<p>Demosthenes, that happened to me during my sophomore year. It was also a week or so before my thermo, complex analysis, linear algebra, and biology finals. </p>
<p>That said, students should avoid lightweight vocational majors. I don’t know where I would put accounting, but pre-law is a baaad idea.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more. Pre-law is a waste of everyone’s time. I expect an accounting background would go over very well if you were interested in Tax. At my T14, I know several people with precisely that strategy who seemed very well received by Tax departments at OCI. Similarly, engineering backgrounds generally do quite well in the IP markets (varying depending on what kind of engineering). Others may not be so useful for OCI. OCI aside, the schools themselves don’t much care because USNWR doesn’t much care.</p>
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<li><p>You assume that it’s rare for business or accounting majors to go on to law school. It isn’t. Business is a fairly common pre-law majors=. Accounting is also a common pre-law major. They just aren’t that well represented at YHS. </p></li>
<li><p>I didn’t talk about top 14; I only talked about YHS. </p></li>
<li><p>Note that I said nothing about OCI or how easy it will get a job. I only talked about getting into top law schools. Note too that I did NOT say it wasn’t possible to get into YHS as a business major or accounting major; I just said it is easier to get in with a traditional liberal arts major. I still think that’s true.</p></li>
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<p>Do you have any actual data about the prevalence of accounting majors (or any other vocation) in YHS as opposed to the rest of the T14? How about as opposed to the rest of law schools?</p>
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<p>Awesome. Now that we’ve limited the selection to a ridiculously small sample, would you remind me why you felt the need to come into a thread asking for general law school advice?</p>
<p>Also, encourage him to be open to other things too. If something should come up in the next few years that really interests him, no one (including himself) should be disappointed if he chooses to not go to law school. Practicing law is just another job - nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>He should major in what interests him.</p>
<p>Would you recommend being an English major with an advanced writing or pre-law track?</p>
<p>Majoring in English is great. It will help prepare you for the amount of reading necessary in law school. There is no need to study anything labeled as pre-law.</p>
<p>IMO, the best major for prelaw is philosophy. Lotsa readin’, lots of really dense material; lots of dissecting others arguments. Moreover, unlike other lit, it is much harder to BS your way through an off-the-wall theory.</p>
<p>I was a philosophy major and I do think it has helped me in law school. That said, do something you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it chances are you won’t do that well in it. High GPA trumps the minimal benefit of a major.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your responses! I really do love English Literature and it would be great to carry what I learn into law school. However, like most things related to the future, I was having second thoughts about my plans.</p>
<p>What you major in doesn’t matter for admissions purposes at top law schools.</p>
<p>At my law school (top 6), I know dozens of peers who majored in finance or accounting at no-name state universities (such as University of Denver, University of Iowa, etc), no URM status, no work experience, etc that made it here. How? They had 3.7+ GPA and 170+ LSAT. That’s it.</p>
<p>2 possible reasons why you don’t see as many accounting/ finance majors as English/poli-sci majors at top law schools:</p>
<p>1) People with B.A. in accounting/ finance have much higher opp cost of pursing law school compared to ppl with B.A. in English/ poli-sci/ sociology. Hence, they represent smaller % of law school applicants to begin with</p>
<p>2) There are much more college students who major in generic liberal arts compared to accounting/ finance, hence, there are more of those majors who comprise law school student body</p>
<p>From my experience at OCI, it is usually a healthy boost that you majored in accounting/ finance/ engineering at college level. If it is the case that having majored in a practical major at college helps more students get placed out of OCI, and hence would help employment stats for that law school, why in the world would any law school hold it against anyone that s/he was an accounting/ finance major? After all, all law schools (including HYS) obsess over their students’ post-grad employment stats for the sake of rankings.</p>
<p>Obviously,you could also have to consider how you can earn a living with a liberal arts degree, if (a) you don’t get into a top law school and think your chances of employment are unacceptably low otherwise or (b) you change your mind about becoming a lawyer. </p>
<p>Personally, I suggest pursuing those interesting liberal arts degrees as minors or double-majors in today’s economy. Too many of the students in the lower tier schools say they’ve chosen to go to law school just because it’s the only chance they have of possibly making a living with their liberal arts degrees. They come out with six-figure debt and 50% chance of legal employment at salaries that shock them. It’s a different world.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>Completely agree. If anyone intentionally majors in liberal arts because of the misled belief that such choice would help with law school admissions, that person is doing serious disservice to him/her-self. </p>
<p>I graduated with economics degree from an Ivy with strong GPA, but had a hell of a time landing a decent entry corporate job. In the end, I got a couple of offers (after heavy networking, grinding for interviews, and having some luck), but both offers required me to relocate to undesirable locations (tiny towns) and I decided to take a chance at law school as a result. Both offers were for corp-finance roles at major companies, which happened to be headquartered in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>If I could land a 60-70k entry level job in a major city, there is no way in hell I would have enrolled at any law school. Even Harvard Law.</p>
