These include political science, history, economics, government, philosophy and English. Your undergraduate college or university may employ a pre-law advisor, whose job it is to help you in choosing the best courses, minors and majors to prepare you for future law school success.
Feb 17, 2022 · Common undergraduate majors for prelaw students include English, political science, economics, business, philosophy, and journalism. There’s no correct major to pursue to get into law school. But according to legal educators, prospective J.D. students who take classes they enjoy report better GPA scores.
An undergraduate-level education in psychology provides several benefits for students in law school and for legal professionals. In many areas of the law, lawyers must work directly with social services, such as social workers.
Oct 15, 2019 · Take classes that require reading and synthesizing large volumes of material — philosophy, literature and history — both American and international, among others. Take classes that force you to write frequently (requiring a Table of Content, introductions, transitions, proper grammar and punctuation). Take classes that require presentations.
Our analysis found that nearly one-third (30%) had a background in the social sciences, with most having studied political science prior to law school. Other top liberal arts majors included humanities, classics, history, economics, and English.
Those who studied Greek or Latin had the highest average LSAT score (159.8) and highest average GPA (3.477) of all majors who applied to law school. The next highest LSAT scores came from those who studied policy, international relations, and art history respectively.
Earnest’s data underscores advice from the American Bar Association, which recommends prospective law students take coursework in areas where they can gain experience in problem-solving, critical reading, writing, and editing, among other skills.
This doesn’t mean that law schools don’t look favorably on STEM majors— far from it—but rather that there are relatively few law school applicants with these backgrounds. This is similar to how medical school students, for example, tend to come from science and engineering backgrounds more often than the humanities.
Political Science. Of all majors, this may be the closest to a "law school" curriculum as you can get. In this major, you'll study political systems, public policy, international relations and the relationship between government, the law, and individual rights, among other things.
Philosophy majors delve deep into the study of logic, ethics, and morality —areas of thought that also happen to be the cornerstones of law. You'll debate with classmates, present arguments and do a lot of research to support your case, which is not all that different from what lawyers do to prepare for court.
From a practical standpoint, history majors are also tasked with lots of research and writing and must learn to draw conclusions based on historical documents, a great precursor to the work you'll do in law school.
Not only are economics majors trained to think logically and analytically, but economic policies and procedures, as well as how resources are distributed and managed, are topics closely connected to the legal issues you'll encounter as a lawyer.
A business major is a good option for those who plan to go into corporate law. That said, be sure to supplement business fundamentals with humanities and liberal arts electives so you can train your analytical and critical thinking muscles, as well as practice research and writing, too.
Prospective lawyers must undertake a series of steps to practice law, including completion of undergraduate and graduate degrees, examinations and licensing processes. Prior to embarking in this journey, those interested should ask themselves why they want to become a lawyer and if they are willing to commit several years to studying law in order ...
Doctorate degrees are designed for legal professionals seeking career opportunities in scholarly research. At this level, admission is extremely competitive. It is not unusual for a law school to only accept one or two doctoral students each year and to only consider students that graduated from the same institution. Although these degrees are the highest academic programs available in law, each has its own structure and purpose. The four options include:
The BLS reports that the median annual wage for lawyers was about $126,930 in 2020, with the top 10 percent of earners taking home more than $208,000 per year. Those working in state and local government tend to earn less while lawyers specializing in financial and insurance law are in the top bracket.
Admissions officers use scores from the LSAT as an objective measure to assess the knowledge and quality of applicants.
The degree typically takes about three years of full-time study to complete. According to the ABA, there are currently 205 approved higher education providers. Not to be confused with other degrees such as the Doctor of Science of Law, the JD is a professional degree specifically designed to train future lawyers and prepare them for the bar examination.
The Juris Doctor (JD) is the nationally recognized degree for practicing law in the United States and is currently offered by 205 ABA-accredited law schools. Prospective students should have knowledge of the faculty, areas of study, tuition, and curriculum prior to applying.
The degree typically takes about three years of full-time study to complete. According to the ABA, there are currently 205 approved higher education providers.
A degree in political science prepares you for success in law school and in a professional capacity by improving reading, writing and public speaking skills. In-depth knowledge about the Constitution and its founding principles as well as the development of the court system also provide strong benefits. 6. Economics.
Leading law schools have an acceptance rate well below 20 percent with an average GPA of admitted applicants close to or higher than 3.8. Your undergraduate-level education directly impacts your ability to get ...
If you thrived in high school English classes, majoring in English may enable you to earn a higher GPA in college than you may earn in other areas of study. This major may provide other substantial benefits as you prepare for the future. Consider that 3,549 law school applicants held a degree in English in 2016 and 2017. The average LSAT score for these applicants was 154.4, and approximately 80 percent of applicants with this degree were admitted to at least one law school.
