How do people feel about linguistics as a college major for law school.
How do law schools regard linguistics majors?
- No idea how "people feel." If you like it, it's fine.
- Law schools won't care. Employers might, if you get a useful language out of it.
linguistics is not about the study of a foreign language. it is about the study of language and human communication.
Everyone I know studied it alongside a language. Just assumed you would too. If not, then law schools still won’t care. Employers probably won’t award any points, up or down. If it’s a major you enjoy and can do well in, have a blast.
I’ve read that some law schools are trying to attract more STEM majors, as law has to grapple with more technological issues than it used to. Not sure how much of a case you could make for linguistics there, but I would assume that linguistics majors generally do pretty well on the LSAT!
Linguistics is a social science major, not likely to help you with writing and argumentation. Without a foreign language, it is not a hot seller on the job market. If you enjoy it, then fine, but you would be better prepared for the intense reading and writing of law school with a humanities major. Alternatively, a STEM degree would give you an edge, a s noted by @ytippiz.
Think about what you plan to do with a law degree.
I suggest whatever major you’d choose if you were NOT planning on law school. Not only is being multi-dimensional an asset in the job market for lawyers, but it’s important to have a Plan B should law not work out or should you change your mind later.
In my opinion (which may differ from others), the reading and writing of law school is sufficiently different from other types of reading and writing and law school itself will provide enough that a humanities major isn’t necessary.
Thanks. Linguistics is all about reading, writing, argumentation and analysis of language. And It would be linguistics as a double major with another foreign language
“Perhaps more importantly, it will build up your skills in analytic reasoning and argumentation, writing, and observation. Linguistics is therefore an appropriate major not just for students planning to pursue academic careers in linguistics itself, but also for those seeking careers in any area where such skills may be of value.”
With its emphasis on careful argumentation and analysis, and attention to the details of language use and interpretation, a linguistics major is highly appropriate for students planning to continue on to law schoo.”
I’ve never seen any statistics to show linguistics majors doing particularly well in law school (compared to other majors). That said, they do seem to perform relatively well on the [url=<a href=“https://www.lsac.org/docs/default-source/data-(lsac-resources)-docs/2015-16_applicants-major.pdf%5DLSAT%5B/url”>https://www.lsac.org/docs/default-source/data-(lsac-resources)-docs/2015-16_applicants-major.pdf]LSAT[/url].
Not sure they do better or worse than other majors. But it seems to be a good pre-law major.
Any major that forces a student to learn critical thinking skills is a good pre-law major. Unfortunately, colleges have quite a few majors where critical thinking is in short supply (here’s looking at you, ‘Studies’ majors).