<p>Which of the Universities of California are best for someone interested in pre law?</p>
<p>If anyone can help, thanks.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley, no doubt.</p>
<p>Is there another outside of cal? What's the second/third best?</p>
<p>I have a slim chance of getting admitted into such a compettitive school and I'm not sure if i'd like it there if i did get accepted.</p>
<p>The top three are UCB, UCLA, and UCSD.</p>
<p>Cal is seen as the most prestigious, but UCLA has an excellent history department (a possible "pre-law" major). I was surprised to find out that UCSD is very strong in poly sci (the second most popular major after bio).</p>
<p>Remember, law schools don't require a specific major, and there is no "pre-law" major - so don't feel you have to major in history or political science. What you want to find is a school where you will have lots of opportunities to develop your writing and thinking skills, no matter what your major is, and where you are likely to do the best for all four years. Really, any of the UC's (and even many cal states) can fit the bill if you are a motivated student. Good luck!</p>
<p>I didn't mean to imply that you had to major in history or poly sci, I was just giving examples of strong departments (that some people major in for law school), which are outside of UC Berkley.</p>
<p>you can go from any uc into a top law program. Just get good grades and take on leadership roles</p>
<p>Carolyn and southpasedena give good advice, although a great LSAT score will trump most leadership positions any day of the week. It seems like law schools would accept bigger cuts of the classes from the higher regarded UCs, but even UCR, often seen as one of if not the lowest UC school (wrongly, I think, but regardless) has two people at Harvard Law. </p>
<p>Anyway, excel where you go, do amazing on the LSAT, get great recs, write a good personal statement, and do some good ECs- whichever shcool you go to, if you do these, you'll be fine for a top 15 law school, and you might even prefer to go to a strong, more regional one in CA or some other state.</p>
<p>the "best" UC is where you can achieve the highest gpa, since that is #1 criteria for law school admissions.</p>
<p>UCB and UCLA all the way</p>
<p>ucsd send over 40 students a year to ucla i think, the ucsd has a law section on its website that gives the statistics. It could be 40 over the last few years that they have tracked it. But it also shows every other school that ucsd students are accepted to inlucding harvard, columbia, stanford etc.</p>
<p>Ok i was wrong on the numbers but here is the link
<a href="http://career.ucsd.edu/sa/PLawHis.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://career.ucsd.edu/sa/PLawHis.shtml</a></p>
<p>Actually, UC Irvine is ranked top notch for Criminal Justice (I've even heard that it was Top 3rd in the nation?) You could major that and end up going into pre-law.</p>
<p>Side note-
I know for a fact that OJ Simpson visited a night class for Criminal Justice to give a speech after his trial. YOU KNOW THIS MAJOR HAS TO BE GOOOOD.</p>
<p>go to UCB or UCLA if you can. they're very strong academically...there's a big gap between those two and the other UC's in terms of sending students to the top law schools. if not, then go to the place where you can get the highest GPA, as that is an important criteria in admissions.</p>
<p>You can't ignore the fact that 43 students from UC Berkeley and 41 students from UCLA got into Harvard Law School while only 8 students from UCSD got in...</p>
<p>That's true, although I think you're working with the number currently attending, right? There might be fewer strong students from the UC's other than UCLA and Berkeley interested in Harvard Law, besides the likelihood that they'd take a slightly finer cut.</p>
<p>So if you want to study law, you can basically major in "anything" during undergrad level and law school comes afterwards?
Also, can internationals major in law and possibly work in the U.S later, or do you have to be a U.S citizen in order to be a lawyer?</p>
<p>flopsy:</p>
<p>we'll need more data to make a better assumption. First off, UCLA and Berkeley are ~20% larger than SD. Second, SD is known more for bio-sci, so history poli-sci majors can and do look at other campuses. Third, how many form UCSD actually applied to H-L? (I'd be more interested in the % accepted, not absolute, gross matriculants. For that matter, how many applied from UCR and were accepted/denied?) Fourth, the San Diego area is kinda provincial -- many kids move down there and just don't want to leave -- (it results in salary deflation, relative to LA). Thus, how much is self-selection?</p>
<p>
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You can't ignore the fact that 43 students from UC Berkeley and 41 students from UCLA got into Harvard Law School while only 8 students from UCSD got in...
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</p>
<p>Harvard is one law school... how about Yale? Chicago? NYU? Michigan? Virginia?</p>
<p>madeline20, you can major in anything as an undergraduate. Internationals can go to law school in the US, too.</p>