Best Massachusetts university for pre-law?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello, fellow CCers! </p>

<p>I'm a rising high school senior looking for some college tips.
Before I get started, here's some background info on me academically: I have a 3.97 unweighted GPA (my counselor told me that I'm in the top 5% of my class, but we don't officially do class rank), a difficult course load (all honors/advanced/AP classes), a 2360 SAT score (took it once), high 700's on SAT II's, and 5's on the few AP tests I've taken so far (at my school, almost all AP classes are only for seniors). </p>

<p>Given my academic strengths as well as my EC's, volunteer work, leadership roles at school, various awards, and great relationships with my teachers (looking forward to glowing recs!), I feel like--even though tons of incredibly smart and well-rounded people get denied every year--I have a pretty decent chance getting into Harvard if I apply SCEA. This would be great not only because Harvard is an amazing school, but also because I'm planning to apply to law school after college, and tons of Harvard undergrads interested in law get into we'll-respected law schools. Now, if I don't get into Harvard as an undergrad, what's important to me is that I attend a school that will give me the education I need to succeed in law school...and the ability to even get into a top law school in the first place!</p>

<p>So:
I'm a New England gal, born and raised, and I'm dead set on attending college in Massachusetts, preferably close to Boston. What I'm wondering is, besides Harvard, what other schools would be a good fit for me, given my academic ability and my desire to attend law school?</p>

<p>Thanks to anyone who responds! :)</p>

2

<p>My best friend from college is a lawyer working for the government. Undergrad at Mount Holyoke, law school at Washington U. in St. Louis.
Remember you can major in just about anything and get into law school. My friend’s major was French and 18th century art…it’s your writing, thinking, reasoning abilities that have to be strong. Any school should serve you well. Go to the school your family can most easily afford, and do the best you can possibly do at that school. You won’t be at any top law school if you have to worry about affording it because undergrad put you or your parents too deeply in debt.</p>

3

<p>I appreciate that advice!
However, thanks to some kind and wealthy relatives, money isn’t a huge concern in this process.</p>

4

<p>All I know is my friend and her husband, an IRS tax attorney (Cornell) are still, at age 46, paying off law school. (Both from well-off but not rich families.) They have great careers, but that money can’t go toward their kid’s college, vacations, or other things they would rather spend it on…There are many, many students who are told not to worry about the money, and then find out late in the process that the parents, grandparents, etc were way off on their estimations of how much money college was going to cost, etc. Or the effect it would have on retirement funding, etc. Read a lot on this site and see that it’s not only the pricey schools that can get you to the top notch grad programs.</p>

5

<p>University of Massachusetts- Amherst
MIT
Northeastern University
Boston College
Boston University</p>

6

<p>well if you can get into Harvard then of course Harvard. Otherwise, I would think schools like MIT, BC, Tufts, Brandeis, Wellesley, Smith, Amherst, Williams, Holy Cross, Mt Holyoke would all give top notch undergrad education and would offer a pre-law advisor to guide you along the way. Lots of strong schools to choose from in MA.</p>

7

<p>stateuniversity.com ranks colleges and universities using a combination of factors including student test scores, student retention, faculty salary, and student / faculty ratio (similar to the US News ranking, but without the subjective peer assessment and guidance counsellor scores). Their results sometimes look a little odd. However, for what it’s worth, here’s a list of the 20 schools in Massachusetts that rank highest:</p>

<p>[College</a> Rankings - Top Ranked Universities in Massachusetts](<a href=“http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank_by_state/score_rank/MA.html]College”>Top Ranked Universities in Massachusetts - Highest Overall School Score)</p>

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<p>Look up the entering class profiles for Harvard Law, Yale Law, or other highly selective schools. They each admit students from scores of colleges.</p>

8

<p>Tufts and Brandeis as well.</p>

9

<p>The constraint that the college be in Massachusetts is irrational. We’re all looking at a “map” and telling you the obvious geographic answers I encourage you to lift the constraint and provide some rationale other than local geography for your main selection criteria.</p>

10

<p>Well, the constraint is rational to me. I love the area and want to stay here, which should be reason enough, but also, my boyfriend also wants to stay in Massachusetts,</p>

11

<p>Given the shape of Massachusetts, there are likely places in other states that are closer to where you are than some places in Massachusetts.</p>

12

<p>I’m fully aware :)</p>

13

<p>It really doesn’t matter what school you go to for undergrad. Also, I’ve heard a lot of lawyers say pre-law isn’t necessary by any means, pre-law students actually score lower on the LSAT than others, as shown here: <a href=“http://www.nmu.edu/sites/DrupalPhilosophy/files/UserFiles/Files/Pre-Drupal/SiteSections/Resources/LSAT_by_Intended_Major.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nmu.edu/sites/DrupalPhilosophy/files/UserFiles/Files/Pre-Drupal/SiteSections/Resources/LSAT_by_Intended_Major.pdf&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

14

<p>Massachusetts has one of the strongest concentrations of elite colleges and universities in the United States. Certainly nothing irrational about wanting to stay there, especially if you enjoy it. Great college recommendations have been stated above, so i’ll mostly focus on college majors and pre-law stuff.</p>

<p>With regard to major, you’ll want a major that’s rigorous enough to develop strong writing and reasoning abilities (which will be helpful for both analytical writing and the LSAT) but which will give you the flexibility to get a relatively high GPA.</p>

<p>Here’s a list of average LSAT scores broken down by major:</p>

<p>[Brian</a> Leiter’s Law School Reports: Which Undergrad Majors Do Best on the LSAT?](<a href=“Brian Leiter's Law School Reports”>Brian Leiter's Law School Reports)</p>

<p>Philosophy is a great option which satisfies most of the criteria above I set above (I majored in philosophy.) philosophy is very difficult (i know several people who switched out of the major) so it might not hurt to take a class or two to see if it’s for you. But if you work hard enough at it you can get a relatively high GPA. While this is sort of a gunner mentality, a lot of people think that philosophy is easy and do terrible in the major. You can use these people to pad your grades, since their bad papers will make your paper (mediocre or great) look significantly better.</p>

<p>One thing to note about philosophy is that it isn’t very marketable. While that isn’t the biggest concern since you’re pre-law, it might not hurt to minor in accounting or something to make yourself more marketable if you decide to change your mind after you graduate (I know a few people that did this.) </p>

<p>International relations majors don’t do much worse than philosophy majors, and i’d imagine it’s more marketable. So that’s certainly another major worth considering; Economics is also a good option which is very marketable and will help you get a high LSAT, but might not develop your writing sufficiently, and it might be difficult to get a high GPA.</p>

<p>And if you decide to take a gap year, which i’d recommend, you should try to get some experience working at a law firm if you haven’t already. Unless you’re very passionate about it, lawyers have very boring jobs, work long hours, and have some of the lowest job satisfaction out there. Not trying to dissuade you, just be very certain you want to be a lawyer before you take the pre-law route.</p>

15

<p>With any major, you can choose writing-intensive courses for out-of-major electives.</p>

<p>With any major, you can choose logical-thinking courses (philosophy logic courses, or math with proofs courses) for out-of-major electives.</p>

16

<p>^ good point. And if one suspects one will do poorly in one of these classes, one can simply take the class P/NP.</p>

<p>However, the more of these classes you’ll take, the better prepared you’ll be. And in general the amount of these classes someone takes probably strongly correlates with their major. While double majoring is certainly possible, it probably makes it more difficult to get a higher GPA, especially if one is taking two rigourous majors (e.g. math and econ.)</p>