Post-Graduate Series Part Five: Law School <o></o>

BY DANIELLE LORENZ; MACINSIDERS<o></o>

A popular venture for a lot of students in Political Science and History is to go to Law School. [Insert some anti-lawyer joke here] Like other post-graduate applications, the competition is intense, and many who apply do not get accepted. However, if you are interested in pursuing a law degree you should know what the requirements are for your application.<o></o>

Unlike other universities, McMaster doesn’t offer courses in Criminology, or offer a pre-law program. Mac offers some classes related to law and it is a good idea that you take as many as possible. Students in law school come from a variety of academic backgrounds; and Political Science, History, Business, Philosophy as well as languages are examples of programs you may want to major in. These classes provide a broad general knowledge for what you may need to be a lawyer. <o>

</o> However, if you are thinking about going into a particular kind of law, you will need intensive background in your field. For example, if you want to go into Environmental Law, you should have knowledge of the Environment. If you want to go into Corporate Law, having business knowledge would be an asset. Some law specializations are: Administrative Law, Civil Litigation, Constitutional Law, Corporate Law, Criminal Law, Environmental Law, Family Law, Immigration Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Labour and Employment Law, Real Estate Law, Securities Law and Tax Law.<o></o>

One mandatory thing for all applications is the LSAT, or Law School Admission Test. The test is a way to measure logical and verbal reasoning skills. The minimum score you can get accepted into Law School with the LSAT is 155; however, it is safer to achieve a mark of 160. The test is marked out of 180. If you are thinking about writing the LSAT, there are many preparation books and test centres you can contact.<o>

</o> Programs in the United States and Canada have the same general application process. You need your LSAT score, and you fill in an online application at the school. Unlike medical school, there is no interview in your application; it is based solely on your application package. If you are accepted your will be notified via a letter in the mail. <o>

</o> One of the aspects to your application is your letters of reference. The number of referees varies by school, but in general you need two or three. Some schools want you to have only academic references, while others want you to have a mix of academic and personal reference. Again, this varies depending on the requirements of the specific school. <o>

</o> Due to the number of applicants that apply for Law School (or any other school for that matter) you may be wondering how you can make yourself stand out from other applicants. Although your LSAT score and your grades have the most impact, you may want to get yourself involved in other activities. You can do volunteer work through campus organizations or ones not affiliated with campus, you can be a member of campus clubs, you can help with committees like Charity Ball, be a Welcome Week Rep, participate on SRA etc. This kind of experience shows that you’re a well-rounded individual, which is something that law schools look for. Many of the applications have space for extra-curricular activities, so it’s best to actually have something to put in there!<o>

</o> What I find is the most discouraging thing about applying for post-secondary education is that you have to pay. Depending on what country and which school you are applying to makes a difference in the application fee you will need to pay. To apply to law school you’re looking at somewhere between $25 and $100, which by many standards is quite inexpensive, although if you are applying to several schools the total starts to really add up. <o>

</o> Another discouraging part of the application for law school is the cost of tuition. If you compare the cost of law school to that of an undergraduate degree you are going to pay somewhere between double and four times the amount. Tuition fees range from approximately $15,000 to $30,000. However, there are many scholarship awards for you, but you must apply for them as well.<o>

</o> If you are seriously considering law school as an option start planning early, as it will benefit you in the end!



Special thanks goes to Lori Lue for her help with this article.
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I would just like that to add that Mac actually has an official "Pre-law"/Law school applicants club. I signed up with that during clubsfest, though I never attended any meeting or pay the 4-5$ membership fee since I'm only a first year student and hence it is still a year or two to go for me. Also the Mac prelaw club also hosts FREE mock-lsats on saturdays(I don't know if anyone of you has noticed the flyers for that posted around campus). I guess prelaw might be holding another table in january's clubfest so anyone Interested can sign up, plus they also gave me this flyer with the average Gpa/lsat/class rank/tuition listed for ALL canadian law schools. And Danielle is right the tuition does go from $9000(Mcgill/windsor etc) to $18,000 for Uoftoronto; Its pretty similar if you want to jump ship to Usa(Like myself) for law school, tution is similarly high and same for the competitveness.
Also I guess you completely missed out that Corporate law likes Economics graduates alot, on the other hand Criminal law/Litigation is also a good choice for people with Psycology and especially Sociology/Anthropology degrees.

lol am I smelling an Anti-Socsci bias there Miss Lorenz? jk

Now why on Earth would someone want to do that?

I have a degree in Cultural Studies and Anthro, and now I'm doing a second degree in English with a "concentration" (it won't be counted as a minor) in Indigenous Studies...so no, there is no Soc Sci dislike.

And I said Pre-Law program. I didn't mention anything about clubs or societies, as the person who supplied all of the info for this article didn't mention that we had one! And she has a Poli Sci degree from Mac.

Originally Posted by lorend

I have a degree in Cultural Studies and Anthro, and now I'm doing a second degree in English with a "concentration" (it won't be counted as a minor) in Indigenous Studies...so no, there is no Soc Sci dislike.

And I said Pre-Law program. I didn't mention anything about clubs or societies, as the person who supplied all of the info for this article didn't mention that we had one! And she has a Poli Sci degree from Mac.

Lol as i said don't take it personally I was just kidding, It really was an informative article and I did "thank" you for that; All I did was add a few useful points to it( From a number of credible sources I must add). Sorry for the accusation.

I just found it a bit "odd" I must say that you slightly missed socsci degrees that use "hypodeductive method". In other words(and this is for everyone prelaw) a law degree and practice requires a "balance" between the more artsy/normative/utopic humanities courses(eg: phil,history etc) and the ones that deal with facts/figures and direct deduction(eg: Economics,sociology etc). Some would argue that hum&socsci are opposite ends of the spectrum and hence we must keep a balance between the two(tho that is a debate for some other day)

In summary I would recommend keeping a balance btw humanities and socsci courses, As far as your "official" major is concerned I would recommend A Socsci one due to its added legibility/respect in the work world and a good chance to work in other sectors should you get disillusioned/broke by the time you graduate.(tho I will concede this notion might be biased )

Holla to my fellow future lawyers out there! Can't wait to be ripping off people with our ridiculous fees! (Kidding)

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

In summary I would recommend keeping a balance btw humanities and socsci courses, As far as your "official" major is concerned I would recommend A Socsci one due to its added legibility/respect in the work world and a good chance to work in other sectors should you get disillusioned/broke by the time you graduate.(tho I will concede this notion might be biased )

lol
just slightly

I've been a proctor for the law school exams at McMaster a few times. So if anyone has random questions about the test date and what you need you can ask me. I know nothing about the actual exam though. Unlike numerous philosophy students, I'm not planning on doing law. Go Bioethics!