Pre-Law Minor

Departments - A student may satisfy the Pre-Law minor by choosing courses from among the following departments:

Accounting, Anthropology, Applied Communication Studies, Construction (Engineering), Economics, English Language & Literature, Environmental Science

Historical Studies, Mass Communications, Mathematics & Statistics, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology & Criminal Justice Studies, Theater & Dance

With choices of courses in so many departments, a student may have difficulty deciding which courses to take.  In Spring 2018, twenty-six of our graduates answered a survey regarding the types of courses that best prepared them for law school in general, and then questions about each specific course.  There is something of a disconnect which will be discussed at the end.  In general, graduates felt that courses that developed critical thinking and writing skills were the most important for success in law school.  The graduates were asked to rank the different areas in importance and responded as follows:

                  1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5h 6th 7th score
critical thinking  13   3   7   2  1   0   0   155
writing            10   7   4   4  1   0   0   151
research skills     1   7   7   7  6   1   0   132
listening           1   4   3   7  5   5   1   100
speaking            0   1   4   5  9   5   2    85
case briefing       1   4   1   3  3   8   6    79
law content         0   0   0   1  1   7  17    38

This supports the information used to develop the minor and the structure we created.  You can see very strong opinions on the importance of courses that develop critical thinking and writing.

However, this is how they rated specific courses:

Only 51 of the 70+ courses available in the minor are listed above because the students who responded did not take some of the courses.  Also, only three of the students who responded pursued a pre-law minor -- for many the minor did not exist when they enrolled at SIUE. 

Some of the oddities/inconsistencies: First, writing skills are ranked as very important to being successful in law school, yet there are only three responses related to English courses.  The most likely answer for this is that many students who went to law school either tested out of or got dual credit for their English courses and then did not take additional courses at SIUE.  Given the survey, students that are not highly confident in their writing skills should take those courses included in the minor.  Second, there is an inconsistency with how lowly rated "law content" was for preparing students for law school as compared to the usefulness of the two legal intnernships (CJ 398 and POLS 410), the two judicial process classes (CJ 410 and POLS 390), and the two constitutional law classes (POLS 495 and POLS 496).  The legal internships and judicial process classes are probably considered beneficial because they provide context for the law classes.  An understanding of terminology and the legal process ensure that the first classes in law school are not alien and scaffolding is in place that makes it easier to organize the vast amount of information presented in the first year in law school.  The two constitutional law school classes are not important for the content (those taking the survey pointed out that you will learn that in law school), but for the manner in which they are taught.  Any class conducted in the manner of law school, that requires you prepare for class in a similar manner, and then also has exams that are of a similar form as law school's would probably be rated as useful. Students interested in law school may review the course list and see which classes will prepare you, not for the legal content, but for the style you will experience in law school.  Third, when evaluating the usefulness of these classes, make sure to look at the number of students responding.  The opinion of a single student may not all that helpful.