Law school

Chlupululuu

This is probably too early to be worrying about this, but I am a freshman in college and I am fairly certain I would like to continue on to law school. I am currently studying electrical engineering. I did some research and the impression I got was that it does not really matter what you your undergraduate degree is in because you will learn anything you need to know once you get there. The obvious exceptions to this are certain skills that take practice or experience such as writing or a foreign language. This brings me to my question: is there anything I should be doing now that would improve my chances of admission to a good law school (besides the obvious keeping my GPA as high as possible and doing well on the LSAT)? Should I stick with electrical engineering? I am more interested in law than engineering, and I'm mostly studying that as a placeholder because my university does not offer a pre-law degree. Also, engineering would let me study patent law (I think). I am in the US if it makes any difference.

Thanatos

If you want to go into patent law, stick with engineering. There's really only a handful of schools that offer a "pre-law" degree. Most people who go to law school have a BA or BS in just about anything. Most schools will offer a course or two that are law-ish, like "constitutional law," "criminal procedure," or "business law." Take some of those as your electives, see what you think.

Snatchymilk

I think you'll be alright with the electrical engineering gig. Just bust your ass- I know it'll be gay at a few points.

I was a third year econ degree, but then I randomly decided I want to do the whole aeronautical engineering gig. And the twist is- I'm still planning on going to law school.

Do you have any ideas where you wanna go?

Reckless

More than a few people have told me that if I'm aiming for law school, I should take as many writing and critically-thinking intensive classes as possible. You'll want to take classes that'll enhance your ability to articulate yourself well and form a logical, flowing, coherent argument.

Shinto

Unless you have a burning desire for patent law, I'd go into philosophy. It trains your mind.

I wish I had gone that way, but I hadn't settled on law school when I went in.

Chlupululuu

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been considering either patent or contract law. I'm not sure where I want to go yet, but I want to do well enough to keep my options open. I have a few electives open to me and I was planning on using them for writing or the few undergraduate law classes they do offer. I think that the engineering classes should be enough for logical thinking and problem solving, but I'd like more writing classes.

Is there anything else I need to be considering besides classes and grades? Is it like high school where they look at your extracurricular activities as well or do they just look at grades and test scores? At this point I am worried more about neglecting to start doing things that will make easier for me to be admitted when I actually start applying junior and senior year.

Reckless

A bunch of volunteer-type work can never hurt one's resume.

Marty81

I've done some research on the subject, and what I've heard unanimously is that the best thing for patent law is a strong background in science and engineering.

bbmartini

its a good idea to be involved and have a well rounded application along with the grades. Electrical engineering is a great choice if you want to go into patent law, mechanical is another good option. If your engineering school has a curriculum anything like Purdue's you'll barely have to take any required English/speech, but you can focus your general electives towards rounding out your transcript and maybe aim towards a philosophy or another worthwhile minors.

deadonthestreet

Yeah, if you are at all interested in patent law, stick with what you're doing. They won't even let you take the patent bar unless you have an engineering or biology degree of some sort, or nearly enough credits to earn one.

JPArbiter

You seem to have the right Idea, and EE can give you some practical experience if you decide to get into things Like HR or business law, or as stated above patent law.

beyond that I can only reccomend going to the University of Missouri law School. all the quality of Harvard without the Price Tag

DarthJer

My wife grad'd law school after BA in Criminal Justice.
My friend is in law school now after a BA in Graphic Design.

The BS/BA major isn't super-important. Though if you are looking for patent law, I think engineering/science is usually required. If it's not too tough on you, I'd suggest sticking with the engineering just to keep your options open. For many people, things change a lot in four (5? 6? 8?) years of undergrad.

grungebox

I have a friend who was an EE major with me during undergrad, and he's now at law school but not to do patent law. Even if you don't have a desire to get into patent law (it's a tedious field, by the way, like tax law), you have the following advantages:

1) If you hate law school, you have a backup
2) You'll stand out waaay more than other applicants (especially the insane number of philosophy majors that go to law school) and the school will know you didn't just coast through college.
3) Law school won't be as difficult an adjustment since you'll be used to long hours, group studying, and time management.

That being said, if you really want to do patent law or something, there are easier science majors than electrical engineering. Getting a BA (not a BS) in any natural science gets you in the science field with less work. In fact, a BA might be better as you are forced to take writing classes as well, unlike the typical EE major. But you're a freshman; your mind will probably change next week, and then again the week after, if you're normal.

kaliyama

If you want to do patent law, stick with EE. If you don't, find the easiest humanities major you can. The reason? Law schools look at three factors in admission: 1) GPA, 2) LSAT, 3) race. There's a lot of window dressing around the process, but things like personal statements only help in the most exceptional of cases. (You have to have a REALLY interesting story..military service, being raised in an exotic foreign country, or extreme appalachian poverty>)

It's stupid, but law schools don't really care about what your major was - they're concerned about GPA because it gets reported to US News and World Report. EE is REALLY HARD and on a curve. If you're not getting 3.5-4.0 range in the major, it is going to hurt your chances to go to a 1st tier school worth going to. If you want to do patent law, you will have an OK time finding a good job if you go to a school ranked 30-50. Otherwise,it's going to be hard. So the worst thing you could do is stick with EE, but want to go to law school and pursue a non-technical field of law.

Either a) do EE and and patent law, or b) do something else easy and do non-patent law.

KalTorak

Check your philosophy or math departments and see if they have any logic courses. Actually, most philosophy courses will be helpful just b/c they focus a lot on building and tearing down arguments. The LSAT is geared almost completely toward gauging your logical ability, so getting in some grounding and early practice certainly won't hurt.

Shinto

Chlupululuu wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been considering either patent or contract law. I'm not sure where I want to go yet, but I want to do well enough to keep my options open. I have a few electives open to me and I was planning on using them for writing or the few undergraduate law classes they do offer. I think that the engineering classes should be enough for logical thinking and problem solving, but I'd like more writing classes.

Is there anything else I need to be considering besides classes and grades? Is it like high school where they look at your extracurricular activities as well or do they just look at grades and test scores? At this point I am worried more about neglecting to start doing things that will make easier for me to be admitted when I actually start applying junior and senior year.

From what I understand they look at your LSAT scores, then a distant second place is held by your GPA and everything else is thrown in the trash.

I could be wrong though. It's not like I'm an admissions officer.