Selecting courses
Law schools recommend that students complete challenging, rigorous courses in a variety of academic disciplines. So while there is no particular set of courses that should be completed by pre-law students, certain skills are necessary to be successful in law school and in legal practice -- such as writing, reading comprehension, research, critical thinking and communication. Also, a student may want an introduction to certain content areas, such as political science, public justice and business, which are the grounding for the major courses in law school. Students may also want to take a few courses focused in "law" to be introduced to the area of inquiry. However, it is not beneficial for students to overload on courses with "law" in the name.
The following list provides a sample of courses that students may want to consider in addition to the courses within their majors/minors:
Critical thinking courses:
- COM 210- Critical Thinking and Public Speaking
- COM 302- Message Criticism
- COM 350- Argumentation
- COM 360- Persuasion
- PHL 101- Introduction to Critical Thinking
- PHL 111- Valid Reasoning I
- PHL 307- Philosophy, Public Policy and Public Affairs
- PHL 309- Logic, Language and Thought
- PHL 443- Philosophy of Law
- POL 203- Critical Thinking in Politics
Writing courses:
- BRC 329- Broadcast Newswriting
- ENG 302- Advanced Composition
- HIS 302- Historiography
- JLM 209- Introduction to Newswriting
- JLM 220- Copy Editing
- LIN 373- Syntactic Structures of English
- TED 209- Technical Writing and Literacy
Communication courses:
- COM 210- Critical Thinking and Public Speaking
- CRW 201- Introductory Screenwriting
- ENG 307- Narrative Theory
- INT 120- Storytelling
- THT 131- Fundamentals of Acting
Content courses:
- ECO 101- Principles of Microeconomics
- ECO 200- Principles of Macroeconomics
- ECO 340- Money and Banking
- HIS 378- Freedom in American History
- PBJ 101- Introduction to Criminal Justice
- POL 205- American Government and Politics
- POL 305- State and Local Government
- POL 335- The Supreme Court
- POL 305- Law and Society
- PSY 347- Forensic Psychology
Law and policy courses:
- BLW 280- Business Law I
- BRC 319- Mass Media and the Law
- CSC 333- Privacy, Security and Cryptology
- ECO 355- Labor Law
- ECO 356- Law and Economics
- HRM 459- Labor Relations
- HRM 462- Employment Law
- PBJ 201- Survey of American Non-Criminal Law
- PBJ 361- Family Law
- PBJ 365- Introduction to Criminal Law
- PBJ 370- Criminal Procedure
- PBJ 461- Children and the Law
- PBJ 463- American Indian Law & Federal Policy
- POL 309- International Law
- POL 345- American Constitutional Law
- POL 355- Civil Liberties