What to major in for law school?

Hello,

I have been doing avid research to see what majors do best in law school. I am pretty sure I want to go to law school and the majors that tend to do well in the LSAT are Philosophy, Physics, and etc. I am interested in Computer Information System and either a major or minor based off critical thinking so I can do well on the LSAT.

I plan to go to a community college and was reading about Computer Information System and it seems really interesting. I am also currently taking AP Computer Science and I enjoy the class as well.

Math is not my strongest point and though I can do well in it with perseverance it is not something I would like to go into great depth with. I do know that Computer Science requires depth into math to a large extent. I was reading about Computer Information System and it seemed like it did not require so much math if I am not mistaken. Can anyone tell me what the prerequisites are for CIS normally? Can anyone answer about CIS who has knowledge about this or experience?

I was also wondering if people would recommend a double major if I am planning to go to law school? I aspire to go to the top 25 so I would appreciate if people could just share their knowledge.

P.S Not to be rude in anyway but I really do not want to hear an answer about how " I have time" and I can always change my major etc. I just want advice and knowledge regarding my question.

-THANK YOU!!!

P.P.S Sorry if it is too long and confusing. I always have so many questions.

You can major in anything and go to law school. Pick what interests you/what you are good at.

And “not to be rude in any way” but you DO have time and you CAN change your major over the next couple of years. In fact if you start off with one major in mind and find it isn’t your strength you would be silly to not change majors as your undergraduate GPA is an important factor in getting into a good law school. .

CIS would be fine. My husband majored in chemistry and minored in German (which has helped him in practice). He also got a masters in Chemical Engineering before deciding to go to law school. He went to a school ranked top 10 at the time (top 15 now) and did great and works for a great firm. Basically any major can do well so pick something you are interested in. I don’t know the prereqs for CIS degree. I think hey vary by school. Just go online and check schools you are interested in. We know several lawyers that are not very strong in math and do well. A minor or double major in a language can be good. It won’t necessarily help in law school or on the LSAT but can help when looking for a job.

Thank you~!

and @happy1 thank you for the suggestion and most people answer saying you can major in whatever you want and normally dont ever give a specific answer but I thank you for your advice. I just do not want to major in something that I wont have any job opportunities if I decide to not go to law school. I was planning to do Philosophy and Linguistics but I would not want to graduate and decide not to go to law school. CIS is a back up plan for me and probably would be more impressive to law schools cause I believe a 4.0 in Humanities is not as impressive as a 3.8 in Physics, CIS, CS and etc. (From what I read)

@momocarly

That is really interesting! I plan CIS and maybe Linguistics or Philosophy so hopefully this works out well.

If law school plans change then anything IS related is good, however you’d want to minor in something that involves research, analysis, writing, as that’s what you’ll be doing a lot of at law school. So go with govt, history, poly sci, as a minor.

@happy1 and also the way I think (which I know a lot of people may disagree with) is that not everything you may love to do in life but at the end of the day you wake up and going to your job and you may not be bouncing off the walls for it but something you are content with. Definitely we should not be studying something we abhor but a lot of people could choose to major in something extremely easy but with that they may not accomplish their ultimate goals.

Agree that one doesn’t have to love his/her major but it should be something that does fit a person’s skill base.

I don’t think that I suggested (or I didn’t mean to suggest) taking an “easy” major just to get a high GPA when it doesn’t accomplish your goals. What I wanted to emphaiis that flexibility is an important trait. For example if one goes into college as a Physics majors but finds that after the intro level classes that physics just isn’t a subject that he/she has the skills to succeed in then IMO the best move would be to pivot away from physics and find a major that is a better match for that person’s talents. Stubbornly plowing ahead with any given major that isn’t working simply because it was what a person decided he/she would do before starting college just doesn’t make sense.

I have two kids – my S stayed with his original plan and did great but my D found that her original plan wasn’t working well for her so pivoted to find a major that was a better fit and she is now in a top grad school in her field. I have no doubt that if she had stubbornly continued along her original path she would not have been equally successful.

And I don’t know about CIS as a major but if you haven’t done so already I’d suggest that you look at the courses offered at colleges you are looking at – this can help you to get a better sense of what is required of that major.

If I were you, I’d pick history as my second major. It will require a ton of reading, which may be a challenge if you’re also doing CS, but it will prepare you better for the LSAT than just about anything else. You will learn critical reading and thinking, skills that are heavily represented in the LSAT questions. My second choice for a second major would be English, for similar reasons.

Philosophy is also considered to be an excellent major for developing critical reading and thinking skills.

Philosophy is a humanities major that also requires logical thinking to a greater extent than other humanities majors, which may relate to higher LSAT performance. Math and physics also force one to practice logical thinking.

In any case, also consider what type of law you are interested in and whether your undergraduate major can help you understand that area (e.g. engineering major for patent or intellectual property law, social sciences for many other types of law, etc.).