<p>American law schools do not like so-called “pre-law” majors for several reasons. Law schools prefer to shape their students’ professional education in the ways of “thinking like a lawyer” without their students entering law school with a lot of misinformed preconceptions. Also, law touches on almost every aspect of human endeavor. In that sense, a broad liberal arts background, along with the writing, speaking, thinking skills fostered by such an education, is the best preparation for law school and a legal career. </p>
<p>At Oxford, as at most European universities, undergraduates can enter directly into a law curriculum. This is a first professional degree in law, equivalent to an American LL.B. It will prepare for entry-level position inthe legal profession in the UK, and could prepare one for a postgrad degree in an American law school (e.g., LL.M.). It may or may not prepare on to pass an American bar exam, though these vary state by state. IIRC, the law course at Oxford is designated as “Jurisprudence”, though it is an a first professional degree in law, rather than a “pre-law” or “legal studies” major of the type seen at some US colleges.</p>
<p>An engineering degree might be a very appropriate degree for someone interested in going to law school, especially if that person had an interest in intellectual property or patent law. To the extent that it fosters analytical thinking and other skills relevant to legal studies, it can prepare a student as well as many nontechnical degrees. A broader engineering curriculum, rather than on that is too narrowly focused, will provide more opportunities for relevant coursework in humanities and social sciences, however. As the other poster indicated, a potential drawback of an engineering degree for law school admission is that its inherent difficulty may deflate one’s GPA. Engineering is among the majors who score at the high end on the LSAT, whereas “pre-law”, criminology, and even business majors, tend to score at the lower end.</p>