Selecting Classes

Students are urged to take classes that help develop skills, values, and knowledge outlined under our Pre-Law Preparation page, especially their writing, reasoning, and analytical skills.

Pre-Law Preparation

Courses

There are many relevant courses in different departments that have content related to various aspects of legal studies and careers. The Political Science & Public Administration Department offers courses concerned with public law and legal theory. Philosophy offers courses on logic. For LSAT preparation, some courses may be of help with logic and analytical thinking (though these do not provide LSAT content). Be sure to consult with your academic, major, and Pre-Law advisors.

Acquiring Skills

Written and verbal communication skills are important. Look for those courses within and outside of your major that involve writing papers, especially those that require some preliminary research on the student’s part. Many departments require that students take courses that have some sort of thesis requirement in order to graduate. Such projects help demonstrate to admissions personnel your commitment to develop your writing and research skills.

Commencement

Students should familiarize themselves with the requirements for graduation. Academic and major advisors are here to help students choose the appropriate courses that satisfy their all-college and departmental requirements.

NOTE

There are no specific undergraduate pre-law course requirements to prepare for law school and that taking the following classes does not guarantee admission to a law school program.

Please note: This list is not exhaustive, nor are these courses required by the Pre-Law program

Cognate Foundations – Courses must be outside of student’s major

  • Arts - Student Choice
  • Humanities - HUM200: History of Rhetoric; PHI102: Intro to Ethics
  • Natural Sciences - CHE100/1/11; PHY100: Physics for Non-Science Majors
  • Social Sciences - CRJ101: Intro to Criminal Justice; PSY101: Intro to Psychology

Foundations of Civilizations – Courses may be taken in student’s major

  • American History - PSC102: Intro to Am Gov’t and Politics
  • Western Civilizations - PHI301: History of Political Philosophy; PHI 310: History of Ethics; PSC351:History of Political Thought I
  • Non-Western Civilizations – Student choice

Math and Quantitative Reasoning

  • MAT 311 Introduction to Probability and Statistics; PHI 107 Introduction to Mathematical Logic

Diversity

  • CRJ 425 Race, Ethnicity and the Administration of Justice; CRJ 430 Gender and the Administration of Justice; PSC 223 Social Justice Through the Law; SOC 350 Power, Class, and Inequality

Please note: This list is not exhaustive, nor are these courses required by the Pre-Law program – some courses have prerequisite courses [please check individual department websites]

Business

  • BUS 334 Business Law I; BUS 335 Business Law II

Chemistry

  • CHE 312 Chemistry and Criminalistics

Communications:

  • COM 205 Introduction to Oral Communication; COM 306 Public Speaking; COM 321 Rhetorical Criticism; COM 400 Communication Law

Criminal Justice

English

  • ENG 300 Writing for the Professions

History

  • HIS 330 US Environmental History; HIS 363 American Identity in Transition

Math

  • MAT 311 Introductory Probability and Statistics; MAT 325 Probability and Statistics; MAT 381 Probability

Philosophy

  • PHI 103 Introduction to Logic; PHI 107 Introduction to Mathematical Logic; PHI 304 Philosophy of Law; PHI 307 Symbolic Logic 

Political Science

Psychology

  • PSY 101 Intro to Psychology; PSY 301 Perspectives on Child Abuse and Advocacy; 460 Advanced Legal Psychology

Sociology