chanchito wrote:Pick a major that makes you read a lot. That looks good and gives you practice for LSAT/law school: poli sci, philosophy, history, etc

This is sound advice for gaining a good skill set. The study of law revolves around reading and the practice of law revolves around argumentation through the written word. Majoring in a subject that requires you to read a lot and write plenty of papers is probably going to give you the most helpful experience.

As for strictly being accepted into law schools you just want to get the highest GPA you possibly can. If you take courses that help you understand arguments (like philosophy) it might also help you on the LSAT. I personally found economics to be really helpful on the LSAT. If your econ program doesn't totally suck you'll be well equipped to think about casual relationships and you'll learn enough math/statistics to not be at a disadvantage there.

I disagree. Major in a field that you could see yourself working in if law school doesn't work out. You obviously don't know that you want to be a lawyer, so find a field that would give you a decent plan B if law school doesn't work out. You don't want to wake up in 3 years and realize you don't want to be a lawyer, but you are forced to go to law school anyways because that degree in basket-weaving doesn't exactly have employers fighting over you.

Sounds reasonable in theory, but the reality is that any marketable bachelor's degree such as engineering or CS would likely result in a significantly lower GPA. A business or econ major might be an OK compromise for this approach.

D. H2Oman wrote:Education. Guaranteed 3.8+, even if you're a total idiot.

Is it easier than Communications?

No, definitely education is easier the communications.

And, honestly, the supposed easiness of communications is way overblown. Sure, it is easy to get a C, or even a B, but A's are still challenging, especially because most of your grading is subjective.

Honestly, many otherwise extremely intelligent people would have trouble standing up in front of a class and giving a speech or presentation. I've had a few engineers/scientists admit as much to be during conversations.

A lot of communications is not giving speeches or presentations though, contrary to popular belief. A lot of the "easy" rep comes from the athletes who take communications because, i'll admit, it's pretty difficult to fail a communications class, and not too hard to get a C or B.

I would say that Communications is on the same difficulty tier as other liberal arts majors, such as English and Psychology.

TITCR,

Communications is objectively one of the most challenging UG majors. The Communications majors are generally intellectual heavyweights, while the Education majors usually have trouble locating the classroom.

hoyas2010 wrote:"heyguys"- have you ever heard the reasoning behind that? I'm just curious because I feel like accounting/finance would be quite helpful if one wanted to practice certain types of corp law.

Law Schools like to see writing, and if you haven't taken a heavy writing load they MAY look down on that. However, I don't think this should guide a major decision. Just take backup writing classes if you major in something like accounting/finance.

A major that will allow you to get a high GPA is obviously important. BUT if you decide to take some brain-dead major, you are going to be screwed when you try to write or read anything in law school. My writing has improved tremendously, because my major requires me to write essays constantly. Sometimes I'll proof someone else's paper and it sounds like a freshman in high school wrote it. These are the types of people that are going to be no competition in law school.

hoyas2010 wrote:"heyguys"- have you ever heard the reasoning behind that? I'm just curious because I feel like accounting/finance would be quite helpful if one wanted to practice certain types of corp law.

generally, the profs in question said that they find the accounting/finance folks to not be very interesting thinkers, and that they tend to game the system to get in by acing the LSAT, which said profs don't put much stock in. I'm not endorsing their views, it's just a sentiment that I've heard floating around.

honestabe84 wrote:A major that will allow you to get a high GPA is obviously important. BUT if you decide to take some brain-dead major, you are going to be screwed when you try to write or read anything in law school. My writing has improved tremendously, because my major requires me to write essays constantly. Sometimes I'll proof someone else's paper and it sounds like a freshman in high school wrote it. These are the types of people that are going to be no competition in law school.

How do you know someone who writes at a high school level will get into a law school. Furthermore how do you know how someone will do in law school based on their writing ability in college. Your not even in law school.

honestabe84 wrote:A major that will allow you to get a high GPA is obviously important. BUT if you decide to take some brain-dead major, you are going to be screwed when you try to write or read anything in law school. My writing has improved tremendously, because my major requires me to write essays constantly. Sometimes I'll proof someone else's paper and it sounds like a freshman in high school wrote it. These are the types of people that are going to be no competition in law school.

How do you know someone who writes at a high school level will get into a law school. Furthermore how do you know how someone will do in law school based on their writing ability in college. You're not even in law school.

Fixed

Why wouldn't they be able to get into law school? You don't have to be a good writer to do well on the LSAT.

Someone who writes on a high school level is going to have trouble in law school because it is centered around writing and reading.

I'm currently a finance major but I'm thinking I may want to change my major to a double major in Psychology and Philosophy with a possible minor in English. (I did not choose these majors as an attempt to stand out to admissions officers, but rather these topics truly interest me)

honestabe84 wrote:A major that will allow you to get a high GPA is obviously important. BUT if you decide to take some brain-dead major, you are going to be screwed when you try to write or read anything in law school. My writing has improved tremendously, because my major requires me to write essays constantly. Sometimes I'll proof someone else's paper and it sounds like a freshman in high school wrote it. These are the types of people that are going to be no competition in law school.

How do you know someone who writes at a high school level will get into a law school. Furthermore how do you know how someone will do in law school based on their writing ability in college. You're not even in law school.

Fixed

Why wouldn't they be able to get into law school? You don't have to be a good writer to do well on the LSAT.

Someone who writes on a high school level is going to have trouble in law school because it is centered around writing and reading.

