<p>I live in East shore of Maryland, I go to wor-wic community college and have completed 30 credits in a Gen. Studes AA degree track.Title sums it up. </p>
<p>I woud like to go out of state for undergrad, but knowing how much the financial aid offices favor keeping in state residents in state for their education, I would be open to staying in state.UMD College Park would be where I would like to transfer if I have to stay in state for financial reasons. I was wondering if i should go for the UMD Honors Program and get a B.A in Philosophy, or go for their more highly ranked (its #1 in nation according to usnews rankings) Criminology program? My goal is to go to law school and become an attorney (not sure specialization yet, but if criminology tract is chosen, probably a criminal defense att'y or prosecutor. Any feedback would be great.</p>
<p>Ps.- I was thinking of also doing a pre-med track in preperation for some type of health-care related law field. Would likely get a degree in pre-med from UMD-CP or Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>What do you all think is best tract to take for my goal of going to Top Tier Law school such as Yale/Harvard/UCBerkely/etc....</p>
<p>btw, my GPA so far is 3.893 and I take honors courses and have only gotten 1 B (a 89% in Health class) and am a member of Phi Theta Kappa and the Honors program designation. Plan on being the SGA and PTK presidents in Fall. Also starting a soup kitchen in a local resort town stricken with homelessness. these are just some of my stats and goals. I also have gotten a 170 on a practice Lsat test and my range is 164-173 on these LSATS ive found on some sites that have old tests.</p>
<p>Bump please feedback is appreciated!!</p>
<p>anyone? please help.</p>
<p>I understand you are anxious, but constantly bumping up your post will not make a difference if there isn’t anyone who feels they are familiar enough with law school to answer which track is better. Why don’t you post your question on a law school forum? </p>
<p>In general, however, it is always best to take the classes that interest you most, rather than what you think will “look better.” You can apply for Criminology, but understand that it is a limited enrollment program (LEP) at Maryland, so it is far more competitive. Your stats are excellent though, so you do have a good chance. The way that admission works is that you are admitted to the university first (which I think you will have no prob being admitted) and then your application is sent to the LEP for consideration. Based on a variety of factors, including space/availability and who else is applying at the time, you may or may not be accepted to the LEP.</p>
<p>The only thing I can tell you is that as a transfer student, you are not able to “go for Honors” directly at Maryland. [Honors</a> College University of Maryland](<a href=“http://honors.umd.edu/prospective-transfer.php]Honors”>http://honors.umd.edu/prospective-transfer.php) You can try to apply after completing two semesters at UMDCP, but by that point, since you will likely have junior standing, you have a better chance at departmental honors (which is a bigger deal) if your gpa/rank is sufficient (while your gpa from community college will appear on your transcript, only the grades earned at UMDCP are considered).</p>
<p>Also, there is no such thing as a degree in pre-med - it is more of an advising program to make sure you are taking classes required for med school admission. You get a degree in whatever you want and just add classes that are required by med schools if not already part of your undergraduate degree requirements. So, since you are not looking to become a physician, but are looking to pursue health-care law, that is likely a specialty of law studies.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your reply.</p>
<p>(This is on a side note that I know is kind of unrelated;don’t want to start a new thread)-- But I’m having difficulty finding people to help me with my goal of starting a soup kitchen in my local area. I’ve gotten a call back from my district congressman delegate Andy Harris, and the staff are always helpful, but they said I’d be the one who’d have to file for the IRS status of my non-profit to start the soup kitchen. This is a daunting task, yet if I do it all by myself, wouldn’t that show more resourcefulness or would the lack of integrating my social “network” be a downfall? I’m somewhat daunted by this task…Anyone have any advice?</p>
<p>The only thing that really matters for law schools (aside from the likes of Yale and Stanford) is your GPA and LSAT. Major in whatever you want, there’s no difference. No law school admission is going to be impressed that you have a degree in #1 criminology, especially considering it’s an easy major. </p>