Philosophy is not a major that may immediately come to mind when pursuing a pre-law path. However, law is heavily based on philosophical aspects, such as human nature, ethics and other topics that are thoroughly covered in college-level philosophy courses. In addition to this essential link between law and philosophy, some law schools have higher admissions ratings for liberal arts majors that are considered to be more challenging. Philosophy often falls into this group.
While there is a scientific aspect of psychology, this applied science also branches into principles of human behavior. Because the law impacts and moderates human behavior, law and psychology are intertwined.
Their average LSAT score was 152.5, and 78 percent of applicants were admitted. An undergraduate-level education in psychology provides several benefits for students in law school and for legal professionals. In many areas of the law, lawyers must work directly with social services, such as social workers.
Math also enables lawyers to more successfully specialize in niche areas of the law. These areas include bankruptcy law, real estate law, taxation law and other areas. Math majors may also thrive in legal niches related to securities, estates and trusts. High-level math may be used in patent and healthcare law .
What is most important in your undergraduate education is that you take classes that will prepare you for the rigors of law school and the challenge of a professional school curriculum. You will be challenged greatly and having a strong academic foundation is critical to success in law school.
Take classes that require presentations. Participate in group projects that encourage teamwork and develop leadership skills. Take classes that require significant research and evaluation of sources, including proper citation of sources within written documents.
Brooke Bowman, Professor of Legal Skills at Stetson University College of Law, currently ranked #3 in the nation in Legal Research and Writing, shared some thoughts on what classes would be best for law school-bound students, and she emphasized the following:
You can’t change the past! Don’t burn your bridges. The beauty of earning a professional law degree is knowing that as a candidate you can declare any major and you can take any classes that you would like to secure your undergraduate degree, a requirement to matriculate law school.
Also important, though, is having some extracurriculars on your resume. Play a sport, join a society, volunteer, or gain an internship. These things will show what you are interested in and what you are passionate about, which makes you look like a well-rounded applicant.
The LSAT is another important factor in law school admissions, and it is offered four times each year. Unfortunately, the LSAT is different from any other standardized admission test that you’ll see, because the knowledge you’re learning in your undergraduate education likely won’t help you prepare for it.
Law school admissions are competitive, so you should find some way to stand out as an applicant. One way you could do that is to come from a non-traditional field of study to enter the law.
Updated August 20, 2019. So you want to be a lawyer —congratulations! The law is a noble, challenging, and rewarding area of study. While you’re still in the process of earning your bachelor’s degree, you should already be preparing for entering into the study of law. There are many resources about how to prepare—this is to tell you ...
Before the mid-1800s, there were no standardized bar exams per se. Instead of this grand exam that you are studying for, future lawyers-to-be would gain their experience and credentials through apprenticeships, self-studying, and oral exams.
Vermont’s “Law Office Study Program” (LOS) generally requires four years apprenticing under a Vermont judge or attorney’s supervision, licensed not less than 3 years before the LOS Registrant commencing studies. (Rules of Admission to the Bar of the Vermont Supreme Court Part II Rule 7, The Law Office Study Program).
Although American jurisdictions slowly developed their own law schools, post-Revolution legal studies were conducted by “reading for the law,” mostly under the tutelage of a trained lawyer. Like its namesake coined in England, reading the law means reading law from a book. Most people entered the legal profession through an apprenticeship, often under a family member. These apprenticeships required a period of attorney-supervised law office study.
When someone read law in the colonies and later states, this lawyer was likely revered. Sir William Blackstone was admitted to the Middle Temple in November 1741, ultimately rising to England’s first law lecturer, titled “Vinerian Professor of English Law.” After that, he was elected to the English Parliament in 1761, later appointed Justice of the Court of King’s Bench on 16 February 1770. He was elevated as Justice of the Common Pleas soon afterward on June 25, where he remained until his death, on 14 February 1780. Blackstone conducted lectures on English law at Oxford in the 1750s. But English Common Law was officially recognized as a university-taught subject in the later 1800s
Modernly, attending law school and securing your Juris Doctorate (JD) or law degree from an ABA or state-accredited law school will be a prerequisite before practicing law in most U.S. states. The UK, including its commonwealth, has a similar path. Although I studied law under the California State Bar Law Office Study Program guidelines, a handful of states have their versions of legal apprenticeships. Some people think there are advantages to attending a traditional, costly law school if they can manage to survive during legal studies and its enormous, crushing student debt. No matter what, either way, there is no such thing as a quick law degree.
Reading law was optimally done under lawyer supervision. But in frontier areas, self-study often remained the only legal career path entry method. As noted and discussed more later, each state and local jurisdiction had differing approaches in how their lawyers would read for the law. However, each approach to becoming a lay lawyer found its genesis under English Common Law.
At least one white lawyer argues modernly that since blacks have lower law Student Aptitude test scores (LSAT) and score lower on the bar exam, the test itself is racist. ( Source ). Modern law students and professors pushing such an argument seem to have confused the American Bar Association’s (ABA) long gone past with the actual, modern state “Bar Exam” test, two distinct entities. Jews and Asians score higher than white people on both exams.