Preparing for Law School as an Undergrad
No particular course of study is a prerequisite for admission to law school. Present-day law students have undergraduate degrees in political science, English, business, natural science, history, linguistics, and a host of other disciplines. However, some broad general recommendations about college preparation for law school may be useful.
As undergraduate courses are chosen, certain goals should be kept in mind. First, a lawyer must be able to communicate effectively in oral and written expression. In a real sense, words are the tools of the lawyer's trade. Training for communications skills obviously must include mastery of the English language. But, above all, a lawyer must be able to write well. Any course in any discipline in which a student knows that he or she will be required to commit ideas or research to writing, submit the writing to rigorous criticism by a faculty member who will take the time to criticize, and then laboriously rewrite to meet the criticism, is a course which will help prepare one for law school.
Second, the prospective law student needs a fair range of critical understanding of human institutions and values. Here, political science, economics, philosophy, sociology, and history come to mind. It should also be noted that undergraduate "law" courses should not be taken for the purpose of learning "the law" and certainly are not necessary for law school admission. Such courses may well be helpful, however, in providing an understanding of the place of law in society, and a better basis for students to estimate their potential interest in law school.
Third, the prospective law student must develop creative critical thinking. A lawyer must be able to reason closely from given premises and propositions to tenable conclusions. The analysis of a legal problem almost always involves more than a persuasive policy-oriented essay. The ability to do this type of close reasoning may be sought in courses in mathematics, physical science, logic, and advanced political and economic theory among others.
Admission to Law School
In recent years, the number of applications has risen much more rapidly than has the capacity of law schools to handle them. It has therefore become harder to get into particular law schools and, indeed, to get into law school at all. Those who plan to seek a law degree will want the best possible application process in general. Each September, the Law School Admission Council and the Association of American Law Schools publish the official pre-law Handbook, which includes useful general information about each accredited law school in the United States, with most schools giving some substantial information about their admissions criteria. The Handbook is available from college bookstores or by mail from Law School Programs, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey 08S40. No one seriously interested in law study should fail to read this book carefully. Two most important law school admissions criteria are the undergraduate grade point average and the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) score.
Information on admission to U.K. Law School can be found in the UK Bulletin (see section "LAW") or by writing Associate Dean's Office, College of Law, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40S06-0048, 257-8687.
Also helpful to students interested in a career in law is the Central Advising Service, 109 Miller Hall, 257-3383. This office employs pre-law advisors who can assist students in their choice of law as a career.