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 prelaw 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 prelaw 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 adviser, as well as the prelaw adviser, 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 and Congressional Offices
- Private Law Firms
- Prosecutor Offices
- Legal Aid Clinics
- Interest Groups and Nonprofits
- Creighton University
- Drake University
- Lewis and 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
