What major should I choose?
What are the most common majors?
Should I double major, or add a minor?
Do we have a “pre-law major” at NEIU?
What classes should I take?
Am I at a disadvantage for admission because I attend NEIU?
What are the most important parts of my law school application? How do I get in?
Should I take time off before going to law school?
How do I choose a law school?
How many schools should I apply to?
What should be on my resume?
When do I take the LSAT? How many times can I take it?
I have a black mark in my past. Do I have to disclose it on my application? What do I say?
How do I pay for law school?

Any major! There is no required pre-law curriculum. I urge students to choose a major that they enjoy, because they will be more likely to excel at it. Of course, a rigorous program of study is preferable to an easy one. Double majors and majors with minors are not required, but many people pursue them. Remember, though, it's the quality, not the quantity, that counts.

Carol Leach, Professor and Pre-Law Advisor at Chicago State University, has compiled a list of the most common majors of law school applicants, along with their success rates for acceptance to law school. Not surprisingly, political science is the most common major, and physics majors have the highest acceptance rate. Over 200 different majors are commonly found in law school applications, so you really can choose any major. The Twenty Most Common Majors for the Law School Entering Class of 2001

Majors with the Highest Acceptance Rate for the Law School Entering Class of 2001

Students often ask me this question, and I prefer to answer it on an individual basis. That being said, I do have a piece of general advice. Do not add majors or minors simply to look good to law schools. Double majors are fine, but they do not really distinguish you from the pack—certainly not as much, say, as a good LSAT score would. Instead of adding another major and staying in school longer, think about using all of the time that you would need to devote to it for your LSAT preparation instead.

No. Few undergraduate institutions offer a pre-law major. The reason is pretty straightforward: law schools want applicants with a broad-based liberal arts background, not undergraduates who already think they are “junior” lawyers because of their pre-law background. Most undergraduate schools feel that a pre-law major is too narrow, and certainly the law schools believe that is not a substitute for the real thing. If your institution offers a pre-law major, you need to ask yourself whether it is your best preparation for law school.

Again, there are no required classes for law school. You can take what you want. We encourage students to take courses that interest them, because they will be more likely to do well in them. In general, I also suggest that a student (1) avoid easy or "gut" courses, because the quality of the courses you take will be taken into account by the law schools; (2) choose courses that stress writing and give you practice in it, because writing is perhaps the most important skill you will need as a lawyer; (3) choose courses that require you to think for yourself, rather than simply memorize material. The development of analytical skills (logical reasoning, argumentation, etc.) is important preparation for law school. Since 60% of the test questions on the LSAT are "reasoning problems", you should take courses in Critical Thinking and Logic as part of your college coursework, no matter what your Major is.  Other coursework recommended by LSAC is : a course in Advanced Composition (writing) and corses in American Government and Constitutional Law.

NEIU students have been accepted at a number of fine law schools, including the University of Michigan and Northwestern.  Our graduates are regularly accepted at all of the local law schools:  John Marshall, Chicago-Kent, Loyola, and DePaul.  And our graduates regularly show up at Northern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University law schools.  NEIU students have been accepted at law schools all over the country, from coast to coast.No. In recent years, 

Admissions decisions are based most heavily on your GPA and LSAT score. These are clearly the two most important components of the application. After these numbers, the admissions committees look at the personal statement, letters of recommendation, and activities/experience, generally in that order. Like it or not, the LSAT is absolutely crucial to your application; the better you do, the more choices you will have for admission and financial aid.

This is an important decision, and a personal one. No one can tell you what to do; we can only give you some things to think about. There are a number of good reasons to take time off between college and law school:

You will gain experience (work/volunteer, preferably legal);
You will save some money to pay for law school;
You will be a more competitive applicant;
You will have the benefit of all of your senior year grades on your transcript;
You will have more time to prepare for the LSAT;
You will have the time to determine whether law school is right for you;
You will be more mature, a quality that law schools place a premium on.

A large percentage of applicants (67%) have taken time off between college and law school. They use this time to work, to travel, or to obtain an advanced degree. The consensus among law school admissions directors seems to be that it doesn’t matter so much what you do with that year or two (or more) off, but rather what you learned from it. The time off is supposed to mature you, and to make you more prepared to attend law school. Hopefully you can make a better case for why you want to go, and how the interim period has contributed to your decision to attend law school.

Many parents are concerned that if their child takes time off after college, he or she will never return to school to advance their education. That’s possible, I suppose, but the statistics suggest otherwise. Two-thirds of law school applicants have taken time off, and have still chosen to apply. If law school is right for you, taking time off should only make you a more competitive applicant. If you are too distracted or uninterested to apply after taking time off, law school was not the right choice in the first place. Let’s face it: most law school applicants are highly motivated to go, regardless of how much time has passed since college.

Make a list of criteria that are important to you. Perhaps the first thing to think about is where you want to live and practice when you graduate. If you are fairly certain that you want to stay in Illinois, then you should strongly consider an Illinois school or a school with a good enough reputation that you can take its degree and return to Illinois and get a job. Of course, you can practice in Illinois with a degree from any accredited law school, assuming you pass the state's bar exam. So this geographic rule is not set in stone—but it is something to think about, because if you go far away to attend law school, you will be giving up local connections, alumni contacts, word-of-mouth job opportunities, and the like. On the other hand, if you receive a nice financial aid package from a school that's far away, you can save money and still pass the Illinois bar. The idea, then, is to think about your personal situation, and then select the schools that seem best suited to your wants and needs.

