Major dilemma - Is philosopy really that hard?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>After having graduated from a JC, I'm transferring here this fall. I am also gunning for a top law school, which requires top-notch grades. I was set on philosophy as my major up until I attended orientation a couple weeks back. Although statistics indicate that phil majors tend to perform well on the LSAT, a number of cal students told me how difficult it is to receive A's in phil courses here, esp. upper divs. One in particular, who is currently working on getting his PhD in rhetoric advised me to major in Rhetoric, as Berkeley "doesn't give A's" in phil. and getting into law school is a "numbers game." How true is this statement? I find phil. interesting and am planning on taking some courses in the field regardless, but would the practical choice be to switch majors? Any additional majors I might consider to give me more breathing room? Thanks!</p>

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<p>Well, they’re talking about how easy Philosophy 12A is here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1183584-philosophy-12a-intro-logic.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1183584-philosophy-12a-intro-logic.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Philosophy 12A is fairly easy, agreed, but it’s definitely the exception. Philosophy is the most difficult major in the humanities, it’s tough on your GPA, and it requires very high level thinking - if you don’t believe me, just do a forum search. :)</p>

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<p>As much as I love philosophy, it is really difficult here. To be honest, you have to go to every Office Hour, and I would advise (seriously) rereading everything before writing an essay on it. </p>

<p>It’s a phenomenal major, incredibly interesting, but unless you really want to be a philosopher (i.e. Ph.D in phil), I wouldn’t recommend it as a major. It’s just very stressful.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the sobering insight. Any alternative L&S majors I might consider to allow for better grades?</p>

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<p>search the online pubs. Cal’s PL department has a lower mean gpa than some of the sciences, so yeah, it’s HARD.</p>

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<p>I’m torn on this one. I would suggest sticking with philosophy because I think your lsat score will be better. Law school is a numbers game, but the numbers are weighted towards the lsat, believe it or not. I can’t tell you how many people I know who got into a top 14 law school with mediocre grades but high lsat scores. Conversely, I don’t meet alot of people who attended those same schools who had great grades but mediocre scores. Law school admissions officers realize that grades are highly variable and reflect a # of factors like school, the major, the course work, etc. The LSAT is the only standardized barometer they have. Philosophy will prepare you well for it. Spend a couple of years reading and rereading philosophy papers and deconstructing the arguments and you’ll see that the logical reasoning sections and the reading comprehension sections will come naturally to you.</p>

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<p>That may be, but according to the Law School forum on cc, the big three have gpa cutoffs for unhooked candidates. Anything lower than a 3.8 is extremely difficult for HYS. As a UC, Boalt is more focused on gpa than lsat. </p>

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<p>Perhaps, but none of those items show up in USNews’ ranking. The only gpa exception is for engineering-types. All others with a low gpa better bring a hook.</p>

<p>For Law School, it truly is all about the numbers. Perhaps only Yale and Stanford – two smaller programs – care much about EC’s. For Harvard, you just have to have ECs; H doesn’t care what they are as long as you have the two numbers (gpa+last).</p>

<p>Majoring in PL with it’s 3.4 average is not a smart play for LS.</p>