sephora2

what are the best undergrad law programs?

sybbie719

There are no "undergrad law' programs because one attends a law school after obtaining an undergrad degree.


When looking for an undergrad program, try really hard not to enroll in a "pre-law" program

iljets10

I would argue that registering as pre-law is not really an issue at all, provided that your university does not require you to take any classes. However, having a major such as legal studies or paralegal is a huge negative for going to law schools.

jonri

Huh?!!! If what jets10 is saying is that there's no harm in registering with career services at your undergrad college as pre-law so you're on the email list for information about law school, that's right. However, I can't imagine trying to identify the "best undergrad law programs" on the basis of the info handed out by the pre-law adviser to those who registered on such a list.

There are no required college courses for admission to law school. No particular course of study is more likely to lead to admissions to top law schools. Colleges that have "pre law majors" are just taking advantage of students' ignorance about that.

barcelonista14

I think there are some undergrad law programs in Europe, i.e. Oxford, Cambridge, etc.

Not too sure about the US though...the most common path seems to be a undergrad major in philosophy/politics and then law school.

BerkeleySenior

^ Yes, in Europe the law programs are undergrad programs. If you study in Europe you can only practice there and not in the US.

The most popular majors for law students in the US are Political Science, History, Economics, English, and a few others. The ones that have the highest average LSATs are Math/Physics, then Philosophy/Religion, then Economics. I think this is partly due to the logical nature of the majors (along with the types of students that tend to pick these majors).

Average LSAT Scores for 29 Majors with over 400 Students Taking the Exam

Ironically "legal studies/pre-law/criminology" majors do the worst on the exam.

concerneddad

FYI,

I stuck this thread for the value of the list of majors and LSAT scores.

aznmatrix1869

Why does everyone say that it is not good to do a pre-law major going in to law school? I really don't see any sense in that except for maybe the difficulty of getting good grades. Wouldn't pre-law be the best major for going into law school assuming you had an equal GPA in any other majors.

unbelievablem

1) in my personal experience -- "law" classes i took as an undergraduate bore little resemblance to anything i studied in law school -- if anything i think they were counterproductive because they gave a false sense of thinking you were learning things that would be relevant to law school -- which simply wasn't the case.
2) law professors do not want students coming in as first years who think they already know how to study "law" -- it just makes it harder for them to show you that you don't know the first thing about studying law so that they can begin to teach you how to study law. in other words -- the first step to learning is realizing you know nothing. studying "pre-law" delays that realization. it doesn't somehow let you skip that first step.
3) use your undergraduate years to explore. three years of law school is MORE than enough to study law courses.

kelseyg

The opposite, actually - I think the problem is pre-law isn't seen as being particularly competitive or difficult, and it doesn't have the tradition and academia behind it that, say, the liberal arts do. It doesn't prepare you in the way that law schools want their students prepared.

Megan2010

wait since Europe has undergrad law programs could a US student get an undergrad law degree there then go to a US law school?

unbelievablem

why in the world would you want to? why the rush to start studying law!!! enjoy your undergraduate 4 years. worry about studying law when you get to law school!! i don't think there has been anyone here who has actually gone to law school who has recommended studying pre-law and in fact we seem pretty consistently to advise against it. yet so many posters who haven't even started law school keep asking, "but isn't this a good idea?"

bluedevilmike

Law schools, almost unanimously, tell you that the ONLY major they don't like is pre-law. They ostensibly don't care about the rest: engineering, sociology, psychology, economics, history, English, math... all those, they steadfastly refuse to tell you that any are better or worse. The ONLY exception is pre-law. They don't like pre-law majors.

Americanski

It's nice to see they've updated the list of LSAT scores by major, though I think there are a couple typographical errors in the most recent list. The number of psych majors listed is almost certainly the polisci figure, and it's a little odd that the number of English major applicants has apparently fallen by about 80% in less than a decade. I'm also wondering why they combined sociology and social work, which really aren't the same major at all.

I don't know why not. But if they were applying as an LLM, they would probably need at least five years of post-secondary legal education or have been admitted to the bar and practicing for a while before a program would accept them. I doubt they'd be able to go to college for four years and then get into an LLM program here.

FutureLawyer

Hahahahah...I love how on that page Prelaw majors have the 2nd lowest LSAT score...such irony!