I think I want to go to law school, but what should I major in as an undergraduate? Would international business be a good choice? What about other business majors, like marketing? Will it matter what I major in?
Really does not matter. High GPA and LSAT scores are the primary factors…
Undergrad major matters to the extent you want to go into particular practice areas. For example, if you want to go into IP work you need a science background, preferably EE/CS. Corporate folks tend to like accounting undergrads. None of this matters for getting into law school, which as boolaHI states only care about GPA and LSAT.
I agree. In my law school class our number 2 couldn’t find a job because she was determined to be a tax lawyer but she didn’t have an accounting background. People with engineering degrees were getting multiple offers right and left to do patent law (but this was 20 years ago). Also, people who had degrees in obscure languages got top jobs despite their law school grades. For instance, if a tech company wanted to put a factory in Burma and you majored in far east studies, studied Burmese language, and you were a physically imposing Anglo, you could get a job with them as in house counsel or their firm.
I would hesitate to choose an undergraduate major based on what type of law you might want to practice seven years later or what might fortuitously lead to a job offer. Your undergraduate years should be for exploring – maybe even finding something you feel passionate about. High GPA and LSAT, as noted above, are the significant factors in getting into law school: if you want to succeed once you’re admitted, I would recommend any major that involves substantial writing and critical thinking. Heck, one of my daughter’s babysitters (from many, many years ago now) majored in comparative literature at Brown – and ended up with a substantial scholarship to attend UCLA after working as a legal secretary/paralegal for a couple of years, clerked for a judge on the 9th Circuit, and had multiple mega-bucks offers from Biglaw. There are many paths.
Political science, philosophy, English, history and anything that exposes you to great thinkers and requires a lot of critical writing and analysis. Good luck.
Econ majors consistently score well on the LSAT, but correlation does not imply causation. It’s possible for any major to get a good enough LSAT+GPA because it all depends on the person.