Chemistry vs Polisci/Public Policy

College Majors
1

For someone interested in both fields, what would you consider a better major for students interested in law school?
Would a Political science/Public policy major better prepare students for law school/career in law than chem?
Would a chem major be better bc of the opportunity to pursue patent law?

2

I’d tell my kid to combine them. Would make for a better and more interesting career.

3

Thanks for the input. I think that would make for a better and more interesting career too.
Do you mean
*Two majors or
*A major and a minor

As far as I can tell, a lot of schools don’t allow students to cross schools and do both majors.

4

Law school is A LOT of writing. Whatever degree can prepare you for that is beneficial. Do chem majors write a lot? I have no idea.

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5

Thanks for the info. I would assume political science or public policy would probably be more beneficial in that respect.

6

These colleges emphasize writing across their curricula: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/writing-programs. From this group you could seek schools at which a double concentration in chemistry and public policy would be open to you.

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7

Thanks for the link.

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8

I don’t know. It varies by college. Decades ago a double major was common ( some schools even offered triple majors)Today there seem to be more constraints. Maybe a large U can accommodate your needs.
Could be a great combo.

9

Colleges with notably flexible curricula — such as Hamilton, Amherst, Brown, Grinnell, Smith — represent the most accommodating destinations for a student with diverse academic interests.

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10

Law school admissions won’t care even the tiniest bit what you study in college.

For Chem & PoliSci that is generally not an issue: in most universities they are in the same school (“Arts & Sciences” or similar). The gift of the US system is that this is not a decision you have to make for at least a couple of years. If you have any preference at all for one or the other, name that as your proposed major- it just means that your first advisor will be from that department and if there are course selections that fill up fast you will be 2nd from the bottom instead of at the bottom of the hierarchy list as to who gets the places.

Sign up for the intro classes to both majors and see what you like. Everybody here will have anecdotes, but some examples from the kids in my bailiwick include a planned IR major who discovered she loathed IR theory but loved cellular biology, a planned Chem major who ended up a Philosophy & Math double major, and so on.

Also, the whole major/minor/double major thing turns out to matter very very little (if at all): you might be happiest majoring in X, and taking a lot of electives in Y, but not making it a formal major or minor.

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11

Thanks for all of the information.

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12

Choosing Your Major for Prelaw | Law School Numbers may be worth reading.

A science or engineering major may be helpful if you want to go into patent law.

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13

Thanks

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14

@ucbalumnus is correct about a science degree for patent law- but don’t put the cart before the horse!

Follow what you are genuinely interested in, and use work placements and internships to get a taste of the ways those translate into actual work. What you like about chemistry, what interests you about law and what you are happy to spend 40 years of your life actually doing all day may have a big shared space in your Venn diagram- or might have little to none.

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15

You should definitely take intro classes in both. At any school, look at the requirements for a major and a minor and try to mock up a schedule, taking into account anything else you would like to include in your college experience (like study abroad).

Either major could prepare you for law school admission.

If you feel equally drawn to both as you start to study and find you have to focus on one, you might want to think about which one would be harder to do as an auto-didact. For me, that would be chemistry, so I would use college for that and fill in other gaps (in poli science and public policy) on my own.

But mostly, I would second the advice to figure out what you are really loving and why. That’ll keep you on a path that’s most likely to keep you fulfilled.

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