Best College Majors for Law School?

"What college major should I pick if I want to go to law school?"
"Is x major a good fit for a future lawyer?"

It can be really anxiety-inducing to try and choose a major in college that will set you up for the goals you want to achieve several years down the road, including whether or not you want to go to law school and eventually become a practicing lawyer! In this video, I try to address these questions based on my personal experience and the observations of other students around me at Stanford.

[andreadelacruzzz]

you should make a video on what kinds of careers you can obtain by going to law school, not just attorneys :))

[meganshah]

I majored in Political Sciences and I am in law school rn. I would say what I studied does help me with the constitutional law and of course the writing and analytical skills are essential. Also I recommend to study something for your undergraduate that could help you with getting a job. Studying a useless major just to get into LS is a risk... what if you decided not to go to LS... you should have a safety net to fall back on

[ginagiordano]

Well. I just was telling my family about how I don’t know what to major in for law school. As soon as I hang up I got this notification. Wtf. Thank u for this

[nicolejohnson]

I am a pre-law philosophy major and I feel like it is definitely preparing me adequately for law school should I be able to get in and that I would be able to do well. Excellent video to make because a lot of people don’t know what to Major in, because we can major anything. Statistically, philosophy is most desired because philosophy majors and English majors tend to do well on the LSATs. I would encourage anyone who wants to go to law school to major in what you love so that you have something to fall back on should you change your mind in the future. With that said, I 1245% agree with everything you said in your video! Great work!

[nicolejohnson]

I’ve even seen people have a bachelors in music and go off to Law school! Everything in this video is absolutely accurate and excellent advice.

[alannacarlson]

Psychology is a good one, especially if you conduct a study or do a data analysis as an undergraduate. You have to do a lot of collecting information from former studies (like doing the same with previous cases as described in this video) and compile that evidence together in order to form your own original hypothesis. It's a very good skill to learn. There also is just a lot of paper writing as a psych student, and that is helpful.

[shelbydavis]

I’m majoring in Sociology right now and planning on going to law school

[joanneyuan]

Thank you for this video! I'm a high schooler hoping to pursue law and until now, I was lost as to which major I should study in my undergrad that would best prepare me for law. This was helpful ❤

[Soshesaysjessica]

I really wanted to do English, but I couldn’t pass Spanish! 😔 So I picked Business Admin instead since I’m leaning towards Entertainment law.

[miraogawa]

Hi! Thank you for making videos that are so interesting and topical for people interested in the legal field. You always have very helpful and measured insight that is easy to apply and use in evaluating what I want to do. Also, a side note, your voice is super calming and really welcoming to the ears as is your choice in words!

[l.r]

100% agree. I always tell pre law students to major in their plan B career. Because it is not guaranteed that you will get into law school, and it is not guaranteed that you will end up liking law. Have a bachelor degree you would be willing to use in the case you do not practice law! CANT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH!

[marew]

I’m majoring in Music and minoring in pre-law/phil. I feel like as long as I am getting good grades and study hard for my LSAT I’m going to be successful! I’m excited for my future.

[jinyiyang]

As a college freshman，this video is really helpful for me to get prepared for law school lol.

[studybug]

I've been researching this lately! Thanks Esther 💖

[Josh-ixot]

Just subscribed, this is the third video of yours I've watched, good info and to the point! thanks - Josh

[katelynlibby]

Did your English major help you do better on the LSAT? What was your score if you don't mind me asking? And did you find the skills the degree taught you helped you in law school? I've heard some say it made the writing part harder due to rue difference in types of writing used in law.

[ivancuriel]

Wow thanks you so much! Your video has helped so MUCH!

[gracey]

I heard engineers and science majors have an edge in law school admission

[randyg]

Not many people think about this, but one of the most lucrative areas of law is Intellectual Property (copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets). Obviously patent law is probably the most lucrative subset practice area of IP law, but unless you want to be a litigator (and even if you do), you need to major in a STEM field as an undergrad in order to practice before the Patent & Trademark Office (go to the USPTO website and see what degrees that the U.S. government accepts as a prerequisite for taking the Patent Bar).

As a bonus, if you have a BS degree in one of the accepted STEM fields, you can get a job as a patent examiner with the federal government with only a BS degree, and once you have worked at the USPTO for a couple of years, you are eligible to be reimbursed for your law school tuition IF you are working at the USPTO full time while currently attending law school part time (in the afternoon). It is difficult to work full time and go to school at the same time, but doable, and you get your law degree almost completely paid for (sorry, but no reimbursement if you get your law degree first, and then get a job with the federal government afterwards). And after you graduate, and you change your mind about working in IP law, well, I have known patent lawyers to transfer to the Department of Justice and practice some other area of law.

The only catch is that in order to get your law degree paid for, you need to be working for the federal government before, during, and for a few years after law school. Working during the day while going to law school at night can be difficult, but if you survived getting an undergraduate degree in a STEM field, well, you are probably used to pulling long hours anyway, and compared to Engineering, I thought that Law School was way too easy (some people may disagree, but I thought that it was a piece of cake - unless, of course, you want to work your butt off and be in the top ten percent, which I did not care to do, as I already had a job and my class rank was not that important to me).

Of course, you can take the patent bar exam and become a patent agent without a law degree; all that you need is a BS degree in a STEM field (or just work for the USPTO for four years, and automatically become eligible to become a patent agent without taking the patent bar exam). But I digress; you can search the Internet for “patent agent” and see if that line of work might interest you.

Of course, if you don’t like patent law, you can always practice in other areas of IP law with any kind of undergraduate degree, once you bass the state bar law exam.

And in some states (such as VA), you can take the state bar exam and become a practicing lawyer without ever going to law school. All that you need is a bachelor’s degree and a four year apprenticeship at a law firm (look up the “law reader’s program”).

[Jimjammajay]

Why do you keep cutting the video in-between words?