cantochickk

Is it possible for me to study pre-law at barnard/columbia? I know that barnard doesn't have pre-law as a major, but I was wondering if I could study pre-law at columbia U as a barnard student??

p.s. I know there were some misunderstandings in my previous posts, but I really appreciate the parents here for answering my questions. <3

mardad

There aren't many requirements for law school like there are for med school. I can't think of any in fact. Preparation for the LSAT is done outside the university by private companies. You can major in whatever you want. If you visit some of the websites of the law schools you can get a list of majors. My nephew is starting law school with a physics degree.

mythmom

My D will be going to Law School from Barnard with an American Studies major. She has a special concentration in Law and Literature.

pohaku

I agree. Virtually any major will qualify you for law school. You should make a strong effort to learn to read, analyze and write though. Those are essential skills in law. At my firm, many applicants are rejected because of the apparent weakness in their writing. In addition, if you are thinking about practicing business law, some econ, accounting and finance won't hurt you either. Law schools run remedial classes for their students to teach them the rudiments of accounting, how to read financial statements and enough econ to understand modern antitrust law. It is helpful to know something about how businesses work if you are going to represent them. Unless you are strongly considering a specific practice subject area (like intellectual property where it will help immensely to have an advanced degree in a hard science) pretty much any degree will work. Many of my college friends are attorneys and their majors run the gamut from anthropology to econ to poli sci to english to religion to theater. My law school friends also had degrees in journalism, engineering, microbiology, sociology, nursing and medicine.

aube88

Neither Barnard nor Columbia have a pre-law program. But I echo the comments saying you don't need to be pre-law to go to law school; and I have many friends from bc or cu who have gone to excellent law schools.

That said, there are some excellent law-related classes at CU which will help you dip your toes in. For example, President Bollinger (who has appeared before the Supreme Court, and is an extremely well-respected first-amendment scholar) , teaches a law class on freedom of speech and press that is taught exactly like a law class (and he used to teach a law class). There are several other classes that are law-related, too.