<p>Thank you all for your input on my other post! I have taken all of your advice to heart and spent some time going out and seeing what I can do right now, as well as meeting with several people, including my clinical psychologist, to see what my options are.</p>
<p>I have some updates, and I just wanted to tell you about it! I found out about a program my state has where you can receive college credit for interning in the state governmental system. I had an interview there and I am happy to announce that as of January, I will be interning in the RI Family Court system! The man with whom I met says he wants to have me in the courtroom, and if I like it there, I can move on to the Attorney General's office working with prosecution, and I can dabble in litigation and corporate law too, if I want to. I am so excited to have this opportunity!</p>
<p>Next week I have an interview at a private law firm for an unpaid assistantship/secretarial work/internship kind of situation. I think I have a good shot at that too.</p>
<p>If I decide to go ahead with the law path, I really need to change my major. Right now I am doubling in Music Performance and Microbiology, and I am in my second out of five undergrad years. However, I do not intend on dropping music as a major. I want to double with that and something other than microbiology.</p>
<p>I have a question- what kinds of majors do law schools like to see? I am working on getting my GPA up and when the time comes, I will do everything I can to excel at the LSAT. But I want to be sure that everything is perfect, as I really want a good chance of getting into a T14 school. So besides political science, what is a good pre-law major? My school URI isn't really into pre-law, but we have a variety of majors. If possible, I'd like to choose a major that is actually marketable outside of graduate school; that way, I can still work during/after/before law school, and have a backup plan if grad school doesn't work out. My psychologist suggested accounting, but I'm reeeeally not into that sort of thing. Any suggestions would be great! I think law is a good field for me, and I have high hopes for the future. But the reason I'm taking these internships is so that I can formulate my own idea of what I want to do and WHY I want to go to law school. I never realized how many different legal professions there are! Any advice or comments you have would be awesome :)</p>
<p>I can tell you that from the job search for my son, the only postings he has found (and we live in the DC suburbs so you would think there would be tons of lawyer jobs here) require 3-5 years post law school experience, or an accounting undergrad degree, or a science or engineering undergrad degree. The lawyer jobs all seem to be in accounting and patents here!</p>
<p>That’s very interesting. I’m already in microbiology so from your experience, would it be a good idea to just stick with that? I don’t want to change my major and give up all these credits unless I’m sure. </p>
<p>@helenaimee: I’m glad to hear about the internships. Make sure it gives you access to the paperwork side of things as well as the advocacy side. Lawyers for the most part spend 95% of their time on the paperwork. That’s the part that makes or breaks it as a career.</p>
<p>As for majors, law schools do not care. Law schools care only about your GPA and LSAT score. Keep your GPA at a 3.6 or better, regardless of major, and you’re set as far as undergrad is concerned. That said, employers do care about undergrad majors if they are especially relevant. As tjmom mentioned, accounting majors are recruited more heavily by tax groups, science/engineering by intellectual property groups, and so on. Majors that tailor to a specific industry are more recruited by lawyers whose practice mostly resides in that industry. </p>
<p>After you look into law a bit and decide where you want to go, you can tailor your major to the extent you wish to. Other than a science/engineering major for IP work, no majors are specifically required by employers. It’s much more about where you went to law school and what grades you got.</p>
<p>@Demosthenes49 The internship with the courthouse is lots of research and computer work as well as courtroom experience. The other internship I will be interviewing for next week will be paperwork, phone calls, emails, and general secretarial work.</p>
<p>Thank you. I am working on getting my GPA up, keeping very close tabs on all my grades and doing my best to stay up to date on my schoolwork. Unfortunately I did not take last year seriously and my GPA was a 2.6 for my first semester and 3.1 for the second. I have to work with what I’ve got and from now on there can be no forgiveness for poor grades </p>
<p>I don’t know yet, but I feel like I will become involved in litigation or prosecution. I will have a better idea of what I will do after working for the state for a while.</p>
<p>Also- what qualifies one to be a paralegal? Would that be a good stepping stone to law, or something I can do part-time while in law school?</p>
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