questions from an undergrad student

[Juny7736]

Hey guys, I am currently an criminology undergrad student who is trying to pursue for law school. I just have few questions for you guys!

1. Does law school care about the type of courses you take during the study in undergrad (I am not talking about the major program. I am talking about the difficulty and levels of the courses you take as electives, etc). Do they look at each courses and what you took?
2. Is it okay to take 4 courses (not part-time) in your last years of undergrad, will it negatively affect your transcript?

These are my questions. Thank you for your time and answer!

 

[CheeseToast]

1. no.

2. Yes, it is okay, it will not negatively affect you.

[luckycharm]

9 hours ago, Juny7736 said:

Hey guys, I am currently an criminology undergrad student who is trying to pursue for law school. I just have few questions for you guys!

1. Does law school care about the type of courses you take during the study in undergrad (I am not talking about the major program. I am talking about the difficulty and levels of the courses you take as electives, etc). Do they look at each courses and what you took?

Not really

1. Is it okay to take 4 courses (not part-time) in your last years of undergrad, will it negatively affect your transcript?

4 courses is considered full time?  Then no impact 

These are my questions. Thank you for your time and answer!

 

 

[maybemaybe]

with regards to your first question, undergrad degree does not matter however, if you have a specific field of law that you're interested in and it ties in nicely with your degree I think it would be a good idea to highlight that in your personal statement!

[Darth Vader]

58 minutes ago, maybemaybe said:

with regards to your first question, undergrad degree does not matter however, if you have a specific field of law that you're interested in and it ties in nicely with your degree I think it would be a good idea to highlight that in your personal statement!

This is a good point as your undergraduate background may be relevant for the jobs you seek to pursue in law school as well. I've noticed this especially with tax (economics, philosophy, accounting/business, mathematics, physics, engineering), intellectual property (STEM degree/s), environmental (environmental studies, environmental sciences, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, urban planning), and labour and employment law (human resources management, labour relations, Master of Industrial Relations). Having a business/STEM background is also helpful for corporate law, but not a prerequisite, as the recruit largely focuses on your 1L grades. Still, I have noticed that most people with business degrees pursue corporate law. Your undergraduate background is irrelevant for most other areas of law. 

[VitalGiraffe]

I've said this on similar previous posts before.

I reached out to Western Law with these specific questions. Their response was that they strongly prefer applicants to have a maximum course load and upper year courses in the last 2 years.

I think it would be best if you emailed the adcomms of the schools you are interested in to see what they think.

Edited August 30, 2021 by VitalGiraffe

[QueensDenning]

17 hours ago, VitalGiraffe said:

I've said this on similar previous posts before.

I reached out to Western Law with these specific questions. Their response was that they strongly prefer applicants to have a maximum course load and upper year courses in the last 2 years.

I think it would be best if you emailed the adcomms of the schools you are interested in to see what they think.

For what it’s worth, I got in to Western early last cycle and did not have maximum course load (only took 4 courses my last year). I also had a bunch of 1st/2nd year courses in those years to boost my GPA. Also I wasn’t way above the median stats-wise either. So I’d caution against worrying about these considerations - your GPA is far more important that max course load/upper year courses. 

[Thrive92]

On 8/29/2021 at 9:30 AM, Juny7736 said:

Is it okay to take 4 courses (not part-time) in your last years of undergrad, will it negatively affect your transcript?

I have had a similar question for Western, this was their response:

"Second, your lighter course load means that your last 2 chronological years may not provide enough courses to determine your “last 2” GPA as we define it.  We will be looking at your last 20 courses, but we will not break up semesters such that sometimes a student’s “last 2” can include more than 20 courses.  Based on the information you have provided, it sounds like we would likely include courses from second year in your “Last 2”, since you did not take 5 courses per term in Years 3 and 4.   

 

The reason we give greater weight to full course loads (5 courses per term) is because a student’s performance with that load provides the best evidence of how they will handle first-year law where 7 courses are taken (6 at once).  That said, we do look at what else students are doing while in school to make that assessment. This is part of our holistic review."

 

I take this as although it will negatively affect your application if you took less than 5 courses per term, the adcom will look at other possible reasons as to why you did not take it. In other words, although you are at a disadvantage compared to those who have taken 5 courses, if you have a valid reason the disadvantage will lessen.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Thrive92