The undergraduate academic record is one of the most important aspects of a law school applicant’s profile. It is also something that you have a good amount of control over. In this week’s post, I’ll discuss how to create an undergraduate academic path that will both help you be admitted and succeed in law school.
1. Maximize your GPA: From an admissions perspective, your undergraduate GPA is the single most important aspect of your undergraduate education and is the second-most important aspect of your entire application after your LSAT score. Students eyeing law school should therefore design an academic path with an eye toward getting the highest GPA possible.
[Learn about the five deciding factors in law school admissions.]
One of the most important ways to accomplish this is to consider the level of difficulty of classes you’re taking every semester. If you are loading up in a single semester on advanced-level classes or classes that are notoriously difficult, then you will likely have a very difficult time doing as well as you can in all those classes.
You should therefore make sure to spread out these difficult classes among several semesters, mixing in a couple of easier or lower-level classes every semester so that you have more time and mental energy to devote to the more difficult classes.
This requires some planning. Think about the courses you want to take during your entire undergraduate career, and separate them by level of difficulty. Do your best to plan your long-term schedule so that these courses are spread out among all your semesters of college.
One thing you should not do to maximize your GPA is to take almost entirely easy or low-level courses. Remember that schools are sophisticated in how they view GPAs. They are given lots of information regarding the average GPAs of students in different majors and schoolwide trends in grade inflation, so don’t shy away from taking harder classes.
[See how law school applicants can choose college classes wisely.]
2. Build skills relevant to being a law student and lawyer: Skills necessary to be a successful law student and lawyer include careful reading of dense material; organized, linear thinking; strong research skills; and good writing skills.
Taking courses that help you develop those skills will both put you in a position to succeed in law school and beyond and they will show admissions committees that you are ready to handle the academic rigors of law school.
To develop your reading and linear thinking skills, consider taking a philosophy course or two. Most philosophy courses require you to read dense texts that argue for a certain position, very much like the cases you will read in law school.
To develop research and writing skills, consider taking history and political science courses. Courses in these subjects often culminate in a large research paper, which will give you opportunities to practice research and writing.
[Focus on three college courses that can strengthen legal skills.]
3. Take classes you enjoy: Although it is important to be strategic in the classes you take, you should also make sure to not shy away from majoring in a subject or taking a class that you find interesting for pure strategic reasons. Taking classes you enjoy will help strengthen your application in two ways.
First, you are likely to do better in courses that you are passionate about. If a subject interests you, doing the work for the class will be less of a chore and you will likely spend more time on it and get a better grade as a result, thereby increasing your GPA.
Second, taking classes you are passionate about is a great way to create content for your law school personal statement. Most personal statements contain at least some content on the undergraduate academic experience, and giving yourself the opportunity to talk passionately about a class you took will enable you to write a compelling and more personal essay that highlights your academic strengths.
Are you currently in undergrad and planning to go to law school? Let me know in an email or tweet me.
More from U.S. News
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Plan for Law School as an Undergraduate originally appeared on usnews.com
