The following post was written by Peer Advisor Zach, a sophomore History major minoring in Jazz Studies and Law & Society. Zach is also (spoiler alert) pre-law.
Happy New Year, UHP!
This week’s extracurricular is applicable to what I know to be a sizeable chunk of the Honors Program: individuals who are interested in pursuing a career in the legal field. As a Freshman entering GW with a defined career goal, I came to realize quickly that I knew little about how to approach my undergraduate career in a fashion that would advance my future interests most effectively. A year and a half later, I’m still figuring it out, but I certainly have a much better idea about what the #PreLawLife looks like. Below, I’ve compiled a survey of the multitudinous opportunities (mostly extracurricular, but some curricular as well) available to you as a GW student (and a UHP student) to advance your interests in Law.
A quick disclaimer: I’m a sophomore. I haven’t applied to law school yet. Who knows, I could be completely off my rocker with this stuff. Below is merely a summary of my experiences with the various Pre-Law organizations and opportunities that you might be interested in exploring. By no means are any of the below things that you should feel are “required” for your law school application. If you have any questions about the process of applying to law school, what’s required, and what’s not, get in touch with Michael Gabriel, GW’s Pre-Law Advisor, who can be reached at mgabriel@gwu.edu.
I’ll touch on four different items which have had an impact on my experience thus far and have helped me explore my interest in Law: my involvement with the Pre-Law Student Association and the Undergraduate Law Review, the GW Pre-Law Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta (Law Fraternity International), the Law & Society Minor, and an Honors course recommendation.
Let’s begin at the obvious starting point: The Pre-Law Student Association, a student group that seeks to educate undergraduates on the law school experience and expose students to the legal profession. I have been a member since the beginning of my Freshman year, and the experience has been well worth the price of dues for the sheer number of resources and opportunities afforded to me. For a meager $20, the PLSA provides LSAT workshops, professional development events, and writing opportunities that aim to educate students about the profession. Participation is entirely voluntary; if you are a pre-law student, there are few reasons to NOT pay your PLSA dues to stay in the loop about exciting opportunities.
Should you wish to get more involved with the PLSA, you can apply to be a writer for the GW Justice Journal, the PLSA’s weekly blog, or the prestigious GW Undergraduate Law Review. Both publications provide invaluable writing or editing experience, but the latter is one of the most exciting opportunities imaginable for an ambitious pre-law student. Over the course of a year, you will conduct in-depth research on a legal issue of your choosing, write a full-length law review article on your findings, undergo a rigorous editing process with students and professional editors critiquing your work, and ultimately be published in one of the nation’s roughly twenty undergraduate law reviews. Writing is one of the most important skills you will need in law school and for the entirety of your legal career; it’s never too early to begin thinking critically about the complex issues you will tackle as your career begins.
Membership in the PLSA automatically qualifies you to write for both of the above publications. And, if all of the above wasn’t enough, your $20 dues gets you a pretty swagtastic t-shirt. What’s there to complain about?
Next up, GW’s Pre-Law Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta, Law Fraternity International. I rushed PAD during the Fall of my freshman year, and it’s an experience that I would unquestionably recommend to any student interested in law. Like the PLSA, PAD seeks to educate its members about the legal profession, offering law school workshops, LSAP prep courses, and professional development opportunities. What sets PAD apart is the inherent qualities that come attached to Greek Life: brotherhood, social camaraderie, and community service. I think of PAD as a place where I can commiserate with fellow aspiring lawyers, network, and grow as a person by sharing in the wonderful experiences of my brothers. PAD is by no means for everyone, but it is an incredible way to connect with other people of similar interests.
Though there is a formal Rush process in the Spring and Fall, you can join PAD at any time in the semester. Another interesting note about PAD is that it is not an “exclusive” organization; our National Mandates requires we accept all applicants, regardless of career or major interests. Thus, PAD is a great organization to join if you’d like to explore whether or not Law might be the right career path for you—many of our most prominent alumni, former Presidents, etc. ultimately do not go on to law school after graduation (many, of course, do as well). Spring rush is upcoming; stop by at the Spring Org Fair or check out our Facebook page for more information.
Now, we move on to some more “curricular” items. I’ll preface this second half by reiterating what you’ve hopefully heard from a whole lot of different places in your time at GW: There is no specific major or classes you need to take in order to qualify you to attend law school. Unlike medical school and other professional schools, law school admissions factor in two basic statistics to make their admission decisions: your GPA and your LSAT score. You can major in anything you want, provided that you are passionate about the subject material and thus can excel academically. What’s that? You thought you had to major in Political Science to have any chance of getting into law school? Bah humbug! I’m a History major with minors in Jazz Studies and Law & Society. Remember, law school is where you learn how to be a lawyer, not as an undergrad. That being said, there are certainly some opportunities to take advantage of your inherent interest in the law starting NOW.
Like, for instance, the Law & Society minor—the closest thing that GW has to a Pre-Law minor, though you don’t need to declare it in order to be considered “pre-law” at GW, nor is it exclusive to Pre-Law students. It’s essentially a convenient packaging of many of the courses that GW offers that address legal topics: US Constitutional History, Sociology of Law, Patent Law for Engineers, Media Law, etc. Housed in the Sociology Department, entrance to the minor requires that you have maintained a minimum 3.3 GPA and at least 30 hours of coursework at GW. Visit http://sociology.columbian.gwu.edu/minor-law-society for more information, or contact Dr. Fran Buntman, the Law and Society Minor Coordinator, at fbuntman@gwmail.gwu.edu.
And finally, I’ll throw in a quick plug to one of my favorite courses from last semester, a course that should be required for any pre-law Honors student: HONR 2047—Justice and the Legal System I with Professor Jill Kasle. Make no mistake: JLS is not an easy course. It is mentally challenging and requires you to think and write critically in a way you otherwise will not need to until law school. Prof. Kasle makes it clear on Day 1 that the goal of JLS is to expose you to what a first-year Constitutional Law class is like. She unequivocally succeeds; you will walk out on the final day of class with a clear picture of what 1L Day One will look like.
An added benefit of the class: Prof. Kasle is an invaluable resource to anyone who wishes to pursue a career in law, but she only advises students who she has had as students. So, if you want to have access to one of GW’s best-kept advising secrets, sign up for JLS when fall registration rolls around!
A few parting thoughts: Remember that participation in extracurricular activities can only provide as much of a return as you put in. Joining an organization to say you joined it won’t even have the faintest of relevance on your law school application. Law schools will place a higher premium on a display of passion for a specific activity than mere nominal involvement. Don’t just write for the ULR because it will look good on your resume, go into the experience expecting to learn something and defend your passion for writing. Don’t just rush PAD to put it on your resume, plan to attend social events and professional development sessions to enhance yourself. Don’t just join any of these organizations or incorporate any of my curricular suggestions into your Four-Year Plan because you think they themselves will help your chances at admission to your dream law school, but rather because you are passionate about the mission of the organization or the course.
Have more questions about Pre-Law? Feel free to shoot me an email at zsanders@gwmail.gwu.edu! Can you tell I love to talk about this stuff?
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