Pre-Law
Undergraduate
Determining if and when you want to attend law school is a big decision. Pre-law advising can help you determine if a career in the legal profession is right for you. Mount Holyoke is here to support you while you consider a future in law and go through the application process. We are also available to advise you once you begin law school.
Program Overview
Pre-Law Resources
- One-on-one advising sessions
- Site visits to prestigious law schools, area law firms, and governmental agencies
- Panel discussions featuring alums, law school representatives, and local professionals
- Workshops on the application process and the law profession as a whole
- Weekly LSAT preparation
Mount Holyoke College is a member of the Northeast Association for Pre-Law Advisors (NAPLA). Our pre-law advisor attends this conference annually to share best practices with colleagues, learn about the trends and challenges facing the legal profession, and to provide students with the tools necessary to make an informed decision to attend law school.
Preparing for Law School
Law schools are looking for people from a wide range of undergraduate majors who have performed very well. Keep in mind that there are majors that lend themselves to law school preparation by focusing on analytical thinking, business acumen, and critical social issues. The following MHC majors are a few examples of such areas of study:
- Gender Studies
- Critical Social Thought
- Law, Public Policy, and Human Rights
- History
- International Relations
- Global Business
- Logic
- Philosophy
- Economics
Take classes that are interesting and challenging and do well in them. Your GPA starts now and is a major factor in law school admissions.
Learn to write well. Think of writing‐intensive classes as opportunities to hone your analytical and writing skills and impress people who can write about your skills later in a letter of recommendation. Get to know these professors.
Read. The more you read, the better you will write. Read newspapers daily, non‐fiction books, journals., etc.
Use Handshake to search for experiential opportunities. Handshake is the primary location of all CDC job and internship listings. Peer Career Advisors are available to help you complete your Handshake profile, and the CDC offers workshops on finding and funding summer internships. Choose internships that are interesting to you in fields you want to explore. Law is a very wide field, any internship you do will help inform you later as a lawyer.
Sign up for the Pre‐Law email list to get information on law‐related workshops and events on campus.
Become familiar with the LSAT. Your score on this test is another major factor in law school admissions. Purchase an LSAT prep book and begin working on questions in your spare time.
Get involved in an extra‐curricular activity or a cause you are passionate about. It is not about quantity, it’s about quality! Get into leadership roles in your cause/organization over the years.
