When I was researching about the school I saw that there was an undergrad 3+3 Law program that interests me. However, when I go through the application form in common app, pre-law major doesnt show up for me to select. Am i supposed to apply for the program separately or am I doing something wrong?
that’s a good question for the admissions office. My guess is that you could probably major in whatever you want and then go on to the law portion of the program. Law is a big umbrella that covers virtually all subjects, so it doesn’t really matter what subject you take. You could be a math major, or a theater major, or a nursing major, or an engineering major or accountant–all of those and more are useful in a law degree. Then the three years of law seems like the usual three years of law.
While I applaud your gumption and ambition, I would encourage you to also look at other law school possibilities.
Before deciding on this program, find out how much your debt will be at graduation. Also ask the law school there what their employment record is. By federal mandate, I believe, they should list their break down of jobs on their website. Study that carefully while asking the question: will I get a job 1) that I like and 2) with the sort of pay that will allow me to pay of the debt I incur.
Law careers are bimodal, meaning that there are two bumps in the normal curve. (A normal curve is a bell-shaped curve with the most data points gathered in the middle. Law has two bumps in its salary data.) One group of attorneys if they get to work in law, makes about $60K per year or so. The other group makes about $150K-$170K per year.
It’s a generally accepted rule that if you want to go into law and guarantee that you’ll actually practice law afterwards, you would need to attend one of the top 14 law schools. But graduating in the top of Albany’s class might also get you where you want to go. You need to do that research ahead of time, though. Also Columbia and NYU grads tend to get the highest salaries starting. Those top schools also seem to offer (check the details with each school) loan forgiveness if you decide to go into government work or public interest work, that includes like working in DC or working in Albany government, or working in the court system, or doing advocacy for immigrants, or other social justice issues, usually. Albany may offer things like this, but you should do this research ahead of time so that you’re not stuck with debt and a job that wasn’t what you wanted.
To get into a top law school, you will need 1) any major; 2) top grades from your undergraduate school; SUNY Albany is a fine school for that and so are many other schools; 3) top LSAT scores–above 172. It helps also to have built some sort of track record in what you would like to do. For example, if you’re interested in health-related law or product liability for drugs, for example, you may want to have a background in nursing, pharmacy, chemistry, and so on. If you want to do law related to Japan, you’d maybe take Japanese courses, maybe take a semester abroad in Japan, and maybe do the JET program to teach English there after graduating. If you want to do social justice law of some sort, you’d probably want to intern for a related social justice organization, that sort of thing. That all helps when you apply. But if you don’t have those things, no worries as long has you have a virtual 4.0 average and an LSAT above 172. You can do that. You need to apply yourself relentlessly to those goals. Study study study. And then study some more.
Best of luck to you.
Wow, didn’t expect to receive such a long and well written response to this question. But I definitely agree with you on your take on graduating from a law program. It’s been a dream of my parents for me to get a degree in the law field ever since I can remember, and it’d be really nice if I get to fulfill that through Albany as my starting point. No doubt that I will research deeply about this after hearing your insight. Thank you.
My S is also interested in 3+3 Law at Albany. SUNY Albany doesn’t have a pre-law major, so choose the major you are interested in (which is usually what is recommended for students interested in law school anyway), and then after acceptance, fill out the 3+3 law application. S realizes that it would be better to go to a top law school, but he also likes the idea of having a “safety net” law school in his pocket as long as he maintains his gpa and gets a reasonable LSAT score. Acceptance into the program is non-binding, so you can still look at other law schools…
That 3+3 law program might turn out to be a fantastic deal in the long run. Law school can get very expensive and if you can compress it into a 6 year program at SUNY rates, then you would be able to keep the cost down. this will allow you to pursue areas you might not be able to due to high student debt.
Good luck.
@Dustyfeathers hey, i have a quick question. since you say “virtually all majors”, would that apply to a computer science major as well? i know there’s lots of computer laws but im more interested in i guess you would say “street crimes” as a defense attorney. i really like everything about the law so ill be doing it more or less as a hobby and hopefully open my own office when i retire from w.e computer science job i have.
Has anyone heard back from their 3+3 Law Program application yet?