Below, you can find a ranked list of the ten most popular majors for law students. We put together this list based on 2 important main types of data: the number of students admitted to law school with a certain major, and the average LSAT score of the students with that major.
Students admitted to law school from this major last year: 1, Average LSAT score of admitted students out of : Sociology majors have to be comfortable scrutinizing data and writing long papers. Both the critical thinking and writing skills that this major cultivates can be leveraged in law school.
Consider this major if the social dynamics of groups interest you, and you enjoy both quantitative and qualitative reasoning.
This group of majors tends to be fairly writing-heavy and attracts students with the focus to spend hours reading. Traditionally, philosophy is considered the ultimate pre-law major. In this field, you wrestle deeply with logic and reasoning as you consider questions about knowledge, existence, and other fundamental concepts.
If you love to be hands-on with the justice system, this may be the major for you. No field of study gives you more exposure to law prior to law school. That said, notice how much lower the average LSAT score is relative to other majors. It is not considered as academically rigorous as theoretical disciplines.
If you want to set yourself apart at a highly competitive law school, this may not be the major for you. Economics offers the perfect blend of quantitative and qualitative experience. Additionally, this field prepares you to be an effective lawmaker and advocate for sound monetary policy.
Understanding capital is vital for understanding large portions of tax law and federal regulation. English is another famous choice for pre-law students, since so much reading and writing is required to perform well in this field.
Learning to synthesize a lot of content and becoming sensitive to careful word choice will make you a stronger applicant and a better lawyer. Understanding the past is critical for interpreting law for two reasons. First, it establishes precedent, and knowing how legal cases have been resolved in the past is central to our understanding of how to decide current cases.
Second, a grounding in the past helps you zoom out and understand the broader social context for a piece of legislation. This is a great major for students eager to pursue a legal career.
This category is a catch-all for niche majors not commonly represented among law school applicants. In fact, public policy is nothing more than systems of laws, regulatory measures, and funding allocations that drive the policy out into society. Law shapes public policy and vice versa. In addition, public policy majors study the mechanisms and structures that develop policies in societies and organizations.
Moreover, students learn the ideological underpinnings that drive certain policies, as well as the complex and difficult political processes that take place as groups try to pass and implement policies at the local, regional, and national levels. Sociology combines several content areas and skills that can prove useful to law students.
Combining theories, research methods, and analytical perspectives, sociology students get a useful education that prepares them well for law school admission. While a specific scientific discipline did not make the top 10 list, there are several thousand science majors with degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, and physics that end up applying to law school.
Science degrees can be very helpful for those that are interested in practicing environmental law, healthcare law, pharmaceutical law, or another science-related area of law.
Science majors also bring attractive qualities to the table, such as quantitative strengths, logical thinking, and research skills. There are several factors to consider when determining which major is best to prepare you for law school. While many students follow the actions of their peers, the guiding principle should be to choose something of personal interest. After all, there are many pathways to law school, which include virtually any major.
Moreover, law is not a singular career, and there are several sub-fields of law that allow attorneys to put their undergraduate degree to good use.
By choosing an undergraduate major you are passionate about, your likelihood of performing well goes up considerably. By doing well in undergraduate classes, you should get a strong GPA, which is an important metric on any law school application. If your passions lie in an undergraduate major that may not have the reputation of rigor, it is worth considering a double major or a minor that demonstrates high academic achievement.
Also, because law school admission mostly uses a holistic model, it is important that students balance out academic rigor with community service, internships, and other extracurricular activities to be added to the application. While stats such as LSAT scores and GPAs are important, admission officials desire applicants that show critical engagement in their undergraduate studies along with exceptional reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Any major can provide these things if the student takes a keen interest in the material and utilizes the people and resources available to them.
This means that the applicant has a great deal of agency in building an excellent undergraduate experience based upon their desires and passions. Top 10 Best Pre-law Majors see also: what did most law school students major in?
Political Science - 9, admitted. Other - 2, admitted. Psychology - 2, admitted. Criminal Justice - 2, admitted. English - 2, admitted. History - 2, admitted. Economics - 2, admitted. Philosophy - 1, admitted. This major may include concentrations like language, religion, and design.
Law school applicants who've majored in this course typically end up in public office or government jobs. That said, majoring in political science can still be helpful if you intend on practicing law since it exposes you to various aspects of the judicial system.
Studying political science introduces you to the structure of the law, how laws are implemented, the operation of the Constitution, how different courts operate, historical cases, foreign policy, foreign legal systems, and more. It also teaches public speaking, comprehensive reading, and writing skills, all of which law schools look for in applicants.
The acceptance rate for Political Science majors is in the range of 80 percent, up there with other high-acceptance-rate majors. Majoring in corporate business or business administration is a great pre-law choice. Law schools find applicants with this major appealing because of the difficult coursework involved and the skills the courses provide.
While some other majors are universal for law school, however, business majors are better for those going into a specific type of law. Because of the rigors of studying this course, graduating with a 3. But if you do manage to graduate with a high GPA, top-ranked law schools will definitely consider you as a prime candidate for admission. Law schools also want candidates that major in this because it hones skills like reading, writing, public speaking, document drafting, familiarity with business processes, negotiations, critical thinking, problem-solving, and more.
Aside from the above majors, the following fields are also great choices for boosting your chances of getting into the law school of your choice:. Any of these courses will distinguish you from other law school applicants, which is important because law schools aim for diversity among the candidates they accept.
Pre-law generally means any undergraduate course that's being studied to get into law school. Because law schools don't require you to major in any specific courses to gain admission, an undergrad course from any discipline can count as pre-law. But certain colleges specifically provide pre-law programs for those aspiring to attend law school.
Such a program typically covers writing, politics, reading, history, and government to ensure a student has the foundational knowledge needed to succeed in law school. There aren't too many schools that offer such programs. Since a pre-law program is created for the sole purpose of preparing students for law school, you might think it's the best major for law school.
But law schools aren't on the same page. First, top law schools don't consider this type of pre-law program to be challenging or well-rounded enough to deliver the skills they desire in applicants.
These upper-echelon law schools want students that have excelled in more difficult courses and subjects, which they feel the pre-law program doesn't offer. Law schools want diverse and interesting thinkers, not students who need to prepare four years just to enter. As such, they don't really value a pre-law program's degree, regardless of the quality of an undergraduate's GPA. For example, top law schools find a 3. Second, majoring in pre-law won't help you stick out as an applicant.
Top law schools want applicants from diverse and unexpected backgrounds, which is why the more unrelated a major is to law, the higher the acceptance rate of the applicant. For example, in recent years, applicants that majored in Nuclear Engineering and Inter-American Relations had almost a hundred percent acceptance rate. This is remarkable, especially as compared to the 65 percent acceptance rate for applicants that majored in Criminal Justice or Legal Studies. Yes, a pre-law major may give you an edge in law school by teaching you about the legal system and analyzing legal cases.
But you may find it difficult getting into the law school of your choice with such a major, regardless of how high your GPA is. For this reason, we recommend that you major in any area that you enjoy—one that you believe you can achieve a high GPA in. Law schools don't care if the major is related to law or not.
They are mostly concerned with whether your chosen course of study requires critical thinking, research, and other skills that are invaluable to legal practice. And all of that is just a factor alongside other application factors: LSAT scores and a personal statement. There are a lot of things you need to consider before choosing the best major for law school.
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