I’m still a junior in college but I’m trying to plan out life. I want to study either political science (International Affairs), Criminal Justice, business, or marketing in college when I get in. I’m confident I’ll at least get into Rutgers (Live in New Jersey) or Penn State. Do the fields I study in college matter or effect if I get into law school? I’m also planning on joining the military and Peace Corps for a short time after college, in order to give back. Will these two benefit me?
What To Study In College Before Going Into Law School?
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I’m an attorney. It looks like what you want to focus on is Criminal law (You want to be a criminal defense attorney or a prosecutor like you see on Law and Order) which is fine, but what you see on TV is pure crap. Ninety Nine percent of practicing law is writing. Thus, my recommendation is to get a degree in English or Journalism. However, because you are a junior and it may be too late to switch majors, I would say stick to marketing or poli sci. The most annoying students (and/or the ones that didn’t do very well) were Criminal Justice degree holders because they had to unlearn everything they learned in college.
But like others have posted on this site, it doesn’t really matter what you major in. The important thing is that you get decent grades. You don’t need straight A’s, but the better your GPA the more choices you have.
If you want to do the Military thing, you should consider joining ROTC while in college. This will help you get a job as a Military attorney (JAG Officer) after you graduate law school and pass the bar (if you want to continue on the military route).
You can study anything that you’d like before applying to law school. It might make sense that they’d prefer majors that have something to do with writing and reading, but you could study something like Biology if you wanted.
So, no I don’t think it affects if you will get into law school. I’d choose something you like already, or something that is close to the area of law that you’d like to get into – like choosing marketing or business if you’d like copyright or contract law, or criminal justice if you’re interested in court law.
I’m sure that joining the military and the Peace Corps will certainly help your application, so absolutely they’re benefits.