3 Undergraduate Degrees to Consider Before Going To Law School
If you’re interested in going to law school, you’ve got a lot of decisions ahead of you before you see your first day in court. Aside from a passion for the law, in order to get into law school, you’re going to have to get an undergraduate degree.
While many people assume that a pre-law degree is the best way to go for an undergraduate degree in preparation for law school, you may be surprised to hear that many law schools don’t view pre-law degrees with the same esteem as other, more rigorous undergraduate degrees. So to help you have the best chance of getting into law school and having a successful law career, here are three undergraduate degrees you may want to consider before applying to law school.
English or Philosophy Degree
While lawyers on TV spend the majority of their time looking for loopholes or arguing with other law professionals, in reality, a huge portion of your time as a lawyer will be spent reading complicated texts and writing briefs and other documents.
For this reason, Menachem Wecker, a contributor to U.S. News and World Report, shares that a current law student named Jon Lucas wishes he would have gotten either an English or philosophy degree as an undergraduate to better prepare him for the massive amounts of reading and writing he does in law school and will still have to do once he’s a lawyer. The skills you learn with these degrees can help with the basic skills you need to be a lawyer, so getting an English or philosophy degree could be supremely beneficial.
Science- or Math-Based Degree
Although having a high GPA is essential for getting into a good law school, admissions boards also look at how intense the program was for your undergraduate degree when considering your application. Because of this, Ann Levine of LawSchoolExpert.com states that majoring in a scientific field like science or math could give you a legitimate reason to have a lower GPA because those courses are often more difficult. These degrees will also be extremely beneficial if you plan to go into an aspect of the law that deals with these topics, like patent law or environmental law. And because these types of degrees aren’t often thought of for law students, you may appear more intriguing to admissions boards as well.
Political Science
If you want to have a solid understanding of portions of the law before you even set foot in law school, political science may be the degree for you. According to LawyerEdu.org, a large portion of political science classes are spent learning how to speak in public, which is also a big part of life as a lawyer. These skills could make you a very impressive candidate when applying for law schools. But keep in mind that political science is a popular choice for law student undergrads, so you’ll want to do more to help yourself stand out.
Because there aren’t any hard and fast prerequisites for getting into law school, the undergraduate degree you want to get is really up to you. Use the tips mentioned above to help you pick a path that will help you on your journey toward a law profession.
