Pre-law Studies in Political
Science at UIC
There is no "Pre-law" major at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, and that is probably a good
thing. The American Association of Law Schools recommends against
taking such a major. The best preparation for legal education,
according to AALS, is a broad liberal arts education, rather than a
narrowly-focused law program. Law schools prefer that you leave the
law training to them--after all, that's their job--and instead use
your undergraduate years to build a foundation for studying law.
That means learning about politics, economics, culture, science, and
other things that law schools don't teach but want you to know, so
that when you become an attorney you will understand the issues that
come up in your cases.
Although you can major in whatever
you like and apply to law school,
Political Science is a
good choice for pre-law students. About one-third of our majors
intend to apply to law school, and there are several reasons for
this:
- Political Science gives you
special understanding of politics, government institutions, the
economy, and culture, all of which is good preparation for law
study and being a lawyer.
- People who are interested in
law are usually also interested in politics and government.
- The Political Science
department offers pre-law advising for Political Science majors.
The Political Science pre-law adviser is
Dr. Evan McKenzie, a
graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles Law
School who spent ten years practicing law and is also an adjunct
faculty member at The John
Marshall Law School. He has LSAT application books, which
are full of useful information, and will spend time with you
acquainting you with the process and helping you decide where to
apply.
- The Political Science
curriculum includes law courses that interest pre-law students
and help them decide whether or not they like the study of law.
These courses involve reading opinions of the United States
Supreme Court, learning the basics of legal analysis, and
developing an understanding of the politics of American and
international law. They include:
- POLS 253: Constitutional
Law
- POLS 254: Civil Liberties
- POLS 255: Courts, Color,
and the Constitution
- POLS 256: Civil Liberties
II--Privacy, Women, and the Law
- POLS 258: The Judicial
Process
- POLS 287: International
Law
- Political Science as a
discipline has close links to the study and practice of law.
Political scientists study courts as political institutions and
also analyze legal doctrines in the context of history,
politics, economics, and other aspects of social science theory.
Applying to Law School
Most of the information you need to
apply to law school is available from the
Law School Admission Council (LSAC).
Their web site should be your first stop as you begin the journey
toward law school. It explains the process of taking the Law School
Admission Test (LSAT), applying to law schools, and obtaining
financial aid, and has links to many other sources of information.
The law school application process
is highly centralized and designed to handle the enormous number of
people--over 100,000 per year--who take the LSAT and consider
applying to law school. The Law School Admission Service (LSAS),
which is affiliated with the LSAC, is the collection point for your
transcripts and LSAT scores, as well as other materials. You pay
them for doing this, and for sending your file to the law schools of
your choice. But you also need to apply to the law schools directly,
and pay each school an application fee (usually around $50). After
your file is complete at LSAS (transcripts and LSAT scores ready),
and after you have applied to the schools of your choice,
those law schools will call for your file and LSAS will send it to
them. Then you wait for the decision, and that's the hardest part.
The Law School Admission Test
The LSAT is given four times in each
academic year--in June, October, December, and February. You should
take it no later than December, because by February the admissions
process is well under way. You will get your score about five weeks
after you take the test.
The LSAT is neither an intelligence
test nor a knowledge test. It is an aptitude test. It measures your
ability to reason logically and analytically and tests your verbal
skills. You can't prepare for it in a few weeks, but you can develop
your aptitudes over a period of years--such as the years you spend
as an undergraduate. Become an active reader to build you reading
speed, and read a wide variety of materials outside of your
textbooks, including everything from novels to contracts to cereal
boxes. Take a course in logic. Seek out courses that require you to
do structured thinking, especially if you are ordinarily reluctant
to take such course. These are the skills you need to develop.
If you want to take an LSAT prep
course, and you can afford the fee (they tend to run in excess of
$700), fine. But you can prepare on your own. The LSAT application
book contains order forms for test preparation material, including
LSATs from previous years, and there are "study for the LSAT" books
in any large bookstore.
Choosing the Law Schools for Your
Applications
A large part of getting into law
school is quantitative. They screen most of their applicants in or
out based on grade point averages and LSAT scores before making fine
distinctions based on personal statements, letters of
recommendation, balancing for diversity of all types, and other
considerations. You can find out how likely you are to get into any
given law school by consulting
The
Official Guide to U.S. Law Schools, an on-line publication. This
source also gives you detailed information on each law school,
including areas of specialization, tuition, faculty, and nearly
everything else you need to know at this stage. You can also look at
the law school rankings done annually by
U.S. News and World Report to see how high in the ratings your
choices are.
Links to other sources of
information:
There is an ocean of information
available on the web for people interested in the law. Here are just
a few, and all of them have links you can follow to many other
sources:
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