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Originally Posted by Kevin
I don't know any social fraternities which cater to the pre-law sorts. Most of us accept men studying a wide variety of fields. You might find a professional organization with greek letters, but please do not confuse those with social fraternities. They aren't the same thing.
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Hey Spillarelli, and welcome.
To piggyback on what Kevin said, general fraternities, which most social fraternities are, by definition do not cater to a specific area of study but rather draw from a wide variety of majors and interests. There are some social fraternities that are not general fraternities but are, for want of a better term, "special interest" and draw students from specific majors or areas of interest -- Triangle (engineering), Alpha Gamma Rho and FarmHouse (agriculture) and my own fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (music), would be examples of these special interest social fraternities, but I don't know of one related to law.
That said, you
may find when you get to college that certain chapters include more than the average number of guys planning on law school. That's not because it's a focus of the fraternity as a whole (the national fraternity), but just the culture of that chapter (the local "branch" of that fraternity) and, perhaps, that college. At one college it may be the chapter of ABC, while at another college it may be the chapter of XYZ. (At a third college, it's possible that none of the chapters fits this description.) This is all part of what you'll find as you go through rush and see which chapters you "click" with. There's really no way to predict in advance what you might find -- the make-up of a chapter can change quite a bit even over a year or two.
There is a professional fraternity,
Phi Alpha Delta, that has
pre-law chapters. Based on what I know (which isn't firsthand), the experience you might have in such a pre-law chapter, while it might be very valuable and rewarding, would not be like the experience you might have in a social fraternity. It is possible to be a pre-law member of Phi Alpha Delta and of a social fraternity at the same time.
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As for the pre-law thing, I'd personally urge you to find a different major. You might try something like business or a science related field. I'm in law school right now. I really wish I had either more of a science or business background as either would have served me very well in my future law practice. Law school teaches you enough to be a lawyer. I think the pre-law thing is just unnecessary.
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As someone who went to law school after earning a bachelor of music, I would heartily agree with Kevin -- both as to majoring in pre-law
or poli-sci. Most law schools are looking for a diverse (used here in terms of educational and work backgrounds) student body. I remember one dean telling me in an admissions interview that he and the faculty didn't want a law school full of pre-law and poli-sci majors. His words to me: "All they've done is prepare themselves to go to law school, where we we'll be teaching them what they need to know about being a lawyer anyway. You've prepared yourself to have a life outside law school and outside the practice of law." (I was admitted to that school by the way.)
The best advice I ever heard was to major in something you really enjoy -- your grades are likely to be better if you do. If that's poli-sci, so be it, but be aware that there will be lots and lots of other poli-sci majors applying to law school, so you'll need to do things to set yourself apart from them.
Besides that, if you don't major in business or accouting, at least take some basic courses in each. That will be a great help.
Good luck!
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