Your seasoned opinion: Double major for patent law Forum

[ptblazer]

What if I do take the extra classes--and am not afraid to take a 5th (or--eek--6th) year?

How realistic is it to get a >3.5 GPA with hard chemistry courses (assuming you have an aptitude for chemistry)? As another poster said, my science grades would be fluffed up by my higher poli sci grades. But still...

I'm going to discretely crash some chemistry and calculus lectures during this semester so that I have a real understanding of the difficulty of this major, so that I don't have go off hearsay so much.[/quote]

I don't quite agree about the extra classes within the major. In my experience it is more about your work experience. In fact as you will find out there aren't a whole lot of extra classes, like other majors have. If you want to do research, you need research experience, while that is often for credit, I wouldn't call it a class. I think getting a >3.5 is realistic, but it won't be easy considering your double major. I managed it and I wasn't at the very top of the class (but upper 75%). Tip: Don't overload yourself when you take organic chemistry. That often the medical school "weeder" course so to speak and it is a bitch of a class. I think crashing chemistry and calc lectures is a good idea so long as you go in understanding you won't understand it. A better idea might be to talk to some students and get a hold of a course syllabus. If you do decide to pursue chemistry don't be afraid to seek out the resources avaiable to you. The nice thing about the sciences are that there is often no shortage of people willing to tutor.

[AreJay711]

The thing about getting a real job in chemistry is that you usually have to take classes above and beyond the minimum classes. The minimum classes qualify you for a lab assistant or high school teacher rather than as a researcher or scientist. I'm not sure if you need the extra classes for patent law or if the general degree will be ok but make sure the Chem degree you get will be able to get you where you want to go. I'm guessing at some schools all chem degrees are ACS certified but I know at mine this is not the case so be sure to check.

What if I do take the extra classes--and am not afraid to take a 5th (or--eek--6th) year?

How realistic is it to get a >3.5 GPA with hard chemistry courses (assuming you have an aptitude for chemistry)? As another poster said, my science grades would be fluffed up by my higher poli sci grades. But still...

I'm going to discretely crash some chemistry and calculus lectures during this semester so that I have a real understanding of the difficulty of this major, so that I don't have go off hearsay so much.

I just know that from my SO who did chemistry and had to warp her schedule a bit for grad school. It seems like a lot more memorization to me. I was formerly a math / econ major (dropped the math this semester after I decided on law school). I think you should be ok on the math. People get scared by the name "calculus" but it isn't that hard really. I know math it is 100% possible to get >3.5 but, unlike political science where you can get by on just intelligence, doing well in math just takes time and practice so you know the rules inside and out and how they apply to problems. It is probably the same with Chemistry. I wouldn't recommend the heavy schedule with that in mind especially since you will also spend significant time with labs. If you are unsure about how well you would do maybe you should just take calc 1 and a basic chemistry and pass / fail them if you don't do well.

P.S. the extra classes might just have been for my school. My SO wanted the ACS designation which was a few extra classes (and more rigorous math and physics) and some research to be a combined 71 credits compared to 50 for the general track. That might not be important for patent work at all.

[hjag]

Why not the life sciences?

Are you asking because you feel it doesnt make a difference or are you just curious? It is my opinion that all life sciences lack the math and physics that patent law offices look for. Which is why they target engineers, which is very heavy in math and physics.

Curious. I am interested in IP and I have majors in bio and physical geography. I took a lot of science and math, but virtually no chem (1 or 2 classes) and only 1 physics class for geomorphology. I was under the assumption that I had taken enough "hard science," but I am not exactly sure what IP requires.

Most IP law hiring goes to engineering people and chem people(usually with graduate degrees). There are, apparently, a few firms that specialize in biological sciences but not a lot compared to the entire IP market. You can sit for the patent bar w/ bio but not sure how easy it would be to get a job.

My gf's dad works in medical device design/VC/incubation and he works almost exclusively with engineers and surgeons.

Patent law in the biological sciences is a rapidly growing field at the moment, especially in the gene patenting area.

[Black-Blue]

For biotech, you need a grad degree to do patent prosecution unless you have substantial work experience or patent examiner experience. However, you can still do IP lit, especially pharma IP lit, with a biology BS, but you have to have top grades / top school because you'll be competing with a lot of people for IP lit.

Chem ppl who want to go into biotech would usually need a grad degree. However, there are positions with non-biotech chemistry that would not require grad degrees. Still, chemistry BS will be playing second fiddle to Chemical Engineering. Apparantly, Chem E is perceived as notably superior to Chem.

[09042014]

Get your BA in PS first. Then your grades stop counting for LSAC. Then think long and hard about whether you really want to do patent law. If you then take Chem classes and try to get into a Chem MS program.

Patent prosecution is TTT now though.

[Black-Blue]

And Patent LiTTTigaTTTion is not TTT? Patent Litigation is mostly discovery work and doc review.

[09042014]

And Patent LiTTTigaTTTion is not TTT? Patent Litigation is mostly discovery work and doc review.

Patent pros is being flat rate billing pwnd.