Legal Studies Major????? Forum

[grizz20]

Pick a major you enjoy, and hopefully that is a major companies value - stem, econ, finance, and the like. Legal studies sounds like the stupidest shit I have ever heard.

[totesTheGoat]

I'm going against my better judgment and will put my $.02 into this thread.

First, don't count on a high GPA. You never know when you're going to get mono or depressed or bored and end up graduating your legal studies program with a 3.4. Then you're objectively unemployable, and you're gonna be competing for a tier 2 law school that you're woefully unprepared for.

Second, take something challenging. If you go from poli sci or psychology or history (or legal studies) to law school, you're going to experience a ton of culture shock. Take a major where you're at risk of getting a bad grade, even if you show up every day and turn everything in. Take curved classes. Learn what actual hard work is. I'm not saying that there isn't hard work in those majors, but I'm saying that there are majors that better prepare you for the rigor of law school.

Third, get some work experience before law school. If you end up graduating with a 3.8 GPA in a humanities degree and a 168 LSAT, you've just become one of thousands with nearly identical resumes trying to apply to go K-JD. Go work for a couple years. Learn what it takes to pay bills and make rent every month. Learn what it costs to pay for the lifestyle you want. Pay down some UG debt. Equip yourself with the skills and incentives necessary to do well in law school.

Finally, do your research. Pull the statistics on your school's undergrad majors. Figure out what is an employable major and what isn't. Figure out what majors are challenging and which are cakewalks. What internship opportunities do you have? What kind of path do you have to law school/jobs? What GPA is required to be employable/law school admittable? (Note that I treat law school the same as employment... that's on purpose. Your law school chances are going to be directly related to your employment chances)

[IAmLawSchool]

It is practically Paralegal studies. Point being, it won't make you or break you if you're set on law school but you may want to pick something more intellectually challenging; you can just read about your passion. You said you want to use it as a stepping stone to law school. Would a degree in music, engineering, economics, english, P.P.E (Philosophy, Politics, Economics), Business, etc be less of a stepping stone ? You seem like you have made up your mind (but you created this thread so there is some light) so just drop it down to a minor. Just try to add some other classes in the mix (and a major). I promise you won't regret it. Other than that, the other things I had to say about legal studies were quiet disturbing (I don't know why) so I didn't say them. BTW, Listen to these guys ^^^

[Aristogeiton1]

Dude, just get a 4.0 in whatever major and get a 170+ with internship and volunteering experience all 4 summers.
That's it.
Unless you're going to kill off 50% of your brain cells getting blackout drunk in college like the majority of law students, I doubt you'll have a 180 degree turn-around with what you want to do.
Focus on not getting any misdemeanors or felonies.
Don't watch Suits.
Make sure your caffeine tolerance isn't too high.

[eagle2a]

Major in something that will enable you to get a job after undergrad in case law school doesn't work out.

[PoopyPants]

Hope it's okay for me to post a reply, since I'm not in law school yet. I started out as a legal studies major (after nursing school). I was planning on going to law school, and I figured that four years of "law" courses would be interesting before getting into it for real in law school.

Then, I realized that undergrad was my chance to study stuff I most likely wouldn't get the chance to study ever again (at least not formally) if I went to law school. So, I changed my major to English. Took some Shakespeare and Chaucer courses, learned a lot, and had fun doing it. Then I decided to do all the shit I wanted to do before law school.

A few (8, actually) years, several cities, and a lot of crazy experiences later, I am finishing up my math degree and waiting until next cycle to apply to law school. Law school is still there, but I got to learn about a lot of cool shit that interests me a lot, live a little, and get great experience.

Long story short, I am so glad I changed majors out of legal studies. Academically, it was the best thing I could have done for my own experience. I probably could have had a 4.0 as a legal studies major (and I did that year), but I have a decent GPA as a math major, and it's been way more fulfilling.

[totesTheGoat]

Major in something that will enable you to get a job after undergrad in case law school doesn't work out.