<p>I am a Freshman pursuing a major in Political Science. I had considered a double major in both Political Science and History for awhile but decided against it. However, I am surrounded by undergrads that look surprised when they find out I have only one major, and virtually everyone I meet is a double major, if not triple majors. I'm not worried about being different from the crowd, but if only having one major will hurt me in law school admissions, maybe I should reconsider.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts? I am minoring in a foreign language (Korean), but I've heard minoring is really not that big of a deal. I wanted to major in it, but there is not a Korean major available at my university. Will law school admissions see/know that?</p>
<p>Also, last question... What sort of GPA is considered top-teir law school worthy? Over a 3.9?</p>
<p>Who the hell triple-majors? Some schools won't even let you do this. If you're talking to other freshmen, I wouldn't count on many of them actually following through with these double-majors of theirs.</p>
<p>your GPA (and to a much lesser extent, how many of your classes were upper-level/grad and whether you did independent research) matter a whole lot more than what your major is. </p>
<p>your LSAT score probably matters just as much as all the above, combined. So take the classes you like, get the best grades you, and go on from there--once you have a GPA and an LSAT score, you can start looking for law schools that match it.</p>
<p>Colleges require that you have a major to ensure that you're going into reasonable depth in an academic discipline.</p>
<p>Depth is important, but so is breadth; you'll sacrifice some of that by fulfilling the requirements for two majors (particularly if you they're in closely related subjects like history and political science).</p>
<p>I find it hard to imagine anyone on an admissions committee arguing that they should give the nod to one candidate over another because the first had a double major.</p>
<p>The old rule of thumb for those of us who weren't applying to medical school (if my memory serves correctly; it's prone to double fault occasionally) was that a quarter of your courses in college fulfilled distribution requirements, a quarter filled your major requirements, and the remaining half could be used for whatever tickled your intellectual fancy. Nothing says you can't go into considerable depth in some of those other areas; I had earned more credits in a foreign language when I graduated than I did in my major. Getting a second major in that would have required me to take specific courses that appealed to me less than other alternatives that were personally broadening. I've never regretted my choice, and I doubt that it mattered one whit to law school admissions committees that later passed judgment on me.</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone for your insight. What you all have said makes me feel much more at ease. Does anyone have any thoughts regarding the last question? What sort of GPA is considered stellar for a top-14 law school?</p>
<p>Generally what I've seen is that you should aim for the 75th percentile of the sorts of schools you'd like to attend. These are available at least on USN if not from the schools themselves.</p>
<p>I have a major/minor and I spent three years feeling kind of slacky, until senior year when everyone else realized that they were NUTS and ended up dropping majors one class short, commuting majors to minors, and so forth (as Amerikanski noted). There's a lot to be said for ambition, but also for knowing your limits and for respecting the rigor of college level work.</p>
<p>There was a post semi-recently about triple-majoring (philosophy/politics/econ). The suggestion was not particularly well-received. There are many other benefits to pursuing depth rather than breadth, but they're better discussed in that thread.</p>
<p>Generally, the higher your LSAT, the lower your GPA can be (within reason...you don't want them to be wildly disproportionate). The converse isn't true to the same degree. Among most (though not all) law schools, even at the top, 3.9s are the exception rather than the rule.</p>
<p>(Just realized that my post really didn't address the original question, so...not to be redundant with other posters, but no. A single major will NOT hurt you, as long as you do well in it. For that matter, a double major won't help you unless you do well...and in neither case is it really the degree or number of requirements that's relevant. Just the doing well.)</p>
<p>That said, if you really have the interest to pursue a double major or a major/minor, I'd say go for it...there can still be benefits. For one thing, greater range of classes can lead to a wider range of opportunities. For another, certain awards are partially based on breadth of study (Phi Beta Kappa comes to mind), and at my school, people with double/dual/minors have an easier time getting through the breadth analysis than people with just one major. The above aren't anything that should lead you to pursue a double major without the true desire to study both topics...just some random pieces of info.</p>
<p>I would still draw the line at double majoring, though. Pursuing a triple major would in most cases be ridiculous, even if your school allowed it and you could handle the requirements. I know one person who actually pursued three majors, and two others whose majors were very interdisciplinary. All three handled it and enjoyed their studies, but did encounter many problems.</p>