- Hey legal eagles, one of the questions
I get most from college students is,
"What is the best undergrad degree or major
"to prepare you for law school?"
Well today I'm gonna talk about the various pros and cons
of different degrees and by the end of this video
you will know what is the right major for you.
So stick around.
(upbeat music)
The thing about law school is that it takes
a lot of different skills
working in conjunction with each other.
First and foremost, you have to be a great writer.
Second, you have to be good at researching.
You have to be good at logical thinking.
You have to be able to make good policy arguments
stemming from philosophy and government.
You have to be good at historical precedent.
You have to be a good orator.
All of these things need to work in conjunction
if you're going to get the most out of law school
and you have to use all of these skills together
in order to be a successful law student.
To get good grades.
And as a result there is no one major
that prepares you for law school.
Law school is unlike anything else.
In undergrad, in high school,
there is just simply nothing like it.
And there is no one major that really prepares you
for what law school is like.
Final exams in law school are based on
what's called an issue spotter hypothetical
where you're required to think like a lawyer.
No undergrad major prepares you for thinking like a lawyer.
In fact, law school doesn't even prepare you
for thinking like a lawyer either.
That's why we created a masterclass
to actually teach students
how to think like a lawyer.
And classes in law school are taught
using the Socratic method
which is also completely different
from almost any seminar or lecture that you've had
in college or in high school.
Professors pepper their students with questions
to reveal the right answer.
Much in the same way that it's said
that Socrates peppered his disciples,
Plato and Aristotle with questions
to let them find the right answer.
But this methodology, it's totally unlike
anything that you'll see in college.
Especially where you have large classes
of hundreds of people or more
where there just simply isn't the ability
to go back and forth between any particular student.
And the subject matter in law school
is also totally different from any undergrad subject.
No one will teach you the law that you need
before you get to law school.
Sure, you might take a business law class
or an accounting law class
but that is such a small, tiny percentage
of what you're going to cover in law school
that there's no way for any particular major
to really lay the foundation
of what you will need to know in law school.
So the question is this.
If no major really prepares you for law school
and no major can prepare you for law school,
what major should you sign up for in college
to best prepare you for law school?
Well the answer that I always give is this.
You should sign up for the major
that you are most interested in.
Get a degree in a subject that you find fascinating.
Law schools don't care about your major.
When you apply to law school, no law school is gonna look at
which particular major you had.
But they do care about what grades you got in college
or in undergrad.
So if you major in something
that you're really interested in
you are much more likely to put more effort into it
and to do well in college.
And that will translate into better grades.
Not to mention you will have spent four to five years
studying something that you really enjoy
because you're never going to get that time back.
Odds are you're probably going to enjoy law school less
than your time in college.
So you might as well enjoy the most
out of your college experience.
So sign up for a major, get a degree
in something that you find fascinating
and you're willing to study for four years.
Then when you show up for your first day of law school
you'll be in basically the same boat as everybody else.
You'll be starting from zero.
Because no one's major or degree actually prepared them
for law school.
So it's okay that you're starting from the same point
as everybody else.
So what is the best major for you?
Well, that depends.
It depends on your personal preferences.
What do you enjoy studying?
What are you fascinated by?
What can you see yourself studying for four to five years?
And what can you reasonably do
to get good grades in that particular major?
So unfortunately, I can't give you one particular answer
that works for everybody.
There is no one major that works for all law schools
and even pre-law majors don't really prepare you
for law school.
For those of you who are unsatisfied
with an it depends answer,
well I'm sorry to say
that you're gonna have to get used to it
because if you're going to become a lawyer
you're going to hear it depends a lot.
If you ask a lawyer anything,
nine times out of 10 you'll get the answer that it depends.
So let me know.
What major did you sign up for?
What are you going to study in college
and what have you been studying?
Do you feel like it was a good use of your time
for four years?
If you want even more strategies and tactics
before you get to law school,
download our free ultimate pre-law checklist.
It's our free gift to you.
The link to that is down below
and it will give you a head start
before you get to law school.
Also please click on the like and subscribe buttons.
The more people that subscribe to this channel,
the more videos we'll make on how to crush law school.
And until next time, at Legal Eagle.
Think like a lawyer and ace the exam.
So the thing about law school is that it takes a whole.
There.
In Socratic method.
Aristotle and Plato.
Well the answer that I always give people,
let me try that again.