Hi first post here.
I’ve been thinking about college for a while and I think I’ve decided that I want to go into law eventually but I’m not sure exactly what I should do to help me with that.
I’m a rising senior. I’ve got a 3.3ish GPA, a 2300 on the SAT(800 Reading 780 Writing 720 Math) and a 5 on APUSH and a 4 on AP Psych. My family doesn’t really have a lot of money so my options are kinda limited. My fallback is Rutgers since I’ll only have to pay instate tuition. I was also thinking of applying to Oxford since I wouldn’t have to do postgrad but I’m not sure how much a foreign law degree would help in the states. So any advice on the following would help a ton:
Schools to Apply to
Undergrad Majors Law Schools Appreciate
How a Foreign Law Degree Would Work in the U.S.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Please visit the law section, it will give you a lot of info if you browse the threads.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/
If finances are an issue, Oxford isn’t for you- it’s only 3 years undergrad, but that does not qualify you to practice law- you would need to do an LLM in the US as well. More relevantly, there is effectively no financial aid, and you can figure that you won’t get change from 50K p/a. On top of that, while your SAT is strong, you only have 1 5 on an AP and you need at least 3.
I don’t think the one 5 is an issue because I can take Sat IIs in October and go for conditional.
You could indeed…but that was the least of the problems 
But, if you are keen to go ahead with Oxford, don’t forget to register for the LNAT.
And, make sure that you read the law course details carefully.
Law schools generally don’t care what you major in, just avoid anything like Criminal Justice, which is frowned upon. Your college grades and LSAT score are the keys to acceptance. Pick a major you enjoy; pick a college where you can excel, and get great grades. (The disconnect between your high school GPA and score suggests you’ll need to work harder to make the last happen.)
Thanks for the information everyone. Yeah Oxford was kind of a longshot, I’m still considering applying in case I can find a way to get the money together. And in reference to my GPA, that’s the product of making the poor choice of an engineering focused magnet school. My grades outside of my engineering class really are good, I just started struggling with engineering and realized it’s not for me.
You just need a solid liberal arts education. Personally, I think the intensely personal education you can get at a LAC is a great prep for law school. Here are some great schools you might consider that also offer outstanding financial aid. (In fact, sometime they offer aid packages that are even better than what the public university may offer.)
Break out the Fiske Guide and read about:
Amherst
Bates
Beloit
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colby
Denison
Dickinson
Grinnell
Haverford
Kalamazoo
Kenyon
Lawrence
Macalester
Oberlin
Pomona
Reed
Swarthmore
Union
Vassar
Wesleyan
Whitman
Williams
I’d say preparation in writing would be important for future lawyers. USNWR has a subcategory that highlights a few schools where the skill is emphasized: Writing in the Disciplines.
The Ten Schools
Brown
Carleton
Clemson
Duke
George Mason
Hamilton
Harvard
Princeton
UC-Davis
Washington State
OP: You can assemble a college list from a school here and a school there. You only need about eight. Do not be immediately deterred by finances, particularly since you already have Rutgers available as an option.
^ Make that eleven. Cornell should have been included.
Less talked about is the need to think logically on the LSAT and when analyzing laws. Perhaps that is why math and philosophy majors tend to do well on the LSAT (which has a logic puzzle section).