-Majors and Minors
It is important to show law schools that you are a serious student possessing intellectual curiosity and motivation to broaden your horizons. You can do so by ensuring the courses you take are both challenging and enriching. Admissions officers will be looking to see whether you’ve taken any “fluff” classes to improve your grade point average.
Pre-Law students should consider choosing a minor, double-majoring, or find other ways of enhancing their undergraduate education. However stacking up courses and degrees doesn’t have an additive effect that will conclusively make a student more competitive. With that said however, Law is an interdisciplinary career, and possessing a wide variety of experiences and education would be valuable. Certainly, if you perform exceptionally well in more than one major, law schools will be highly impressed by this, and will assume you are both motivated and interested in a variety of subjects.
Choosing a minor is always a good idea. There are several programs that are law-related, in fact. The Philosophy of Law minor is one of them. However, other typical and traditional minors would include Political Science, English, History, and a Foreign Language, to name a few. A minor might be a very good way of complementing your major, or help you with some of the abilities law schools will require, including excellent writing and critical thinking skills. Once again, you can choose a minor in any area, related to law or not. University at Buffalo doesn’t require students complete a minor, but it’s highly recommended to do so.
Very importantly, it’s helpful to think “outside the box” as far as your undergraduate education is concerned. Look above and beyond merely meeting requirements for your major. How else can you get involved academically? (For assistance finding internships, clubs, and other ways of getting involved extracurricular-wise, go here.)
Some things for you to consider include getting involved with research, or even Studying Abroad.