<p>It is my belief that if you are talented enough, you should go for engineering/ math/ stats type of majors. If you aren’t so talented but still want a decent paying career, accounting/ finance is the way to go.</p>
<p>If you have no interest or aptitude for those majors, however, then forcing it in the hopes of landing a job, that you may also hate, makes no sense. A job in accounting, economics, engineering, etc. would be my version of hell. My D, who graduated in May, has lots of friends who majored in the liberal arts and who have jobs they really like.</p>
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<p>I could see your side of argument.</p>
<p>However, the problem is that for a large chunk of lib arts grads, they can’t find any job at all, forget the job that “suits” these individuals’ career tastes.</p>
<p>I know far too many folks who ended up with retail management jobs after getting B.A. in liberal arts. Based on Bureau of Labor, in U.S. there are 17-18 million college grads who work in jobs that don’t require a college diploma. The guy from my college who was in my frat, was a bio major and he couldn’t find a job for 2 years after graduating. He ended up taking a job driving trucks. Let’s face it: a large chunk of working people, even those with ‘desirable white-collar’ jobs such as BigLaw attorneys, don’t exactly love their jobs. There is a reason why we get PAID to do our jobs, not the other way around.</p>
<p>If you ask me, an accounting job that pays 60k a year to start out, with health insurance, decent career track, other benefits, etc, is far better than waiting tables at Denny’s, or folding clothes at GAP, both of which are very probable scenarios for someone with a B.A. in Poli-Sci or English, in today’s economy.</p>
<p>As the resident engineer/liberal arts double-major, let me point a few things out (again):</p>
<p>You can always take an engineering major and use it in non-engineering fields. (I’ve been recruited for jobs in finance, political consulting, and the like.) It’s almost impossible to take a liberal arts degree and get a job in accounting or engineering. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares, etc.</p>
<p>Only go to law school if you really want to be a lawyer. You’re going to spend at least half of your waking hours between age 25 and age 65 as an attorney, so you darn well better want that before schlepping off to law school and getting yourself $200,000 in debt.</p>
<p>Even if you want to be a lawyer, you’re better off being a specific type of lawyer, or at least having a good background for a specific type of law. Learn one industry before going to law school and OCI may be much easier for you. (Alternatively, you may be able to fall back upon it if legal employment doesn’t work out.) Heavens, even some time in the Peace Corps might make you a straight-faced candidate for many non-profit jobs (which can be insanely competitive, believe it or not).</p>
<p>I plan on saving money by spending less time to get my undergraduate degree. Based on AP, IB and Dual Enrollment credits, I should be able to get rid of two years worth of classes. So I don’t see debt over $200,000 in my future. </p>
<p>Also, I had an internship at my local Public Defender’s Office (it was this past summer and I’m only 17) and I loved it. I know law is the field I want to pursue and I believe my confidence in this choice is also my downfall. I would enjoy majoring in English because it is a subject I like, but I also understand that a more specialized major could make me more “marketable”, but I don’t have a clear idea as to what major would help me the most for law school admission and success after law school acceptance. </p>
<p>Also, I noticed one of the users on this forum is an NYU law grad. Can you give me advice on admissions to that particular law school? I currently live in Florida and plan on doing my undergrad here, but NYC is my hometown and I’ve strongly considered going back there for law.</p>
<p>I forgot to add this in, too: if for some oddball reason I decide not to go to law school, I would pursue a career as an editor at a publishing house. (This is just for all those out there who believe nothing at all can be done with an English degree or think I am not considering other plans)</p>
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<p>That’s all well and good if you have any interest in accounting. I can honestly tell you that I couldn’t get through the accounting curriculum with a machete to my head. I know myself that well so bring on the apron. The kinds of things my D’s friends are doing are event planning, advertising, editing, media relations, constituent relations for an elected official, and PR /grassroots organizing. The things that all of these new graduates have in common are that they are very poised, well spoken, well read, mature and have excellent people skills.</p>
<p>My D graduated in 2011 with a major in English. She was offered a job as an associate at a consulting firm with a competitive salary (better than the average houshold income) and with a sign on bonus. She has applied to law school this year, with a letter of recommendation from her firm. She will be attending one of the T3 schools. </p>
<p>To futureoriented, don’t rush through UG. Law schools actually prefer students that have work experience, and underaged applicants are at a disadvantage. The important points to keep in mind are to maintain a strong GPA and to study for your LSAT. Try to maintain your GPA>3.8. Remember that an 80-95 percentile range of LSAT is actually poor in terms of admission to top law schools. in fact, if you score better than the 99 percentile and a GPA of >3.8, you can get merit scholarship to many of the schools in the T14 although the T3 schools only offer need based aids. This site is full of students and parents that are cost conscious rather than those who think that heaven is worth reaching for. Good Luck.</p>