<p>Likewise, Harvard won’t care that you organized a soup kitchen. This isn’t undergrad, your peer applicants will be much more accomplished.</p>
<p>Why don’t volunteer or take classes you want to based on whether you want to or not, not instead of whether it will minisculely affect your chance at your dream law schools.</p>
<p>It’s ridiculous to be honest that you’re asking people to chance you for Yale based on few As in 100 level classes at community college. I’m not saying law school is important for you, but do actually get a reality check on the caliber of the students who actually apply/attend there.</p>
<p>I understand where you are coming from. I know it is a bit farfetched to ask for people to chance me on places like harvard, but I really do smoke most of the students who I meet in terms of intelligence and memorization (I do live in a college town where most people I know go to either SU, UMCP, Towson, UMES, etc., and I am head and shoulders above them in terms of overall/general knowledge. </p>
<p>Even though you make a valid point, I think my LSAT scores are a pretty good indicator of how I stack up to the caliber of students at Harvard, Yale, etc… I mean, on avg. they are better in terms of stats alone, but I am not far behind. I can pretty much guarantee I will have a 3.95 when I get my Associates and I will no doubt score at least 169-up to around 178 on LSAT. Plus my E.C’s are pretty remarkable (I don’t recall ever hearing of anyone else ever founding and seeing their own non-profit charity (i.e. Soup Kitchen) and seeing it to fruition basically by themselves. You can’t say that isn’t a huge test of leadership and attrition, no?</p>
<p>plus I have all the other rote E.C’s that most top students have: High Honors, over 6 Honors classes, very rigorous load–avg. 18 credits per semester, Phi Theta Kappa leadership roles, probably will win SGA pres/VP (don’t know which yet), Proposing several clubs when I get the positions, one being a new student grievance council chaired by a joint faculty-student committee–pretty neat ideas overall, not just sitting on my positions like most do… I tutor and mentor my peers and disabled students(mostly autism). I just want to know if I stand a good shot at getting a full ride at say UMCP or something, maybe even an O.O.S transfer full scholarship at the likes of a UVA or Duke or something similar?</p>
<p>You’re putting the cart before the horse. Have you actually taken the LSAT yet? Have you actually applied to the said colleges? </p>
<p>Your laundry list of EC’s is very generic and found everywhere for top high school applicants. Not to mention your planning of EC’s is 1) planned and 2) absolutely mediocre by top law school standards. </p>
<p>You’re definitely out of touch with reality, if you think getting a 4.0 at a community college taking 100 level gen ed courses merits you a full transfer scholarship at the likes of Duke. Duke has a transfer rate of 2%, you will be competing with people who are excelling at peer institutions at Stanford, Chicago who are transferring for legit reasons. (basically, save your application money). </p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with having high goals and working hard, but I suggest you focus on one thing at a time.</p>
<p>If you really want blunt honest feedback, post your story at top-law-schools.com and get better advice than here.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks for the info Cries. I do appreciate it.You are right, sometimes I get so obsessive about this whole thing I tend to lose sight of the things you mentioned.</p>
<p>You say that getting a full scholarship is very difficult to pull off, well what could I do to improve my shot at getting one? (say at a mid-level undergrad-UMD CP, UNC CH, etc…) Financially, I really need something like a Transfer Academic Excellence Sch’ship to cover myself since I have no EFC contributions.</p>
<p>And frankly, I’ve been hearing nothing good at all about law schools, so I may just switch my plans solely for pragmatic purposes (even though I’ve only ever dreamed of going to law school, I’ve always felt I am lawyer-minded and would excel in those areas of study). Possibly going into either Gov’t & Politics, Bioengineering, Biochem, or other major. Not fully sure yet what is best in long run… </p>
<p>On a side note, does anyone know of any accelerated Bachelor’s-Masters programs available to transfer students? That is seeming like the best course of action to take at the moment in terms of getting more out of the opportunity.</p>