I recently recieved acceptances from John Jay College and Baruch College as an English Major. Baruch is held to a higher standard and there’s more room to spread out, and I want a challenge. However, John Jay has a nicer campus and will award me about 40 credits for my AP classes, effectively putting me a year ahead, while Baruch will only give me at least 18 and at most 24, depending on this year’s scores (fingers crossed!). I am studying English as my undergraduate field in preparation for law school, so I want to do well in school in order to perform well on the LSAT and get into a good law school in the future. I have not had the chance to visit either school yet due to schedule complications. That being said, which school would be the best choice for me to attend?
Since your proposed major is English, I would recommend Baruch College. Even though you are thinking of going into law, people’s directions often change, and you may decide to go a different route, and Baruch has many more opportunities.
Unless you have compelling financial issues, a semester here or there will not make much difference in your life, compared to having a wide choice of possible majors and directions of study (not to mention a much wider array of intellectually stimulating non-major courses).
Unless Criminal Justice is your passion, I would not recommend John Jay College over Baruch College.
I have cemented my decision of pursuing law, but I do not think it would be criminal justice that I would be pursuing. Would Baruch still be a better choice even if I am determined to go into law?
John Jay is known for criminal justice types majors, I would suggest Baruch for an English major.
I would assume John Jay if you are sure you want law but what kind of law do you want? See what JJ offers vs Baruch. I would guess JJ would be the better school as a undergrad to go into law school with and if they speed you up you can save some money you will need for Law school.
I just did some research on Baruch and found that they do offer a pre-law program (not the major) that includes opportunities for internships, summer programs and the like. John Jay offers “boot camps” on performing well on the LSAT and writing a personal statement fit for law school, and externships with judges across NYC. Baruch seems to have law programs geared for business law, while John Jay is geared towards government attorney work. They seem pretty on par in terms of pre-law opportunities. I just don’t know if skipping a year would be good for me in terms of preparation for law school, and whether or not it’s even worth it aside from its financial benefits.