<p>I want to go the CCC-transfer to UCB or UCLA route, what major should I go with if I have aspirations of attending Law grad school? My forte has been history and English (in HS).</p>
<p>I'm majoring in psychology and plan to minor in philosophy.</p>
<p>Personally, I feel that Philosophy would be the best candidate for an undergraduate major (my tastes have also been in history and English).</p>
<p>You might not be of the bent, but mathematics is a good analytical training, and from what I've heard good preparation for law school. Aside from that, philosophy with a focus on logic will be your best preparation.</p>
<p>I lot of people don't specifically prepare for law school with their undergrad degree and do fine; it just depends on your goals.</p>
<p>I do happen to have a familiarity with law school admissions, BTW. (;</p>
<p>Most Common Undergraduate Majors:
Economics, English, History, Philosophy, Political Science</p>
<p>I hope that helps.</p>
<p>I am a political science major with the intent of attending a top 5 law school. My current major is political science.</p>
<p>What many counselors tell people is that you should get your major in whatever you like. To me this is fluffed talk. To be honest, I would pick a major that would help you with whatever carrier path with law you plan on pursuing after law school. If you want to go into politics after law school, major in political science or public policy. If you want to be an environmental lawyer, major in environment science. If you want to be a business lawyer, major in economics.</p>
<p>All my personal advice is what I have personally thought over for my carrier path. I enjoy political science and I plan on eventually pursuing a carrier in politics after a while of either practicing or teaching law.</p>
<p>Hard science (likes of Physics), Math (applied math is not as good) philosophy, and History have been the most successful in terms of number game. But then again, wouldnt it be easier to boost your gpa up if you sticked with what you enjoy studying?</p>
<p>it all depends what you want to do. if you want tech IP, then prob. something like EE. If you want financial law, then something like econ. i would not do poli sci or english since everyone is like that.</p>
<p>"I am a political science major with the intent of attending a top 5 law school. My current major is political science."</p>
<p>lol yay for redundancy</p>
<p>hotelmoscow,</p>
<p>Whatever an aspiring law student says is never redundant!</p>
<p>I was simply displaying my circumstances to let him know that I also have high expectations of attending law school as well. So whatever my advice I display is not just that of a laymen, but of someone who can understand the poster. It is something that I have, personally, done quite a bit of research on.</p>
<p>A : pure math or physics
B : history or philosophy</p>
<p>choose one frome each group A and B. make your plate and go for double major! those combinations are most ideal ones if you can ever handle it.</p>
<p>UCSCplease, I plan to do the same thing!</p>
<p>Don't pick your major based on the typical pre-law school majors. Pick your major because you genuinely love the discipline. Many people will tell you to major in philosophy or economics because they teach you logic and analytical thinking. True: you should take some courses in philosophy and economics because they will help you develop analytical skills, but those majors may not be your passion. I'm a business major and I plan on applying to T14 law schools. Business is an easy major according to most, but I've challenged myself by taking courses from other disciplines. I've applied to UCB (Haas) and UCLA (Business Econ). Haas grads from the last several years have gone to virtually every law school - including Harvard, Columbia and University of Chicago. Pick a major that you like and then challenge yourself beyond the major' requirements. In the end GPA and LSAT scores matter alot though. Keep your GPA high, plan on taking a month-long LSAT prep course and score over 170 on it and you can get into just about every law school.</p>
<p>isnt boalt hall #1 in IP?</p>
<p>I plan on attending law school for my post-grad....I'm an English major. My cousin who just got into quite a few law schools is a Business major....From what I've heard, all that matters is a high GPA and doing well on the LSAT.</p>
<p>GPA + LSAT is truly all that matters for getting in to most schools, you will need other factors to truly set you apart for Yale and the like.</p>
<p>However, regardless of the major you should probably minor in poli sci or take all the pre law courses you can, that will make your first year MUCH easier . My husband is in law school and during his first year a lot of things were much easier because they were review and many cases he already was familiar with along with the format of writing briefs and doing IRACs.</p>
<p>UCSB offers a law and society course. </p>
<p>I am surprised that no one has suggested Communications!
