<p>I'm going to McGill University in Montreal next year with one goal in mind: get into a top tier US Law School after my 4 years there. I'm already planning it now so I make the right choices. But what ARE the right majors/minors/honors to take to be able to pass the LSATs well and get into Harvard/Stanford/Columbia/Yale?</p>
<p>What I was thinking: do a double major Political Science and Economics and take Honors Philosophy and Psychology. But would it be better to do a major in Political Science, a minor in Economics, a minor in Philosophy and Psychologoy/Sociology as honors?</p>
<p>I also have to keep in mind that I need many ECs, stages, internships etc.. Which one would be easier do you reckon?</p>
<p>US law schools do not care about your majors, minors, or ECs. They care only about your GPA and LSAT. With that in mind, if law school is your goal you should major in something that you enjoy that you can do well in. I also generally advise people to double major or minor in something that provides skills you can sell employers, if law school doesn’t work out.</p>
Let me be clear about something: no one cares about minors, particularly not law school admissions officers. (A minor could possibly matter if you were a history major and a computer science minor - something that demonstrates a useful skill to an employer, e.g. programming, but is otherwise 100% useless.) The only effect of a whole slew of minors is to make you look flaky. </p>
<p>Thank you for both your replies, they are very helpful. The reason why I am thinking of majoring in Eco and Pol Sci is that these two subjects could help me in the LSATs.</p>
<p>But law schools must at least to a little extent care about ECs, no?</p>
<p>Law schools do not care about your extracurriculars unless they are truly extraordinary. Win an Olympic medal and they may take a look. Otherwise, they don’t care. As for major, taking a major with the intent that it prepare you for the LSAT is foolish. The LSAT is one test that can be learned in a few months. There’s no value to spending your undergrad degree on the off chance a major will prep you for it (as a side note, neither econ nor polisci will help your LSAT in the slightest). Major in something you can enjoy and do well in. Double or minor in something that provides you salable skills.</p>
<p>Ah really? Cuz on many polls I find that the students that manage the LSATs best are Economics and Political Science students (among others of course). </p>
<p>All of the published information that I have seen on that subject had no controls, making it impossible to distinguish correlation from causation. </p>
<p>A proper study would take into account other factors that correlate to LSAT scores, such as scores on other standardized tests, and attempt to isolate or control them. IOW, it’s possible that the higher LSAT scores of Econ and Poly Sci are simply attributable to those majors attracting good test takers or attracting students who excel at logic problems, rather than anything in the curriculum itself.</p>
Law schools have a hard enough time getting the students they want (i.e. those who maintain their GPA/LSAT medians); if they were to care about extracurriculars, they would often do so at the expense of their medians.</p>
<p>This is hard to understand, because in high school, there are a lot of students with near-perfect GPAs and near-perfect SAT scores. However, law school applications are down a lot, and there are a lot of “splitters” - those with a high GPA or a high LSAT, but not both. </p>
<p>Also, the motivations of colleges and law schools re: extracurriculars is very different. Colleges want to be interesting places to spend four years of your life, so they try to accept students who make it interesting by playing an instrument, writing for the school paper, putting on theatre performances, or playing a sport. Law schools don’t have the same level of student activities, and no one really cares very much about them, either. Employers certainly do not (unless it’s Law Review, but making that has nothing to do with undergraduate ECs). </p>
<p>pberthe, I will add a couple of comments, in case you are a Canadian student who may also be applying to Canadian law schools (a far better option if you have any intention of practicing in Canada). Some Canadian law schools actually do consider extra-curriculars in addition to gpa and your LSAT score. The best advice is to get involved in things that you enjoy and to which you can make a commitment. Splitters do not do as well in Canada. You will need a high gpa as well as a high LSAT score in order to have a good chance for most Canadian law schools.</p>