Anyone a Criminal Justice major? Forum

[OmbreGracieuse]

Anyone a criminal justice major? Think it made a difference in your app process, or made you stand out in any way?

[thestalkmore]

Made you stand out in how fast you were dinged maybe.

[OmbreGracieuse]

Made you stand out in how fast you were dinged maybe.

Do you think being a CJ major is a bad thing? Why? Wouldn't it be no less harmful than a pre-law degree??

[thestalkmore]

Made you stand out in how fast you were dinged maybe.

Do you think being a CJ major is a bad thing? Why? Wouldn't it be no less harmful than a pre-law degree??

A pre-law degree is harmful.

[merichard87]

Made you stand out in how fast you were dinged maybe.

Do you think being a CJ major is a bad thing? Why? Wouldn't it be no less harmful than a pre-law degree??

A pre-law degree is harmful.

LOL BAM!

[noname086]

i know three people who majored in criminal justice from undergrad that went to great law schools. one guy went to harvard, another went to georgetown, and the third to emory. none of them were URMS. (well unless you consider arab or pakistani as as urm)

i think it just goes back to your gpa and lsat score combination. as long as you have a high gpa in that major you're fine. though i do think a low gpa in criminal justice will hurt you since it was known at my school as one of the easier majors.

[OmbreGracieuse]

A pre-law degree is harmful.

Do you think a degree in criminal justice is harmful then? Why?

[merichard87]

Statistics show that those who major in Criminal Justice are among the lowest score-ers on the LSAT. I think it has to do with the major not providing an education in analytical thinking.

[PoorOrpheus]

Statistics show that those who major in Criminal Justice are among the lowest score-ers on the LSAT. I think it has to do with the major not providing an education in analytical thinking.

What I learned as an undergraduate had nothing to do with my performance on the LSAT. I think it has to do more with self-selection than anything else, and that stat just reflects that correlation.

[merichard87]

Could be. I have no clue. But from my personal experiences many of the CJ majors I know chose the major because they watch too much Law&Order and think thats what law is all about. They also are not taught about the law school application process nor are they prepared for it which puts them at a disadvantage and could most certainly lead to lower scores but I have no idea if this is a common trend. I hope not.

[PoorOrpheus]

Could be. I have no clue. But from my personal experiences many of the CJ majors I know chose the major because they watch too much Law&Order and think thats what law is all about. They also are not taught about the law school application process nor are they prepared for it which puts them at a disadvantage and could most certainly lead to lower scores but I have no idea if this is a common trend. I hope not.

I guess what I was trying to get at before is that no one is taught about the law school application process in an academic setting, so to place partial responsibility for poor scores on one's major doesn't make sense to me. I think it's more about the type of people who generally speaking major in CJ. Most of your top universities (for the sake of this argument, we'll define them as the schools with the highest avg LSAT) don't even offer CJ as a major.

NB: I'm not trying to insult anyone here. There are very diligent, intelligent CJ majors just as the opposite can be found in more traditionally difficult majors.

[merichard87]

Honestly I wanted to say that but I was trying to keep it PC. lol Most of the CJ majors I know are of the slower capacity and didnt bother to research law school or the LSAT before their senior year.

And the reason I even mention the major is because there are some majors that help prepare students for the LSAT because of the skills you have to acquire to do well in that major. Of course thats not a cop-out nor does it mean that everyone or even a majority of people in that major will do well but these types of things have been documented. I'm just sayin. And I probably wouldnt advise anyone to major in CJ even if they did want to go into Criminal Law.

[quickquestionthanks]

Statistics show that those who major in Criminal Justice are among the lowest score-ers on the LSAT. I think it has to do with the major not providing an education in analytical thinking.

What I learned as an undergraduate had nothing to do with my performance on the LSAT. I think it has to do more with self-selection than anything else, and that stat just reflects that correlation.

I agree. I've only known one CJ major and she had a criminal personality (sold ecstasy). I think the idea of going into law enforcement made her feel safe, like she'd be protected from punishment if she joined up with those out to punish people like her.

[merichard87]

lol now that you mention it many of the CJs I know are criminals themselves.

[PoorOrpheus]

Honestly I wanted to say that but I was trying to keep it PC.

I really hope my comment was fair!

To try to be more helpful and return to the OP's question, it could help (in the mostly negligible way all softs help) if you gained experience working at a law firm or perhaps you started a prisoner education program and then write a PS on how, inspired by that experience, you specifically want to work for convicts' rights. Otherwise, it's a matter of doing the least harm. Keep your GPA high!

[RickyMack]

most of the people i know who did criminal justice wanted more so to get into law enforcement rather than law. i haven't taken any course work in that field but my assumption about a pre-law type major is that there are so many different fields of law that studying in that type of field would be too generic. i think it's a good thing that no particular field of study (theoretically) gives you a "boost" in the admissions process.

[legalease9]

Made you stand out in how fast you were dinged maybe.

Do you think being a CJ major is a bad thing? Why? Wouldn't it be no less harmful than a pre-law degree??

A pre-law degree is harmful.

I disagree. A pre-law or criminal justice degree isn't harmful. It's irrelevant, but not harmful. Just keep that GPA up!

[cartercl]

Definitely agree with most of what has been said here. I'll be graduating in a few weeks with a B.A. in CJ, and I regret wasting $30,000 on this worthless, P.O.S. degree. I find that most of my classmates are absolutely clueless about the law school admissions process in addition to having delusions of grandeur, especially regarding how "smart" they are (or rather how smart they think they are) and what schools they can get into.

I even know a guy who scored a 123, and had the nerve to claim he "did well for not studying." While my score is certainly not comparable to some of the higher scorers here on TLS, I felt extremely sorry for the guy and hesitated when he asked me for my score. These kids are clueless...

Statistics show that those who major in Criminal Justice are among the lowest score-ers on the LSAT. I think it has to do with the major not providing an education in analytical thinking.

Exactly. In fact, I have found that the major actually does the exact opposite, that is it encourages illogical thinking. Social research is almost never able to find a true causal relationship between variables, and yet this weak evidence is the basis of almost all criminological theories, and this is the crap taught in class as if it were true beyond all doubt.

Then you have theorists like Cesare Lombroso (i.e. the King of All Quacks, besides maybe Freud) who believed that having a physical defect determined your criminality. Yes, faulty logic has long been a hallmark in the field of criminal justice and is not disappearing anytime soon.

[FeuerFrei]

.

[merichard87]

He did well for being brain dead.

[Borhas]

I don't see the point of the degree if you are going to go to law school anyway... but that's just my $0.02

however, everyone should take symbolic logic, regardless of what your major is

[r2b2ct]

I know it is undetermined how much of this is truly influenced by your major, but pre-law and criminal justice majors perform the worst on the LSAT.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341 ... 970c-350wi

[tintin]

i minored in legal studies, which is kinda like pre-law i think, which i know is generally frowned up on these boards. obviously it didn't hurt my applications (that i know of) and i think it helped, insofar as i now know i can read cases and think about the law and enjoy it, at least as an academic pursuit. i doubt it will help me aside from figuring out that i liked it though.

i guess that doesnt really have anything to do with criminal justice though...hahaha. sorry.

[legalease9]

I don't see the point of the degree if you are going to go to law school anyway... but that's just my $0.02

however, everyone should take symbolic logic, regardless of what your major is

180

[merichard87]

Anyone a criminal justice major? Think it made a difference in your app process, or made you stand out in any way?

And to return to the OP's original post, why would CJ make you stand out?