Pre-Law Minor
The Pre-Law minor is an 18-hour interdisciplinary minor designed to prepare students for a post-graduate study of law. The Pre-Law minor consists of 6 hours of Constitutional Law courses and 12 hours of courses in the Study of Law in Other Contexts. Courses taken to fulfill requirements for a major (or another minor) can be applied towards completion of the Pre-Law minor. Courses to fulfill these requirements include:
Constitutional Law (6 Hours)
POLS 3300: Development of the First Amendment
POLS 4321: American Constitutional Law
POLS 4322: Law of Civil Liberties
POLS 4320: Judicial Systems and Process
*any class not taken to fulfill the 6 hours of Constitutional Law courses can be used
to fulfill the Study of Law in Other Contexts requirements
The Study of Law in Other Contexts (12 Hours)
BLAW 3301: Business Law and Social Responsibility
BLAW 4310: Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
BLAW 4320: Employment Law
CMST 2335: Argumentation & Debate
CMST 3325: Persuasive Communication
CMST 4334: Political Communication
CRIJ 1310: Fundamentals of Criminal Law
CRIJ 3310: Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice
CRIJ 3320: Criminology
ENGL 3308: Writing Textual Analysis
MCOM 3318: Media Law and Ethics
PHIL 2303: Introduction to Logic
POLS 2320: The Study of Law
POLS 3321: Jurisprudence
POLS 4350: Internal Law, Diplomacy, and Organization
POLS 4360: American Political Thought
*no class can be used to fulfill the Constitutional Law requirements
Please note: Courses taken to fulfill requirements for a major (or another minor) can be applied towards completion of the Pre-Law minor. The Pre-Law minor allows a student to use one course to fulfill two degree requirements. This allows students to take other courses of interest to them. Students are reminded that a minimum of 120 credit hours of unique and unduplicated credits are needed to graduate.
Pre-Law Program
The decision to go to law school after receiving your bachelor's degree is a very important one and requires a good deal of thought and research on your part. Law school is not easy and it is very expensive, therefore your preparation should be taken very seriously. The three most important decision points you will reach on your way to law school are:
- Your undergraduate preparation.
- The law school admission process.
- The choice of which law school to attend.
At UT Tyler, we are prepared to help you with all of these decisions.
PLEASE NOTE:
Students intending to apply to law school should not take any undergraduate course on a pass/fail or CR/NC basis. Law school admissions typically interpret a "P" (pass) as a "D" or "C," a CR as a "C", and an NC as an "F."
Pre-Law Advising
A student planning to apply for law school will receive advising from both an advisor in their major and the pre-law advisor, Dr. Eric Lopez. The role of the advisor in the student's major is to ensure the student fulfills the requirements for the chosen major. The major advisor is the student’s primary advisor and should be consulted early and often. The pre-law advisor is available to help a student make important choices regarding extra-curricular activities, the law school application process and choice of law school.
Pre-law advising at UT Tyler is conducted through the Department of Political Science and History. Dr. Lopez is also the advisor to the Pre Law Society, a group of students who share a common interest in law.
Undergraduate Major
The American Bar Association does not recommend any one major for students planning to attend law school. Nor is there one field which will give you an advantage. Instead, law schools look for a rigorous liberal arts education that has sharpened skills and values essential for competent lawyering.
Select a major that you not only enjoy but one that will demand excellence in critical thinking, expository and persuasive writing, oral communication, critical reading, research and organization. Also, seek out courses and instructors that require research papers, substantial reading, essay exams and oral presentations.
Undergraduate Minor
Choose a minor and electives that complement your major with history, political thought and theory, the American political system, ethics and justice, economics, human behavior, mass communications and cultural studies. Because the best law schools expect students to have two years of college-level foreign language, the B.A. degree is recommended.
Extracurricular Activities
Law school admission counselors will look not only at your LSAT scores, your GPA and the rigor of courses taken, they will also want to see participation in meaningful extra-curricular activities that enhance concepts of citizenship, leadership and service, and activities that build writing and speaking skills.
As a pre-law student you will want to become involved in student government, athletics, the debate team, student newspaper, Model UN and Moot Court. However, grades are much more important to your chances of admission than are extracurricular activities. Do not sacrifice your GPA in favor of these activities.
Resources
Professor Eric Lopez: elopez@uttyler.edu
LSAT Preparation through Kaplan:
Kaplan offers a student discount for those interested in taking Kaplan’s Live Online course. If you are interested, please contact Professor Eric Lopez for more information. For material on the Live Online course, please visit: Kaplan Live Online Software
The Live Online course schedule can be found here:Kaplan Scheduler