<p>I was looking at other sites, and some people argued that engineers have the opportunity of going to law school (obviously with high LSATs/GPA), is this true? Does anyone know if it's possible to go to a good undergrad engineering school, then go to a good law school? I'm a rising senior in high school, I'm just exploring all possible options.
Thanks</p>
<p>It’s very possible (I know at least two personally), but this is not the best forum to ask about the law school part - try:</p>
<p>[Law</a> School - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/]Law”>Law School - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>If you want to ask about the engineering part specifically, this is the place to do it.</p>
<p>Ok thanks for the link, but as for the engineering part, how difficult is it to get a high GPA?
I’m looking at Cornell and CMU mainly for engineering (I’m preferring cornell much more) and my presumed major would be either
- ORIE (Operations Research & Information engineering/Industrial Engineering)/Applied Math or something
- Computer Science
- Computer Engineering/Electrical Engineering,
Something along these lines, would a high GPA be impossible at such a great school?</p>
<p>I graduated with a guy who had 4.0 in engineering from Georgia Tech. He got a full ride to Columbia Law and ended up going to Harvard Law. Just make sure you have a high GPA (entirely possible) and rock the LSAT.</p>
<p>Thank you for the input, that’s really a lot better than I expected. Just to say I’m not looking for law school but I’m just seeing if it’s possible. I don’t think I’ll get a 4.0 hahaha I want to have fun in undergrad too!
We’ll just see what happens I guess, it worked out in high school, I hope engineering doesn’t stop me!</p>
<p>Despite the bad things you hear about engineering, average engineering gpa’s are usually only about 0.1 below non-engineering gpa’s, so don’t sweat it. Is there a reason you want to do engineering and law school? Are you angling for patent law. or are you looking to have a backup plan?</p>
<p>Backup plan in case I don’t want to follow up with an MBA or M.Eng, not angling for anything but I’ve heard some things about eng -> good law schools and I wanted to verify the possibility.</p>
<p>People who do engineering as undergrads and then go to law school often go into patent law. That’s not to say you can’t do other kinds of law, but it is extremely advantageous (or maybe even required? not sure…) to have an engineering degree if you’re going to do patent law. And there’s good money there, too.</p>
<p>(Now the real question is how anyone could find patent law anything less than mind-numbingly boring, but that’s just my own personal hangup 
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<p>Idk I was just exploring my options haha, this is just a backup but I wanted to see the input, and I am pleased with the replies lol. Yeah law I wasn’t super interested in, but I do/have done debate/mock trial and I do well in them so I guess those skills count haha? But I like math/science too so engineering undergrad seems obvious, but graduate school is so far away, I just want to see what possibilities I have.
Thanks</p>
<p>I’ve read a little bit about law, and what I’ve read is that there are way more guys with law degrees than jobs for lawyers. Pay for most jobs except for the absolute tip-top best jobs is not that great, which is bad because you have to pay off your pretty large student loans for law school. Lawyers consistently rank as one of the unhappiest professions in surveys. It all sounds pretty bad. Patent law may be a little different though.</p>
<p>Yeah and the only problem with the things that you read is that they come from the majority of law schools without connections etc. I’ve heard a lot of good things coming from good law schools, but that’s another story.
Idk, it’s just an option, we’ll see how engineering works out! :)</p>
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<p>From what I’ve read, getting a well-paying lawyer job out of law school is incredibly competitive and cutthroat. Getting a law degree from a T14 school by no means guarantees you to get these jobs.</p>
<p>very true. im sure something will work out though</p>
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<p>But getting a law degree from a non-T14 school supposedly greatly diminishes one’s chances of getting the good lawyer jobs. (Whether patent and intellectual property law is different in this respect is something you have to explore, since lawyers with engineering or science background are relatively uncommon compared to those who majored in typical pre-law majors like political science and English.)</p>
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<p>Probably because many students who perform poorly in engineering switch to an easier major. On the other hand, there seem to be far fewer students who try the humanities or social sciences who perform poorly enough to be convinced to switch to engineering.</p>
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<p>You can also become a patent lawyer with a science degree. </p>
<p>Strictly speaking, you don’t even need a degree in engineering/science, but rather just a ‘sufficient’ background.</p>