PRELAW HANDBOOK - Prelaw and Choice of Courses

PRELAW AND COURSE SELECTION
TOPICS

LINKS

ADVICE

TAKING LAW-RELATED COURSES

TAKING SERIOUS COURSES

COURSE LOAD AND GRADUATING EARLY

CHOOSING PROFESSORS

UNDERGRADUATE LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAMS

The ABA does not recommend any particular group of undergraduate courses that should be taken by those wishing to prepare for law school so choosing to attend law school, strictly speaking, poses little or no restriction on choosing courses.

LINKS

Check the ABA's list of PREPARATION FOR LEGAL EDUCATION.
This website gives information about undergraduate preparation for a good law school experience. Use this information and advice from your prelaw advisor to determine which electives are needed to fill in any gaps that you may have among the skills, values, and knowledge considered important by the ABA.

The Holy Cross Prelaw Program gives good advice about COURSE SELECTION.

ADVICE

Make sure that your undergraduate course work leads to a Bachelor's degree.

The best or most appropriate courses will vary from one institution to another and will often be dependent on the particular skill and teaching ability of the instructor teaching the course.

Follow your heart and take courses that interest you.


Take serious courses with excellent instructors.

Take some courses that will improve your essay test-taking skills or your research skills.

Take some courses that will develop your research skills.

If you feel your major does not adequately prepare you to write well or to think logically and analytically, you should take electives that will.


A beginning course in logic should help you think logically and prove useful for the LSAT.

Take some upper-division courses that test anddevelop your intellectual and analytical skills.
Many law school admission committees are unable or unwilling to determine which courses are serious and which disciplines are subject to extreme grade inflation.


The study of a foreign language, per se, is not necessary for admission to law school.


Law students and lawyers are very dependent on the personal computer. Taking one or more computer or computer-related courses may be of value.

Take courses that will improve your oral communication skills since lawyers must be able to present their views and those of their client clearly, forcefully, and persuasively.

Take writing assignments seriously and develop research skills.

TAKING LAW RELATED COURSES

The College of Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says that You are not required or expected to take law-related courses as an undergraduate. Some students take an undergraduate course in Business Law or Constitutional Law to see if they are really interested in legal material. This can be a sensible approach if you are in doubt. But, these courses are often taught much differently than the same courses are taught in law school. Here again you will not gain an "edge" once you get to law school. You should consider whether you want to duplicate courses offered in law school when there are so many other courses that could broaden your overall education.

New York University PreLaw Handbook offers some advice on law-related courses: In short, while law-related courses may help you decide whether law is a field which interests you and may familiarize you with a new vocabulary, undergraduate law courses will neither help you get into law school nor measurably help you once you are there. Be wary of claims made by any professor that a particular undergraduate course will improve law school grades.
     As an undergraduate, you may want to enroll in one or two law-oriented courses to test your interest in the study of law."
     Most law schools specifically advise against taking one category of courses, those--such as 'business law'--which are vocational in nature. Admissions committees presume that you will spend sufficient time studying 'law' while in law school, and they prefer that the undergraduate years be used to acquire a broad field of general knowledge upon which legal studies can be based. Similarly, most law schools actively discourage students from taking too many law-related classes as undergraduates.

The Law School Option at Johns Hopkins states that You may be tempted to take "law-related" courses. While such courses offer students an opportunity to test their academic interest in law, law schools urge undergraduates not to take these courses in such numbers that they prevent them from taking a broad range of courses in the liberal arts.

The University of Southern California Pre-Law indicates that Some colleges and universities have pre-law programs, which may be labeled majors, minors, or concentrations. Almost all colleges will have law-related courses. These courses are not necessary as background for success in law school. In fact, they may be contra-indicated. Every law-related course a student takes is one fewer course he or she can take in other areas, and law schools are inclined to look less favorably upon a
transcript full of law-related courses.
      Law schools expect that a law school student will get her/his legal education in law school, not prior to entering law school. One exception: students who are uncertain about whether or not law is of interest to them are advised to take at least one law-related course as exploration.

TAKING SERIOUS COURSES



Prelaw at the University of Notre Dame gives the high-minded advice: "If you feel your major does not adequately prepare you to write well or to think logically and analytically, you should take electives that will. Take challenging courses, and exercise the self-discipline to do well in those courses.''

The question arises as to whether you should take mickey mouse courses and get good grades or take serious courses with the possibility of lower grades. Law school admission committees claim to examine the quality of the courses taken but will a law school admissions committees realize that an "A" in Calculus for Business is not as impressive as a "B" in Calculus 1, a course for math and physics majors; we certainly know that the law school admissions committees can distinguish between an "A" and a "B."

COURSE LOAD AND GRADUATING EARLY

A course load of 14-16 credits per semester (excluding summer) is appropriate.

It is better to take 16 credits and get A's and B's than to get C's with 20 credits. (The New York University PreLaw Handbook)

Although a heavy course load does make an impression on admissions officers, it is still more important to take an average number of credits (approximately 15) per semester and do your best. Completing your degree requirements a semester or a year early is not in itself seen as a benefit. (The Johns Hopkins Law School Option, slightly revised).

If you are averaging less than fifteen credits per semester, you may have to take courses during the summer or graduate in more than four years. Unless there has been a drastic change in circumstances (e.g. you quit your job), trying to make up this credit deficit by taking more than fifteen or sixteen credits in a semester may be a poor idea.

CHOOSING PROFESSORS



Check the student evaluation of teachers; at many colleges these results are available.

To locate excellent teachers who encourage and reward thinking, talk to academic advisors, prelaw advisors, teachers, and friends.

Seek out professors who make you think about the subject matter and require the use of analytical and problem-solving skills, rather than those who simply teach you the material. (The Pre-Law Handbook at Florida State University).

Rather than searching for courses that might be good for law school, you are far better advised to search for excellent professors in any discipline. (Boston University).

Students should recognize that the best or most appropriate courses will vary from one institution to another and will often be dependent on the particular skill and teaching ability of the instructor teaching the course. (The Holy Cross Prelaw Program).

Seek excellence in instruction. Select courses with professors who inspire, challenge, and demand the best from you. (The University of Illinois Pre-Law).
Search for excellent professors who make you think about the subject matter and require the use of analytical and problem-solving skills.

UNDERGRADUATE LEGAL-STUDIES PROGRAMS

     The American Bar Association lists 60 colleges and universities with undergraduate programs roughly double the number offered 15 years ago, according to John Paul Ryan, a former bar association administrator who is now an education consultant. He says he has seen a slow and steady growth in undergraduate law programs since they first appeared in the early 1970s.
     Some take a more vocational approach and describe themselves as pre-law programs, while others, like Washington's, teach students about the law from a liberal-arts perspective.
     Critics question whether they have a place in an undergraduate curriculum, but advocates of undergraduate law programs are lobbying to expand them to more colleges.
                    From the CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION (July 28, 2006)

Reviewed February 13, 2010