No but you have to write essays to get into law school. How do you know that someone who writes at that level can think and read at a level high enough to do well on the lsat. you dont. my point is your statements are wild speculation. you dont know any of this, although you act like you do.

honestabe84 wrote:A major that will allow you to get a high GPA is obviously important. BUT if you decide to take some brain-dead major, you are going to be screwed when you try to write or read anything in law school. My writing has improved tremendously, because my major requires me to write essays constantly. Sometimes I'll proof someone else's paper and it sounds like a freshman in high school wrote it. These are the types of people that are going to be no competition in law school.

How do you know someone who writes at a high school level will get into a law school. Furthermore how do you know how someone will do in law school based on their writing ability in college. You're not even in law school.

Fixed

Why wouldn't they be able to get into law school? You don't have to be a good writer to do well on the LSAT.

Someone who writes on a high school level is going to have trouble in law school because it is centered around writing and reading.

No but you have to write essays to get into law school. How do you know that someone who writes at that level can think and read at a level high enough to do well on the lsat. you dont. my point is your statements are wild speculation. you dont know any of this, although you act like you do.

Someone with a 170 and a 3.9 does not have to write a good PS to get into law school.

How do you know someone who writes at a high school level will get into a law school. Furthermore how do you know how someone will do in law school based on their writing ability in college. You're not even in law school.[/quote]

Fixed

Why wouldn't they be able to get into law school? You don't have to be a good writer to do well on the LSAT.

Someone who writes on a high school level is going to have trouble in law school because it is centered around writing and reading.[/quote]

No but you have to write essays to get into law school. How do you know that someone who writes at that level can think and read at a level high enough to do well on the lsat. you dont. my point is your statements are wild speculation. you dont know any of this, although you act like you do.[/quote]

Someone with a 170 and a 3.9 does not have to write a good PS to get into law school.[/quote]

Your assuming someone who cannot write has the ability to get those numbers, which is wrong.

quadsixm wrote:Get a 4.333 in Basket Weaving, and then study for the LSAT in all your free time.

There seems to be many followers of this school of thought, with the flip side's main point of contention being that the student who majors in "Basket Weaving" will be grossly unprepared for the rigors of law school. My question is, what affect does an undergraduate degree in Basket Weaving have on future job prospects following law school?

(Assuming that the student acquires a high GPA in UG, scores well enough on the LSAT to get into a top 20 school, and performs fairly well in law school.)

Last edited by Cactus on Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

And, honestly, the supposed easiness of communications is way overblown. Sure, it is easy to get a C, or even a B, but A's are still challenging, especially because most of your grading is subjective.

Honestly, many otherwise extremely intelligent people would have trouble standing up in front of a class and giving a speech or presentation. I've had a few engineers/scientists admit as much to be during conversations.

A lot of communications is not giving speeches or presentations though, contrary to popular belief. A lot of the "easy" rep comes from the athletes who take communications because, i'll admit, it's pretty difficult to fail a communications class, and not too hard to get a C or B.

I would say that Communications is on the same difficulty tier as other liberal arts majors, such as English and Psychology.

TITCR,

Communications is objectively one of the most challenging UG majors. The Communications majors are generally intellectual heavyweights, while the Education majors usually have trouble locating the classroom.

Really? What school do you go to? Communications at my school is like "business prep for dummies." I think half of our comm department at our school is made up of kids who couldn't hack it in business, but they still wanted to get looked at for a business job so they picked up communications instead.

For OP: I think you should do whatever makes you happy and whatever you think you can get a good GPA in. However, if you are looking for a little guidance, I don't think there is a better major out there than philosophy. It is almost all reading, writing, and critical thinking, which are three skills you'll need for law school. I'm not saying writing a law school exam and writing a philosophy essay are necessarily the same thing, but I do think that having a lot of experience in writing and dissecting arguments can help you out a lot, even for the LSAT.

I feel like being a philosophy major at a small school will give me a leg up on most big state school kids who took multiple-choice exams all the time, because I literally have done nothing but write, write, and write some more since I go to college. I recently stumbled upon a few papers I wrote my freshman year, and I was blown away at how bad of a writer I was (and I considered myself to be a good writer coming into undergrad!) I attribute a lot of that growth to the fact that I took a major that required constant writing. Plus most philosophy departments require a logic class, which can help to lay the groundwork for LSAT prep.

And last but not least, philosophy is incredibly interesting and stimulating! I'd say give it a look, and if you're not interested, just pick something that you find interesting and you can do well in. Adcomms don't really care about the major, just the numbers!

I don't think that it has much bearing on legal job prospects at all. If you've proven you can hack it in law school and rank highly in your class, that should be sufficient.

I majored in engineering at a T25 undergrad, and I hate my 2.xx GPA. I have two years of professional experience in Technology, and maybe the major helped prepare me for the LSAT, but I hope that the degree helps me out down the road, somehow.

Cactus wrote:

quadsixm wrote:Get a 4.333 in Basket Weaving, and then study for the LSAT in all your free time.

There seems to be many followers of this school of thought, with the flip side's main point of contention being that the student who majors in "Basket Weaving" will be grossly unprepared for the rigors of law school. My question is, what affect does an undergraduate degree in Basket Weaving have on future job prospects following law school?

(Assuming that the student acquires a high GPA in UG, scores well enough on the LSAT to get into a top 20 school, and performs fairly well in law school.)