<p>If they do not like pre-law, who takes pre-law?</p>
<p>Pre-law seems to be the WORST major ever, if law schools do not admit pre-law students.
A friend of mine in the UK is attending Oxford as a Jurisprudence major. Will that hurt his chances?</p>
<p>Also, if I am MEng major, (mechanical engineering), will this hurt my chances?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance, Parent Cafe.</p>
<p>I’d suggest asking your question on the law board, but…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The Oxford program won’t hurt his chances. If he is a Brit, he should look into the combined programs with US law schools. </p></li>
<li><p>Being an engineer in and of itself won’t hurt your chances. However, at some schools–I don’t know about Stanford–grades in engineering are deflated compared to other majors. Getting into LS is all about the gpa and LSAT score. There’s not much adjustment for a tougher grading major. So, if you do end up with a lower gpa because you are in engineering, it will hurt your chance. If you get a high gpa, it won’t.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>American law schools do not like so-called “pre-law” majors for several reasons. Law schools prefer to shape their students’ professional education in the ways of “thinking like a lawyer” without their students entering law school with a lot of misinformed preconceptions. Also, law touches on almost every aspect of human endeavor. In that sense, a broad liberal arts background, along with the writing, speaking, thinking skills fostered by such an education, is the best preparation for law school and a legal career. </p>
<p>At Oxford, as at most European universities, undergraduates can enter directly into a law curriculum. This is a first professional degree in law, equivalent to an American LL.B. It will prepare for entry-level position inthe legal profession in the UK, and could prepare one for a postgrad degree in an American law school (e.g., LL.M.). It may or may not prepare on to pass an American bar exam, though these vary state by state. IIRC, the law course at Oxford is designated as “Jurisprudence”, though it is an a first professional degree in law, rather than a “pre-law” or “legal studies” major of the type seen at some US colleges.</p>
<p>An engineering degree might be a very appropriate degree for someone interested in going to law school, especially if that person had an interest in intellectual property or patent law. To the extent that it fosters analytical thinking and other skills relevant to legal studies, it can prepare a student as well as many nontechnical degrees. A broader engineering curriculum, rather than on that is too narrowly focused, will provide more opportunities for relevant coursework in humanities and social sciences, however. As the other poster indicated, a potential drawback of an engineering degree for law school admission is that its inherent difficulty may deflate one’s GPA. Engineering is among the majors who score at the high end on the LSAT, whereas “pre-law”, criminology, and even business majors, tend to score at the lower end.</p>
<p>Could someone please tell me what “prelaw” major is? Isn’t that sort of like “premed”? There are lots of options of majors for student aspiring to law or med schools.</p>
<p>In the US, most schools do not have a “pre-law” major (not sure which ones do, if any)</p>
<p>In the US, students can major in anything, take the LSAT, and apply to law school.</p>
<p>^^ Many students like to say they’re going to major in “pre-law” without understanding that there really is no such major. Who knows, maybe it sounds more impressive to the relatives than saying they’re going to major in English or history?</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are some schools that offer majors in “Legal Studies”, “Law & Society” or similarly titled majors. Typically, these majors constitute interdisciplinary programs that draw on law-related courses from a number of departments, such as American Constitutional History, Sociology of Law, Criminology, Philosophy of Law, Psychology of Law, Judicial System, etc. Some students who aspire to legal careers see these as “pre-law” majors and mistakenly feel that such majors will give them an edge for law school admission and success. Law schools typically discourage such majors, however.</p>
<p>Because you are about to enter one of the most crass, boring, and time-consuming professions on the face of the earth, and you will need something else to (maybe) keep you sane.</p>
<p>I see. So MEng can be helpful.</p>
<p>Jurisprudence->Juris Doctor/MBA is that a possible option?</p>
<p>My uncle has his bachelor of laws and it is the most worthless degree ever considering he could not get into a decent law school… and what do you fall back on? (the bachelor of laws is awarded in most common law countries, here in the US they have stopped awarding it almost completely… since 1971 it does not allow you to sit for the bar.)</p>
<p>Your friend from the UK more than likely is pursuing the bachelor of laws or going the LPC route, either way he should be fine.</p>
<p>Law schools, like all graduate schools, like diversity. If everyone has the same major but a few people, they stand out. Also, pre law students tend to have some the lowest lsat scores</p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>I thought that many US law schools have special one year programs for graduates of foreign law programs to enable them to sit for the bar. </p>
<p>I doubt Oxford guy would have a low LSAT.</p>
<p>I would say that the biggest problem with any kind of “pre-law” program is that you’re going to waste a lot of time. Anything you learn that will be useful in law school you will have to do all over again in law school. Being able to write well is useful, but there is hardly any content knowledge that will really help.</p>
<p>^^^I have a child in law school and he took undergrad law classes that he enjoyed very much, so they weren’t a waste of time. His major was another area, but he had two undergrad law classes.</p>
<p>However, he was given a false sense of what that area of law is really like, and after retaking the class in law school, he changed his area of focus.</p>
<p>To the OP - engineering is a good undergrad major if you can keep your GPA high enough to get into a good law school. Then, if your law school grades are good enough, it won’t be hard to be hired as a lawyer with that background.</p>
<p>I know there are some who do double majors with an MBA or other subjects, but it is more likely (because of the difficulty of law school) to do a Masters before or after law school.</p>
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<p>D1 is working on an MBA at Georgetown. She has a good friend in the joint MBA/JD program. You have to be admitted to each program. It takes 4 years and is a very specific course of study. First year is all JD courses, second year is MBA courses, third is JD and fourth is a combination of both.</p>
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<p>Some people just say “pre-law” because it’s instantly understood and easier than “I’m majoring in X then plan to attend law school.” Especially when X is un-lawish and will just raise eyebrows. 
People “in the know” will realize “pre-law” is a polite shortcut answer and the ignorant will nod with comprehension. It’s really a just a simple, safe answer for chit-chat situations.</p>
<p>Maybe. It also might mean that you’re completely ignorant about law school admissions and haven’t seriously thought about the process yes.</p>
<p>Pre-med (vet, dent) is different, because there are a good number of required courses that one must take.</p>