<p>Pre-Law or Chemical Engineering as an undergraduate?</p>
<p>Anyone have any facts on which is a better major to choose?</p>
<p>-Which makes more money after graduation?<br>
-What are good schools in the north East US for each?<br>
-What would you recommend?
-What personal skills do each require?
-Which is a harder major? (Not that difficulty will deter me.</p>
<p>Also, quick question about Seton Hall University. Is it a good prelaw school, and a good school in general?</p>
<p>Well this is a fairly easy choice imo. Pre-law students are among the lowest scorers on the LSAT where as engineers are among the top scorers. Engineers make more money after graduation and with just a pre-law degree you will be pressed to find a good job. Which is harder depends on you and I would need your stats to point you toward schools. I assume if you are looking at pre-law you want to do law for grad school. If this is the case I would say you need to do a bit of homework on what majors Law schools like to take.</p>
<p>I should have a 3.6 GPA by graduation, weighted, I got a 1550/2400 on my PSAT, so I figure with a lot of studing I could get an 1800 or 1900. I also take a lot of accel and AP courses. I’ll probable have 8 accel and 4 or 5 APs by the time I graduate. When i said prelaw, I implied that I would be taking Law school as well. I am curious as to whether I should major in engineering and become an engineer, or major in law. Which make more usually, and if you were in my place what would you take?</p>
<p>I would take engineering in your place and if you want to go into law after that do so. I would highly recomend reading up on how the law job market looks for those graduating outside the top 10-15 law schools in the country. Also I would say that if you want to go into law read up on what law schools think of pre-law majors as it is generally not good. Take a look at Drexel, Penn State, RIT for schools. It’s hard to say wether a lawyer or an engineer makes more as it depends. At top 15 law school the grads can make 160K or more a year. If you can’t get into those schools (Read college gpa less than 3.8 and LSAT less than 165) then you will often find grads making as little as 50K on average with high unemployment rates. There have been tons of articles paticularly in the NY Times this year about law school. Perhaps do an engineering undergrad and consider patent law?</p>
<p>Thanks for your responce. I am planning on buckling down in college, as my GPA now is so low because of a sloppy freshman year. I think I can get a GPA like that, but I can’t be too sure. I really don’t know what to think of the LSAT test, but I am interested in both careers. do you know where to find these top 10-15 schools list? </p>
<p>Also, do grad schools look at High School GPA?</p>
<p>UTPG. you do understand that the $160,000/yr for top law schools is just the starting salary, don’t you?</p>
<p>Engineers that stay as engineers would be hard pressed to make $160,000/yr ten years after college. Attorneys from top law firms, on the other hand, are in the $500,000-$1.0- million/year level 10-15 years out of law school.</p>
<p>I understand that but the retention rate for top law firms is very low. So say 2-3% of law school canidates go to those top schools. Then 30% of those continue to work for a big law firm for the next 5 years. So at that point you are down to 1-2% of lawyers who will make 500k-1M per year. I am not saying that he should not become a lawyer. What I am saying is that pre-law is not the best choice for someone aspiring to get into law school. On top of that if he were not able to get into one of the top law schools it makes good sense for him to work a job, as an engineer, and have the company he works for pay him to go to law school part time.</p>
<p>I know payscale isn’t exact but you get the idea. Prospects for those getting a JD are not that great at the moment. This is made even more true by the fact that law school will set you back a cool 150k.</p>
<p>UTPG, seriously, you need to do some research, Pepperdine Law School, for instance, is the 52nd ranked law school in the country and its graduates, according to USNWR, are averaging $90,000/year in salary, with the 25%/75% range being $72,000/$150,000. The following is for other lower ranked law schools:</p>
<p>Law School ranking/ Law School/ Median Starting Salary
52 - Pepperdine - $90,000
56 - U of San Diego - $85,000
67 - Villanova - $101,750
80 - Rutgers (Camden) - $125,000
93 - Chapman - $75,000
98 - DePaul - $87,500</p>
<p>Regardless of a praiseworthy bar-Passage rate, Pepperdine graduates struggle to find immediate employment. In fact, almost 30% of all graduates are unemployed at the time of graduation.</p>
<p>my friend’s dad who majored in engineering undergrad is a layer, and is VP of a law firm. He makes $680,000 a year according to my friend. ( and i’m sure he gets bonuses.) I believe her…they have 3 kids in private high schools all with tuition of $15,000+ one kid is going to college in 2011, they live on the main line, travel internationally all of the time. the list goes on and on. They don’t seem the least bit worried about money They just re-did part of their house, and bought a BMW! </p>
<p>of course this is just one example, but this is real-life proof in the pudding.</p>
<p>And the 75th percentile of presidents of engineering firms will make 636,000. Same deal if you want to compare high level jobs for sure Lawyer is a great job but by no means does that mean all or even most lawyers are more successful than engineers. I base that on the median salary for lawyers at 72K. Also remember that law school will probably rack up over 100K of debt.</p>
<p>Pepperdine is a decent law school and if one extrapolates 1800/2400 on SAT (OP target score) to LSAT, Pepperdine would probably be a long shot to get in. $90,000 average is misleading when bunch of them were unemployed (those zeroes weren’t included in the calculation). I think it’s only fair if you also mention the cost. You should find an loan amortization schedule and see what the monthly payment for 250K+ loan is (3 years in LA/Malibu for tuition/living expenses). </p>
<p>UTPG1234 simply says things aren’t all that black and white. Sure if you become a partner for a big law firm, you’ll make a lot more. No one dispute that and I think even idiots know that. But many stars would have to line up for that to happen.</p>
<p>A chemical engineering grad from a quality college can make a very nice living with only a bachelor’s degree, and without taking enormous debt from law school. </p>
<p>If you don’t get into a top 100 law school, and are not able to do very well in it, it is definitely not worth the time and money, unless you are going to a cheap law school and want to do public or non-profit work. There are many mediocre law schools and many lawyers who are scrapping by. The number of law school grads have doubled in the last 15 years. </p>
<p>As noted above, only a small percentage of lawyers who graduated in the last 10 years are making those huge salaries.</p>
<p>Sam Lee, but that is not what UTPG said, was it? He specifically said that it was black and white and if you don’t go to a top 15 law school then attorneys’ pay doesn’t even come close to what engineers make:</p>
<p>Sam Lee, 76% of Pepperdine Law graduate were employed at graduation and 97% were employed 9 months later. Lets use the 25% quartile instead of the median of $90,000. The 25% quartile starting salary is $72,000, which is higher than all engineering starting salaries except Petroleum Engineering from the top engineering schools in the country…</p>
<p>Now, do you still think that attorneys “from lesser known schools don’t even come close to making what engineers make” as UTPG has claimed?</p>