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I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to label as my emphasis, and there is a fellowship program I may want to apply for but I haven't officially decided what I'd like to go for. I'm interested in non-profit law, public interest law, and criminal law.

Would it be possible to "double major" so to speak? Could I do non-profit and criminal? Or (for schools that don't offer non-profit) public interest and criminal?

There are technically no majors/minors/emphases in LS. Every 1L essentially has the same classes and for the next two years you pick classes.

Your career field after LS (IMO) is essentially determined by: 1. Grades 2. Internships 3. EC's 4. Networking/Connections

foregetaboutdre wrote:There are technically no majors/minors/emphases in LS. Every 1L essentially has the same classes and for the next two years you pick classes.

Your career field after LS (IMO) is essentially determined by: 1. Grades 2. Internships 3. EC's 4. Networking/Connections

Yea I know there's no majors I just meant, some schools offer certificates, and that's dependent on the classes you take, additionally some schools offer fellowships which allow you priority to courses specific to certain emphasis, priority for certain clinics etc. (and especially for the fellowship I'm thinking of you take classes specific to the fellowship focus in 1L)

I'm thinking of applying for a criminal law fellowship (which I have to apply to now with my admission application), but that would kind of require a dedication to criminal law but I'm not ultimately sure if that's the only route I want to go yet. therefore before I make a decision of whether not to apply for the fellowship I want to know if I'd still have the option of going the route of public interest or non profit law and get a certificate in 2 emphasis

What kind of school offers certificates. Probably bad ones you shouldn't go to.

Mal Reynolds wrote:What kind of school offers certificates. Probably bad ones you shouldn't go to.

A lot of schools, pepperdine is one of my top choices and they offer certificates for certain concentrations, but not all schools call them certificates, some just say concentrations etc. but they have specific programs dedicated to specific fields.

I'd like to do 2 programs, so can anyone actually answer my question?

knimmz wrote:

Mal Reynolds wrote:What kind of school offers certificates. Probably bad ones you shouldn't go to.

A lot of schools, pepperdine is one of my top choices and they offer certificates for certain concentrations, but not all schools call them certificates, some just say concentrations etc. but they have specific programs dedicated to specific fields.

I'd like to do 2 programs, so can anyone actually answer my question?

Exactly as I suspected.

anyone who isn't obnoxious got an answer?

even if you ignore the whole certificate thing.
if I apply to a fellowship with a specific concentration, can I have another concentration? Does anyone who is actually in law school have experience with two concentrations?

It will depend on your school and the credit requirements for each concentration and what other requirements they have. I doubt there will be any rule precluding you from doing it, but it just may not be feasible - concentrations/certificates often require enough credits that it might be difficult to complete two on top of the requirements you have for graduation, if there isn't much overlap between the two. Look at the academic requirements and the concentration requirements and see if you can map them all into 3 years.

(It's also entirely unnecessary to do a concentration in something to get a job in that area, and concentrations signal to employers that that's the only thing you want to do. If you're absolutely certain you only want to practice criminal law and will be gunning for a criminal law job throughout school, and would ditch law rather than not work in criminal, getting a concentration is fine. If you change your mind, or can't get a criminal law job, the concentration will signal to non-criminal employers that their job isn't really what you wanted to do, which isn't very helpful.)

thank you! you answered my question perfectly