that you can form complete sentences. When you move onto callbacks where you spend an entire day interacting with partners at work, over lunch, cocktail hour and dinner, your experience interacting with adults in social settings is a huge advantage. It helps when many of the senior associates and young partners at a firm are about your age. You are often dealing with similar things (spouse, young kids, purchasing a home, etc.) and you have more experience to draw from than "once in my frat..." or "in class one time...". This is not to say that there aren't insanely bright and talented younger people who do well in these situations, I just found that even the best of them came off as immature. I thought my age was an advantage. Obviously this argument has limits. I think if you are in your mid 40's or early 50's this is a tougher sell. But if you are anywhere in you late 20's or early to mid 30's I think you relate to people making the hiring decisions better. Again, and I know I'm going to get a ration of sh!t for this, but this isn't a reflection on the overall quality of the younger students. Unless you are a potted fern, you pick up tricks, techniques, etc when interacting with others in social and professional settings as you get older. At 23 I wouldn't have a chance against me at 33 in an interview, there is just not way. I made mistakes back then I would never make today. Things I would have done or said that would have seemed fine then, now appear awkward. Anyway, you get the point. i can talk with you offline if you want. i have other thoughts about mentioning quality of life issues and part-time work. I did it every time. They seemed relieved that I admitted I wanted a life in addition to work. Remember a lot of these people are also judging if they'd want to have you over for dinner with their families on a semi-regular basis. anywho, that's all i have for now.