I am interested in applying to Cornell University, but am not sure which school to apply to. As someone who is very interested in going to law school, I can not help but notice that the IRL school has a reputation for many students successfully continuing their education at law school. At the same time, I’m not sure if the field of Labor Relations calls to me. The school advertises being a place where one can study many different subjects, so should someone who is more interested in the government/law/business side still apply, or should they look into another school within Cornell?
Hey, I just got into ILR and have recently been talking to a lot of current students on Facebook. If you look on ILR’s actual website https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/academics you can see that you can tailor the major to your own interests by choosing a concentration (there’s 6). Based on your interest on gov/law/biz you might like the Economics or Labor Relations, Law and History tracks. Hope this helps
Law school has indeed been a very common destination of ILR grads. However IMO that is mostly due to the incoming students being among those for whom, by temperament/interests/skills, law school is already a future likelihood/possibility.
If you surveyed a bunch of other students with somewhat similar interests/ skills who did not attend ILR- for example history and government majors in the College of Arts & Sciences-, or possibly Policy Studies majors in the College of Human Ecology- you will probably also see a lot of people heading off to law school.
I suggest carefully examine the content of required courses and distribution requirements at each college you are considering applying to, and try to get a feel for how much coursework you will be forced to take that you don’t think you care about.
Also think about what situation gives you the most flexibility if you ultimately choose a different path.
Times have changed, grads of non-top law schools are having trouble getting jobs now. I would bet that a smaller percentage of ILR grads are going to law school now than was the case years ago.
I’m a junior in ILR right now–came in not caring at all about LR (labor relations), and now I love it. Lots of my friends still don’t care about it; they focus on biz/econ/various policy things.
Feel free to PM me w/ specific questions; would be happy to have a phone chat anytime after tomorrow!