<p>JHS - I’m not in law, so obviously you would know much better than I, but my friends that have thrived in litigation tend to be the competitive, zero-sum type of guys. Of course they never get the outright wins, but they seem to like the challenge of always having an adversary there, and needing to prove or argue something. I’d find that lifestyle kind of fatiguing, but that’s just me. </p>
<p>drdom - the best advice I can give you is for your son to talk to upper classmen and his classmates. What are his academic interests? I’d recommend he seek out some upperclassmen who also are majoring in whatever he’s interested in, and talk to them. Moreover, tell your son to USE SHOPPING period wisely. The first week, sit in on a bunch of classes, talk to other students, and get a sense of the professor’s demands. If your son is serious about law school, for better or worse, he always needs to be cognizant about his GPA. </p>
<p>Also, what are your son’s academic strengths? To be blunt, while many of the social sciences and humanities classes are demanding at Chicago, I don’t think the range of grades for many of these disciplines vary as much as in the sciences. Put another way, lots of people in the sciences get Cs or worse, but I’d imagine most grades in humanities courses range from B to A. If your son is a good writer and diligent, poli sci, history, english, etc. are all excellent possible concentrations. Again, it’s important for him to major in something that he loves, bc his work will benefit as a result of this. </p>
<p>Also - yes, it is FINE to take three classes a quarter every once in a while. There is a culture at Chicago to cram as much as possible and overextend yourself all the time to fit in all the classes you want to take. DON’T buy into this philosophy. For law school, they don’t care that you took a hard series of courses every single quarter at Chicago. They care about your GPA and LSAT. When your son anticipates a hard core class coming up and his schedule allows for it, certainly just have him take three classes. He’ll probably be much happier this way too.</p>