Quick Question
 

Im entering my sophomore year in College (I just love saying that! lol) and since there are so many wonderful people on here who give great advice I thought I'd ask for some...

Once I graduate Ugrad I want to go to law school. I haven't gotten much guidance from ppl. at my school about any courses I should take. My major is not a very common one for law school (Film production), but there are very few required courses and even the requirements are basics like poli sci and humanities courses. Mostly I have to fill in the blanks with "electives". So, I was wondering if there are any courses that you think would be helpful. I've taken polisci,english (101 & 102 (argument writing mostly),statistics,us history, us government, principles of reasoning, chinese, psychology, wmn in ancient egypt, Chinese, & algebra.

Suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I literally breathed a sigh of relief because this was NOT a membership question. I was like "uh oh...she knows she knows better....:eek:...."

The thing about law school is that there aren't any courses that can prepare you or that I'd recommend. It would also depend on the types of courses your university offers and how the faculty instruct particular courses. People from different backgrounds go to law school and get a J.D., even if they don't want to become a lawyer.

ETA: There are 2 threads that may have bits and pieces of info. Search for "lawschool." One word because this sucky search function won't allow 3 lettered words.

Is there a type of law that you'd like to practice? That may guide you towards the type of courses that would be good to take.

Im not sure what type but I've narrowed it down to (1)Entertainment or (2)Corporate law. Since I have a very strong background in environment I am also considering (3)ELaw as a third option. (they are in order of preference.)

Lots of writing/communications course. Media Law, International Relations. Join Debate teams

CHAOS,
My moms didnt raise no fool! I know much better than that. Plus, I was raised right. God gave me two ears and one mouth because I should listen twice as much as I talk. (in this case I should read twice as much as I post.) I still don't understand why ppl come here to ask questions that they should already know the answer to IF they did 1/4 of the "research" they claim they did. I stumbled on GC when i was searching for some old topic (doing real research for Poli sci I think) and read the archives from like 2000 up until 2005 and then decided to see if the website was still in existance and so many idiots have been chewed up and spit out since then its not even funny and I wouldn't even try that one.

Every time I see ETA I think estimated time of arrival. LOl. Thank you. I searched (didn't really find anything useful) and I kept drawing a blank because I couldn't use the word law.

Definitely go for some advanced writing courses and some more math wouldn't hurt either. Lawyers have to balance a lot of figures, esp. if you're going into entertainment law and you don't want to have to rely on others to crunch the numbers for you. So I recommend math/accounting/business/etc. for that. A lot of law school students I know took at least one course in Latin and claim that helped a lot. Also, do you have a minor? My sister told me that I needed one because, when she applied for grad schools, they implied that her taking a bunch of sporadic classes when she could've chosen a minor made her look lazy compared to the other applicants. So, when my psych major left me with a lot of "filler" classes to take and I used that space for a minor and it made my transcript a tad more impressive.

Did you try the Academics thread?: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/forumdisplay.php?f=31 There always seems to be peeps talking about law school in there.

I haven't declared a minor yet. Idk what I want to minor in. I'll prolly do poli sci. I also might double major by taking a boatload of classes in summer school and busting my but and maxing out on credits.

The one thing you can do as far as course work is to decide which law schools you would like to go to, then find out what prerequisite courses you should take as an undergrad. Each law school should have this listed on their web site.

Law school 'may' work like med school - it really does not matter what your undergrad major is as long as you take the pre-req classes and do well on the standardized exam. For law school it would be the LSAT.

It may also be very helpful if you visit some law schools. Some of them may have open houses and if they do take advantage of it and go. Even if you may not want to go to that particular law school you visit, you still may pick up some good info.

Whatever field of law you would like to get into, I would suggest that you try to intern in that field during summer breaks while in law school and right after law school. It will be very important to make contacts early in law school.

I think that you should list which law school and field you would like to get into and research them. The best place to start is the web! Then once you are more focused on where you want to go, then be more pro-active about attending that school. For example, if you want to get into entertainment law, I would not consider a school in Nebraska, but maybe a school in CA, NY or even FL.

Don't major in this just because you think it's "pre-law." Again, this will depend on the courses and faculty in your poli sci department.

I would recommend some business courses. You have already taken statistics but I would also recommend a basic accounting course and even a basic computer/information systems class. You have already taken writing courses and a foreign language which are good as well.

I dont want to do polisci for that reason. I have a lot of interest in political science. I've been involved with politics since I was a kid so there is definitely an interest there. The only reasons I didnt do poli sci for my major is that I didn't like that the requirements are so stringent. their whole major is a bunch of requirements which don't leave a lot of room to manuver (sp) and try a lot of new things and I like film a lot. The department is really good though. I know several of the professors in the department personally and I know they are good teachers because they've been around me when I was young and taught me a lot of what I know about politics now.

Thanks!

A professor that I grew up around (she's at NYU) suggested I take Economics. I'm a little unsure about that one because it is a rather difficult course and while I always welcome a challenge I cannot afford for my GPA to suffer because of it. I took AP Econ in H/S so I have a very slim feel of what it may be like. Also, Business Law is apparently one of the most difficult classes around here so I kinda want to take it.
The only problem with these courses is that I am not a math wiz. I got a 690 on SAT writing but I got a 590 on the math part. I actually took 2 stats courses: math stats I took AP in H/S and then Sociology stats (which is learning software and how to analyze the results) in college.

Biz Law is a beast. But rewarding

If you are interested in Corporate Law in the long run, I would suggest taking business courses. Many law schools offer joint degree programs whereby you can earn a J.D./M.B.A. in 4 years. Many students interested in becoming corporate attorneys take that route. If you have business coursework under your belt, it will definitely prove helpful in admission to the MBA part of the joint program.

I would suggest against taking PoliSci courses if you aren't genuinely interested in them. This is why. Law school admissions is now all about DIVERSITY. And guess what most law school wannabe's major in...poli-sci. So if you majored in that and are applying to law school, you will be just another poli-sci major in an unending pool of poli-sci majors seeking admission to law school.

I entered law school with a psychology degree, with a minor (and some graduate coursework) in elementary education. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't change my major, however I would've participated in more diverse activities. For instance, I would have taken a semester or two to study abroad. Those types of experiences are the things that you can speak about in your personal statement (a major component to your law school application) which can totally set you apart from other applicants. Also, if I had to do it again, I would've taken more language courses. If you can become fluent in 1-2 languages other than english, you can almost write your own ticket professionally.

I could go on and on. If you have any other questions about applying to law school feel free to send me a private message.

Good luck!