All lawyers do is speak and analyze. I'm majoring in communications with an intent to go to law school.</p>
<p>Since my father is a lawyer who runs his own lawfirm and has ~50 lawyers under him, I decided to ask him this question while we were on vacation and he was scanning his blackberry.</p>
<p>He told me that any major for law school is fine. You can be a music major, a science major, a... musical science major (lol, i don't know). He said that law schools can't be biased about your major, though they often seem like they are. He said stellar LSAT scores (+178 will get you into Yale Law) and community service/volunteering (volunteering at a legal aide clinic).</p>
<p>When he hires people, he doesn't even look at their major for undergrad. He'll read the name of their undergraduate program and if intrigued, he'll ask what their major was (mainly for conversation and rapport) and then he'll look at graduate school. If the gap between the undergrad school and the grad school is great (such as CSUN to Yale), he takes note of this as well.</p>
<p>But he stressed to me that it's about the person and the personality. Not all lawyers speak and do analysis. They read, a lot, and they have to spend countless number of hours writing depositions or "memos" that happen to be 25 pages long.</p>
<p>My dad is a corporate lawyer (HP, Coca-Cola, Gateway, LG, stuff like that) but does pro-bono law when he has time (NAPABA, i think it's spelled like that). He also added that the prestige of the grad school doesn't mean that the guy/girl will be a great lawyer. He only has 4 Ivy league graduates and most of the others are from USC, UCLA and UCB (all very good in their own way). But he won't meet with an applicant if they came from Pepperdine Law School or below, he told me that their writing is consistently under-par and they come to him with a sob story to appeal to his emotions.</p>
<p>I hope this gives you guys some insight on the future of being a lawyer. Given that this is just a slice.</p>
<p>best major for law?
i would go with political science.
in political science you really learn how the political system works and how intricately involved it is exaactly like law.
philosophy is also good but i thinkk polisci will give you a better understand of how things actually work wheras philosophy is theoretical.
purely for critical thinking skiklls philosophy is the best it will help you do well on LSAT but i still say polisci gives you better practical knowledge.</p>
<p>thanks for you input xleper.</p>
<p>as said before, there is really no "best" major, it all depends on what you want to do. if i were hiring i would not hire a someone who has no technical background for computer and electronics IP, thus an engineering degree would be necessary. </p>
<p>my uncle is a patent attorney for fairly large firm and has recently had a supreme court case and he said they dont really care about undergrad- its all about the law school and lsat. </p>
<p>"He also added that the prestige of the grad school doesn't mean that the guy/girl will be a great lawyer. He only has 4 Ivy league graduates and most of the others are from USC, UCLA and UCB (all very good in their own way). But he won't meet with an applicant if they came from Pepperdine Law School or below, he told me that their writing is consistently under-par and they come to him with a sob story to appeal to his emotions."</p>
<p>in my uncle's team there are 9 people and worst of them being an UCLA law school grad. and he really looks at peoples work habits. he doesnt really like 2 people in his team( northwestern and chicago) because their lack of aggressiveness and proactive-ness. if think he would meet with a pepperdine law school grad, if they can prove that they are better than a harvard or yale law grad.</p>
<p>xleper- i think there is a possibility that your dad and my uncle know each other. we were on the side that recently went to court against LG (LG vs Quanta). awesome experience, but sub 30 degrees weather was not fun.</p>
<p>lol, my dad's most recent case was for the new President of South Korea (some guy stole $30 mil from him). I'll inquire about the case when my dad comes back from golf (lol! lawyer!).</p>
<p>My dad also told me last night that 90% of people that inquire about a position (they're always hiring, apparently) do not get through the screening process and the firm sends them rejection letters, like a university!!! hahaha. crushing blow.</p>
<p>My dad had to fire a UCB law grad because her writing wasn't good enough. =/ a little unnerving...</p>