Hello! I will be attending USC in the fall as a sophomore transfer and was hoping to receive more information on the Philosophy, Politics, and Law (PPL) major and the Law, History, and Culture (LHC) major. I am hoping to attend law school after undergrad.
These two majors are really similar so I was hoping to hear others’ thoughts on them. I’m currently leaning towards LHC major because of the culture aspect. However, will the PPL major prepare better for law school? Both majors take courses at the law school though. Also, I’ve noticed there seems to be more students in the PPL major. Anyone know how big these majors are in comparison? How are the students in each major? (competitive?) How are professors? Is there grade deflation?
I know that my major for law school admissions doesn’t really matter, mainly my GPA and LSAT school but I want to be in a major where I can thrive! Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Which interests you more? or is there overlap and you can double major.
it’s law school. If Photography or underwater basket weaving interested you, that’s what you should take.
Enjoy what you take…just know that if you don’t go to law school, while these majors will have good components, they are not job ready - such as accounting, engineering, etc. That’s not bad - just know you’ll end up in sales or something low paying…most likely.
Do you have to decide this today? or do you have until spring semester 2022?
If it’s the latter, stop overthinking it. Have a multiple major has no objective advantage, so follow your genuine interests. Go, take the courses you are interested in and see where they take you. Maybe you get there and fall in love with the P or P or L or H or C department, and decide to major in (gasp!) just one of them, and just take the specific courses that you want to take from the others.
IRL you are likely to have 2 years of work experience between finishing UG & starting law school- often at a law firm- and tbh that is the best prep for law school.
Study what you love. Maybe that’s the area of law that you will specialize in, so getting some background in it will help you. Also keep in mind that most pre-law majors never work as lawyers, and many law school graduates never work as lawyers either, or change careers a few years into their career. Best to keep your options open.
They are both in Dornsife, and changing majors is easy at USC and even easier when in the same school (trip to your advisors office). Some classes overlap between the two majors - get started and see what you like and what the buzz is on both majors. There is nothing that has to be decided right now. Explore and try things on for fit, that is what college is about. Either way, get ready to write some papers.
Philosophy requires both analytical reasoning and analytical writing.
Math certainly requires analytical reasoning, but probably does not require or develop analytical writing skills. Math majors should, therefore, take some courses which involve analytical writing.
Taking a logic class may be good prep for the LSAT, but it may also cause conflicts with some of the most popular LSAT prep courses (according to a couple of longtime LSAT instructors with one very popular LSAT prep company) which like to teach their own methods for handling the LSAT.
Philosophy in general, and Logic in particular, can be excellent to challenge and stretch ways of thinking, which in turns is useful for the LSAT and law school in general, by making the mind more nimble, more critical, etc.
However it is not a technique designed to train for a multiple choice test that can be tricked, where direct LSAT classes can be helpful. Those classes don’t teach thinking, they teach tricks hence the sometimes opposite directions given by College Logic and LSAT prep.
All in all PPL and LHC are two excellent majors. In addition, you can take one or two classes from the other stream if you so wish.
What will matter is pushing yourself toward excellence regardless of major chosen.
Seems like there is an analogy to such things as the SAT. A student strong in high school math is likely to get a high score on the SAT math without prep or needing to use any SAT-specific tricks. But less-strong-in-high-school-math students may be helped by learning SAT-specific tricks in SAT prep. However, those SAT-specific tricks are unlikely to be useful beyond the SAT, unlike how general strength in math is likely to be useful in college math and math-using courses.
My D did a philosophy with law emphasis minor at another university (with eyes on law school) and really enjoyed the philosophy classes. But as mentioned, either of those majors are fine, see what you like!
hence the sometimes opposite directions given by College Logic and LSAT prep.