The following factors may be important to you:

Size of school/class Location Job placement statistics Financial aid Quality of faculty

Reputation Bar pass rate of graduates Student satisfaction Special programs/joint degrees Expenses (tuition/cost of living)

Philosophy/Ethics Minority representation Alumni network or connections Attrition rate of students "The feel" of the place

It is a very good idea to visit the law schools you are considering. Having the “feel” of a place helps students to decide where they will best fit in. I have had a number of students visit their “heart’s desire” law school, only to find that it was cold and impersonal. Usually these students end up going to another school, one where they felt more comfortable and welcomed.

To a certain extent, the answer depends on your personal needs and on what you can afford. I encourage students to apply broadly, so that they have the most options open to them. Applying to law school, in my view, should be thought of as two separate steps: applying in the fall, and then deciding in the spring where to go once the acceptances and rejections are received. If you apply broadly, you should have more choices at decision making time.

Many pre-law advisors recommend that students apply to one or two "safety schools," where they are virtually certain of admission, and then to several "competitive schools," where they will be competitive applicants but not necessarily successful ones. In addition, students often wish to apply to a few "dream schools." And why not, if you can afford it? You have nothing to lose.

To determine which schools you are competitive at, you can refer to any number of books and web sites that provide rankings. The best book is probably the ABA/LSAC Official Guide to U.S. Law Schools . This book is available in the College of Arts & Sciences Dean's office, Science Building, room S158. Also, you can access it online at the LSAC’s web site, www.lsac.org. A great web site is the Boston College Law School Locator, which, like the Official Guide, allows you to input your GPA and LSAT scores to generate a list of schools that might be right for you. It is located at: http://www.bc.edu/offices/careers/gradschool/law/lawlocator/

Once again, it's the quality, not the quantity, that counts. Law schools are looking for people who excel. You can excel in one thing (music, track, ceramics, etc.) or you can excel by being a leader and a well-rounded person. You are not judged by the length of your list of undertakings, but by what you did, how dedicated you were, and what you learned from your endeavors. Do not pad your resume! Law schools can smell that a mile away. You shouldn't need to, anyway, particularly if you worked while going to college. The law schools understand that, between working and studying (and maybe raising a family, too), there is only so much time left for extracurricular activities. That's why it's important to focus on one or two things that you enjoy.

You need an extracurricular activity of some sort. Maybe two. You can accomplish this easily by volunteering somewhere—anywhere. Show that you care about someone other than yourself. Work for a food bank, a battered women's shelter, the Humane Society, Big Brothers/Sisters. Volunteer at your church, synagogue, or mosque. Be a tutor to younger students. Take care of an elderly relative. All of these things count as extracurricular. It doesn't have to be a college-based group or activity, and it doesn't have to be in the legal field — just so you do good quality work and learn something from it. Note: See me for a comprehensive list of local volunteer opportunities.

See "How to Prepare for the LSAT." In general, you should start your direct preparation for the exam a year in advance. The LSAT tests certain skills that you can improve if you practice them. The more practice, the better. Taking a Commercial Prep course is also recommended.  These courses are offered by companies like Kaplan, Princeton Review, Power Score, and so on.  These courses cost from $400 to $1,500 but most are considered worth the investment by most of the members of the National Association of Pre Law Advisors.  By taking the proper college courses, a commercial prep course, and by diligently taking practice tests under timed conditions, many students increase their likely score by 3 to 6 points.  Thats a significant increase on this kind of test.  You should never take the LSAT on a whim. Take it when you're ready. You should plan to take it only once. Multiple scores are averaged by the LSDAS reporting service, so you don't necessarily gain much by taking it again, unless you are convinced you can do significantly better. If you absolutely bomb the test, there are provisions for canceling your score, but you must make this decision very quickly after taking it. If you feel you need to take the test again, discuss your reasons with your pre-law advisor. 

If the application asks you for information, you have to give it. Usually the applications will ask you to report incidents of cheating, academic fraud, arrests, convictions, etc. You must not hide this information. You need to present it accurately. Usually a paragraph or two will do, typed up separately and submitted with your application materials. If the incident was major (for example, I had a student arrested for possession of a handgun on the Berkeley campus—he’s now a successful attorney), you might wish to devote your personal statement to it. See the section on "Personal Statements" for details on when this option might be warranted.

Try not to worry about this "black mark." Law schools do not expect you to be perfect. A minor incident or two should not affect you too severely (depending on the circumstances, of course). A high percentage of applicants have some sort of alcohol or traffic violation on their records. Law schools tend to overlook minor infractions. However, if you have multiple infractions, ones that show a pattern of bad behavior, you may have a lot of explaining to do. Also, you will need to pass a moral character review before you are admitted to practice law. If you have questions regarding your eligibility, many states will do a "pre-screening" for you. Serious offenses such as felonies or those involving academic integrity (plagiarism, cheating, and the like) are, of course, taken seriously by law schools. If you feel you have a serious black mark against you, talk to your pre-law advisor or to the law schools themselves.

See "I Made It! But How Do I Pay For It?" on this Site, which is devoted to this topic. In general, most students pay for law school by taking out student loans.