Most importantly, students in subsequent majors met the requirements of the law school and were admitted based on their abilities rather than their major. A good pre-law program should also give you an edge when you enter law school. For example, law schools typically teach using the Socratic method, a teaching style in which the teacher asks questions and you learn through class discussions. If you get used to this style of teaching during your studies, you may be better prepared for law school. The practice of the law also requires strong oral and written language skills for things like case descriptions, reports, and the analysis and presentation of a case. You are expected to apply these skills both in law school and in practice. The pre-law major prepares you for success in the legal field by introducing you to legal concepts and courses that other students may not be familiar with at the beginning of their first semester of law. This will give you a head start on your competitors during your 1L year (first year of law) and can help you work better in your courses. While there is no pre-law major or a number of required courses, you can still prepare for law school while you`re in college. Here are a few ways to do it: You can also have increased endurance in reading and writing, two very important but time-consuming skills that many 1L students struggle with during their first semester of law. This can help you complete your first assignments in law school with more accuracy, less time, and less general stress.
There are important skills, values, knowledge and experience that you can gain before studying law that provide a solid foundation for legal education. If you want to adequately prepare for legal education and a legal career or other professional service that involves the use of legal skills, you should seek educational, extracurricular, and life experiences that will help you develop these attributes. The student who does not have this foundation will face a difficult challenge. Here are some brief comments. Discussion and analysis Problem solving You should look for courses and other experiences that involve you in critical thinking on important issues, challenge your beliefs, and improve your tolerance for uncertainty and criticism. Your legal education will require you to structure and evaluate arguments for and against proposals that are likely to cause reasonable debate. A good legal education will teach you to „think like a lawyer,” but the analytical and problem-solving skills required of lawyers are not fundamentally different from those employed by other professionals. Your legal experience will develop and refine these crucial skills, but you must enter law school with a reasonably well-developed set of analytical and problem-solving skills. Critical reading Preparation for legal education should include extensive experience in accurately reading and critically analyzing complex textual documents, as much of what you will do as a law student and lawyer involves careful reading and understanding of judicial opinions, statues, documents, and other written documents. You can develop your critical reading skills in a variety of experiences, including accurately reading complex documents in literature, political or economic theory, philosophy, or history. The particular type of material examined is not decisive; It is important to note that law school should not be the first time you have rigorously engaged in the effort to carefully read, understand, and critically analyze complex written documents of significant length. Writing and editing If you want to prepare for legal training, you need to develop a high level of written communication skills.
Language is a lawyer`s most important tool, and lawyers must learn to express themselves clearly and concisely. Legal education gives you a good written education and especially in the specific techniques and forms of written expression that are common in the law. However, basic writing skills must be acquired and refined before entering law school. You need to gain as much experience as possible that requires rigorous and analytical writing, including preparing original pieces of considerable length and reviewing written work in response to constructive criticism. Oral Communication and Listening The ability to speak clearly and convincingly is another skill essential to your success in law school and the practice of law. You also need to have excellent listening skills if you want to understand your customers and others with whom you will interact on a daily basis. As with writing skills, legal education provides excellent opportunities to hone oral communication skills and, in particular, to practice the forms and techniques of oral expression that are most common in legal practice. However, before entering law school, you should try to develop your basic speaking and listening skills, such as participating in debates, making formal presentations in class, or speaking in front of groups at school, in the community, or in the workplace.
While there are many law-specific research sources and techniques, you do not need to have developed familiarity with these specific skills or documents before entering law school. However, it would be to your advantage to come to law school after having had the experience of carrying out a project that requires significant library research and the analysis of large amounts of information acquired through this research. „If you`re serious about law school, some clients have suggested you take another step and do a double degree. For example, if you like history, why not add a second major like economics? Economics requires a strong quantitative component, while history requires a lot of writing. Both of these skills are highly valued in the labour market and by potential law schools. Even if you decide to work after graduation and go to law school at a later date, what you earn by taking more challenging courses will pay off when you take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT),” says Bradshaw, International University Admissions Consultant at Bradshaw College Consulting. A double major or even a single major with a high concentration in a secondary subject will make you much more competitive. But be careful. Some majors are easier to combine than others. For example, engineering requires so many prerequisites that it may not leave room for a second major or even a little attention. „This means that some grandes écoles have better pre-legal programs than others.
The best programs allow you to improve your critical thinking skills (which will impress law schools). Check out our list of the 11 best schools for pre-law here! For example, it may not be in your interest to go straight to law school if: English is one of the majors that has always been associated with law school because of the reading, writing, and critical thinking required in an English degree. English students must be able to research, formulate an argument and defend their position in writing, all of which are skills that future lawyers will also need. Law schools accept students from all majors, and there is no single course for all prospective law students. Law schools don`t expect you to have a solid legal knowledge before you start law school. If you`re trying to choose a major that best prepares you for law school, you may want to choose a major that emphasizes logic, analytical skills, reading comprehension, and writing skills. These are all attributes you need to do well at LSAT and law school. It is incredibly difficult to evaluate the best colleges for those who want to go to law school. In general, the best way to prepare for law school is to excel in challenging bachelor`s degree courses that strengthen your analytical skills. Even if you put your heart into specializing in front of the law, very, very few colleges offer it as a major. In addition, most of the schools that offer it are not ranked very high among the national colleges and universities.
The criminal justice major tends to have a lower percentage of admitted candidates than other majors. English, history and economics all had more candidates admitted than the criminal justice system. Do you want to become a lawyer? In the United States, you need to complete a 4-year college and then go to law school if you want to practice as a lawyer.