I am a senior in high school and am looking forward to college. What do i have to do if i want to pursue law?
Mar.25, 2010 in
College Selection
I honestly have no idea about choosing colleges based on this. Am i supposed to choose a college that has law? Are credits transferrable form one college to another. If i want to pursure in law what classes should i take. Please help me. and whats with associatve,bachelors and masters, what do they mean. I have COD and calumet college in mind would that be okay. Please help me.
March 25th, 2010 at 4:35 am
Associates is a two year degree. Bachelors is the degree you get from a four year school. Masters is beyond that and takes people various amounts of time, usually a year or two. Credits ARE transferable between most schools and your school will have a department that will help you with that. You can declare pre-law as your major, but many lawyers suggest getting your bachelors degree in another topic, maybe business or politics depending on what type of law you want to do, and double majoring in pre-law or minoring in law because you will learn everything you need to know in law school and your bachelors could then work as a second area of expertise!
Good luck!!!
March 25th, 2010 at 5:27 am
Actually, one of the best things to do for these sort of “professional” careers (doctors, lawyers, etc) is to major in something that ISN’T that field. The reason being is that law firms, etc are finding that the lawyers that do best have a wide range of experience and a larger frame of reference than just a legal background. I’m planning to enter the military as a JAG (military lawyer) but my mom (who was also a JAG) has been convincing me to major in something other than Justice Studies for those very reasons. So even though that’s my main interest and best subject, I’m working to find something else to major in to make myself more competitive if/when I enter the civilian sector of law and need to find a job!
March 25th, 2010 at 5:52 am
All you have to do is get a Bachelor’s degree in anything you want, it doesnt matter as long as you have a Bachelor’s degree, whether it is a BS or BA degree. Then take the LSATs and then you apply. Go to any college you want to go to. Take any class you want.
March 25th, 2010 at 6:35 am
While you can get a bachelors in anything and get into law school with adequate LSAT scores, you should consider Philosophy. It teaches you about great thinkers, and how people can convince people, etc.
However, if you want to be a lawyer that specializes in something, say tax law, you should get your undergraduate degree in a related field (such as business/accounting for a tax lawyer).
March 25th, 2010 at 6:45 am
I assume you are in the US, where Law is a graduate degree — meaning you need a four-year degree (BS or BA) first. You don’t need any law courses before starting law school.
In order to increase your chances of getting into a decent law school, you should go to the best four-year college tha tyou can get into. Your major doesn’t matter and it doesn’t matter if that school has a law school. What will matter are: the quality of your school, your GPA and your score on standardized tests (LSAT). A few other things matter, too — but those are the big ones.
Princeton Review has a tool tha twill help you pick a colege. you answer questions about your background and interests and it suggests schools for you. The link is below.