How important is your minor?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I've been stressing myself over changing my major and my minor back and forth and I've decided that I really love government and politics (like most other kids planning on going to law school) and am pretty set on Poli Sci as my major. I understand it's not a special BA and probably wouldn't get me any hot job prospects even if I do get into and graduate law school. I've been playing around with trying to make myself more desirable to have as an overall employee as I know how tough newly graduated lawyers have it now with the job market. I was thinking of minoring in Software Engineering, but I read the requirements to sit for the Patent Law Bar and even the Comp Science majors at my school don't cover enough chemistry to qualify. What I'm asking is, will my choice of major make any difference after law school if I do choose to go, what can make somebody more valuable to a law firm?</p>

<p>I'm sorry if this question has been asked before! I know there might be a lot of "what-if" questions on this part of the forum</p>

2

<p>Minor is not important at all.</p>

3

<p>Minor doesn’t matter at all.</p>

4

<p>My undergraduate institutions didn’t even have minors.</p>

5

<p>SO for purposes of admission, law schools won’t care. If you’re looking for a value-add to your future firm, learning and mastering a foreign language is just about the only thing that will really stand out. It will make you very valuable to firms that do business in major, multi-lingual/multi-national markets (NY, LA, SF, etc.) or to prestigious public interest or governmental employers. </p>

<p>The only potential other thing that you might consider is that if you want to practice patent law, you need a science background to qualify. </p>

<p>Otherwise, no one cares.</p>

6

<p>If you add a “hard” minor to complement the poli sci major, the increased rigor of your course load could be appealing to law school admissions. Math, Econ, or one of the sciences may be a good choice because of the quantitative skills you develop. You just need to consider the effect that this may have on your GPA.</p>

<p>Taking these courses may not help you with career prospects, but they will help you develop skills that will definitely help you succeed in your career.</p>