Pre-Law

Pre-Law Preparation

Students interested in applying to law school should open a pre-law file with the Office of Pre-Professional Advising and Fellowships (OPPAF), located in Levermore Hall 303, and are urged to seek guidance from pre-law advisers and other faculty.

The best advice for students who are preparing for law school is to obtain copies of the LSAT & LSDAS Information Book as well as the ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools published by the Law School Admission Council and the American Bar Association. These publications may be obtained in OPPAF or by visiting lsac.org.

No particular major is best for pre-law preparation. Law schools want to see students who are able to express ideas with clarity and force. Students must obtain an undergraduate education that includes critical analysis, logical reasoning, and written and oral expression. Students must learn to read works of literature and exposition with comprehension and speed, and should continuously practice argument and debate. An understanding of human values and institutions is a lifetime goal, but the best opportunity to begin this quest is during ones undergraduate years. Careful study within each of the great divisions of human knowledge—the humanities, the sciences, and the social sciences—is indispensable. Pre-law students must develop the capacity to think creatively. This capacity depends on skills and understanding already discussed, and also on the ability to conduct research; to reason deductively, inductively, and by analogy; and to synthesize what one has learned.