Dylan Herink is the President of the Swarthmore Pre-Law Society.

What's something this pre-law student society offers that students tell you genuinely made a difference for them?

Students consistently tell us that the most valuable thing SPLS provides is access to people, opportunities, and information that can otherwise be difficult to find. Many students arrive at Swarthmore interested in law but unsure of what legal careers actually look like, how to prepare for law school, or where to begin building a professional network. By hosting guest speakers in the legal profession, alumni panels, networking events, mentorship opportunities, and LSAT preparation resources, SPLS helps make the legal profession more accessible and transparent. Moreover, SPLS fosters a centralized community of students pursuing similar goals. Students often tell us that meeting peers who are navigating the law school application process, exploring legal careers, or sharing internship opportunities has been invaluable. As the central, student-led hub for pre-law activity on campus, we connect students with external resources, like internships or research opportunities, and other campus organizations and clubs that engage with specific areas of law and public policy. The result is that students feel more informed, more connected, and more confident in pursuing legal careers than they would have been on their own.

What’s the biggest pressure pre-law students at your campus are facing right now that people outside the law school admissions process don’t fully understand?

One of the biggest pressures facing pre-law students at Swarthmore is the challenge of balancing law school admissions expectations with the reality of our academic environment. Swarthmore has long been known for its rigorous coursework and relatively stringent grading standards, particularly in fields like political science, one of the college’s most common pre-law majors. As a result, students often feel they are competing in a law school admissions process that places significant weight on GPA while coming from an institution where earning the highest grades is systematically more difficult than at many peer schools.

This pressure is compounded by the fact that law school admissions are largely driven by two quantitative metrics: GPA and LSAT score. While admissions offices recognize Swarthmore’s academic reputation, many students worry that institutional rigor is difficult to fully capture in a single number. The concern is about knowing that even strong academic performance at Swarthmore may translate into a GPA that appears less competitive when compared with applicants from institutions with more generous grading practices. For many students, this creates a constant tension between pursuing challenging intellectual opportunities and protecting the GPA they know will play a significant role in admissions decisions. It is a pressure that extends beyond individual courses and influences decisions about majors, extracurricular commitments, and even whether students feel competitive for the law schools they aspire to attend.

If you could remove one expectation placed on pre-law students, what would it be?

If I could remove one expectation placed on pre-law students, it would be the assumption that they should be able to independently finance all of the financial costs associated with pursuing a legal education. Long before students get to law school, many are already balancing the costs of an undergraduate education alongside expenses related to LSAT preparation, application fees, admissions consulting, campus visits, and other components of the law school admissions process.

These costs create barriers that have little to do with a student’s legal abilities or potential therein. For many aspiring attorneys, the question is not whether they have the talent or work ethic to succeed, but whether they can afford the pathway required to get there. As concerns about educational debt have grown and access to financing has become more constrained in light of recent restrictions on federal student loans, affordability has become an increasingly important factor in determining who can pursue elite legal education opportunities and who cannot. The legal profession benefits when talented students from all socioeconomic backgrounds can enter it. Reducing the financial burdens and expectations placed on pre-law students would make the pathway to law school more equitable and ensure that access to legal education is determined more by merit and commitment than by financial resources.

Are students becoming more open about burnout and mental health, or is there still pressure to push through silently?

I think students are generally more open about discussing burnout and mental health nowadays, but there is still a strong culture of pushing through silently, especially among pre-law students. The law school admissions process is highly competitive, and many students feel pressure to maintain strong grades, prepare for the LSAT, pursue leadership positions, gain legal experience, and build compelling application narratives all at the same time. As a result, conversations about stress and burnout are more common, but vulnerability can still feel risky. Many students worry that admitting they are struggling may be interpreted as a lack of commitment or resilience. In a pre-professional environment, it’s easy for students to compare themselves to peers who appear to be handling everything effortlessly, even when that perception isn’t accurate.

What I have noticed is that students are becoming better at recognizing burnout and talking about it with trusted friends, mentors, and advisors. However, there remains an underlying expectation that success requires constantly doing more. The challenge is creating an environment where setting boundaries, taking breaks, and prioritizing well-being are viewed as compatible with ambition rather than in conflict with it.

How has social media changed pre-law culture, particularly around comparison, productivity, and self-worth?

Social media has made the pre-law experience both more connected and more competitive. On the positive side, students now have unprecedented access to admissions advice, LSAT resources, law school students, practicing attorneys, and application guidance that would have been difficult to find a decade ago. Information about the admissions process is more accessible than ever. At the same time, social media has, perhaps unhealthily, intensified comparison between pre-law students. Students are constantly exposed to posts highlighting 175+ LSAT scores, perfect GPAs, prestigious internships, scholarship offers, and law school acceptances. Because people naturally share their successes rather than their setbacks, many pre-law students end up comparing their lows to someone else’s highs.

I also think social media has contributed to a culture where productivity is sometimes treated as a measure of personal worth. It’s easy to feel like every hour should be spent studying, networking, building a resume, or preparing for the next stage of the admissions process. Students can begin to view themselves as a collection of metrics rather than as people with broader interests, relationships, and goals, which is typically harmful. Social media can be a valuable tool, but I think the healthiest pre-law students are those who use it for information and community without allowing it to define their sense of self-worth.

What's the financial reality of being pre-law that you wish more people talked about?

For many students, pursuing law school requires making significant financial investments years before they know whether they will be admitted or receive meaningful scholarship support. These include undergraduate tuition, LSAT prep, admissions fees, and everything in between. I also wish more people talked about how these costs can shape who ultimately enters the legal profession. The pathway to law school often assumes that students have the financial flexibility to dedicate time to unpaid internships, expensive test preparation resources, and a lengthy application process. While there are fee waivers and financial aid programs available, affordability remains a significant challenge for many aspiring lawyers.

As a result, financial considerations can influence everything from where students apply to whether they apply at all. Too often, discussions about law school focus on admissions statistics and career outcomes without acknowledging that the cost of becoming a competitive applicant can itself be a substantial barrier. Expanding access to legal education requires addressing the cost of law school in conjunction with the financial hurdles students face before they ever submit an application.

Juris Education is proud to interview student leaders like Dylan Herink to share valuable insights on balancing academics, legal experience, burnout, social media pressures, and the financial realities of pursuing a career in law.