Pre-Law
“The law must be stable, but it must not stand still,” Roscoe Pound, American legal scholar
The formal academic training for law includes, with few exceptions, a bachelor’s degree and three years of study in law school to earn a Juris Doctorate. Law schools welcome and encourage a variety of educational backgrounds among their students. Breadth and intellectual maturity are more important than study of particular subject matter. However, law schools do recommend that the pre-law curriculum be carefully selected.
No specific subjects are prescribed for law school admission, and thus any undergraduate major available at SDSU can prepare a student to study the law. The pre-law student should be involved in an undergraduate program that is intellectually challenging and requires rigorous academic discipline. Individuals who have chosen a field of study work with their major advisor as well as the pre-law advisor to select courses and create a plan of study.
- Want to practice law in private or public settings.
- Have an interest in public service, government advocacy or helping others.
- Enjoy thinking critically and analytically about complex problems.
- Possess skills in negotiation, advocacy, writing, and communication.
- State Legislatures & Congressional Offices
- Private Law Firms
- Prosecutor Offices
- Legal Aid Clinics
- Interest Groups & Non-Profits
- Creighton University
- Drake University
- Lewis & Clark University
- Harvard University
- Marquette University
- Ohio Northern University
- Regent University
- St. Thomas University
- University of Iowa
- University of Nebraska
- University of New Hampshire
- University of South Dakota
- Willamette University
