Ready to take the next step?
Gardner-Webb University offers a Pre-Law Minor designed to equip students with the essential skills and knowledge for law school and legal careers. This interdisciplinary program emphasizes critical thinking, advanced research, analytical reasoning, and effective communication, aligning with the competencies sought by law schools.
Preparation for law school begins as soon as the freshman year. Students considering law school should meet with the pre-law mentor in order to learn about the minor, enhances variety of majors, elective course offerings, and extracurricular activities.
The Pre-Law Minor requires the completion of coursework totaling between 19-21 credit hours, depending on elective choices.
The curriculum is structured as follows:
All students will take POLS 225: Introduction to Legal Studies (1 credit).
Students seeking the Pre-Law minor must choose a minimum of three courses (nine credit hours) from the following ENGL, HIST, PHIL, POLS options.
Students may choose up to three additional courses (up to 9 credit hours) from the options in order to complete the Pre-Law minor. Additional information, including descriptions of specific courses and their corresponding credit hours, is available in the Academic Catalog.
As important as success in the classroom is to pursue a legal career, pre-law students should seek opportunities outside the classroom to grow their leadership, public-speaking, and presentation skills. Law schools look for applicants who are multifaceted and dynamic individuals and extracurricular activities are a way for pre-law students to demonstrate their individuality. Pre-law students should participate in the Pre-Law Society and other campus organizations, clubs, and service opportunities.
Working with their faculty advisors, students should plan to take POLS 225 Introduction to Legal Studies either in their freshman or sophomore year. In the junior year, students should consider potential law schools tailored to their interests and schedule their LSAT exam during the summer or early fall of their senior year. In the fall of their senior year, students should prepare and submit law school applications.
The pre-law minor prepares students to pursue a law degree after graduation. Below are just some of the career paths that students with an interest in legal studies may take.
It was important to me to be able to effectively research, analyze, write, and communicate on a variety of topics in a variety of situations. My studies accomplished this, in addition to challenging me on a daily basis to think about things in new ways.”
Having small classes at GWU also made it a necessity to be comfortable participating in class discussions, which served me well in law school classes where you may be randomly called on."
The analytical reading and writing proficiency I developed [here] as an English major was crucial to helping me get accepted into a top-tier law school, perform well in my classes, and be an effective advocate for my clients."
