One of the best resources for students considering or preparing for law is the prelaw advisement center. Most universities have a department dedicated towards Pre-professional development. Because law is one of the major career fields requiring additional study, there are often several resources meant to help students prepare for a legal career.
Every prelaw advisement center is unique. Some law schools are more comprehensive while others may not have a center at all. However, if your college does have an advisement center, there are many tools you can utilize while preparing for law school. In this article, I will discuss several of those tools prelaw advisement centers can offer.
Because I attended BYU for my undergrad, I am most familiar with the prelaw association at BYU. Therefore, most of the resources shared in this article will be related to what BYU offered.
Pre-law Student Association
BYU allows students from every major to join the pre-law student association. Joining this association helps students to be notified of upcoming events, courses, internships, webinars, and more. Additionally, members of the association can network with others interested in attending law school. Although I did not utilize these notifications often, I feel that being a member was beneficial when I did choose to participate in events. The nice thing about joining a pre-law association is that they never push you to participate, only notify you of opportunities to participate. If your college offers a pre-law student association, I would recommend becoming a member.
BYU’s Pre-Law Review
Many law schools have a law review. A law review is similar to a scientific journal but specified for law. Students and professors can write, edit, and peer review articles to be published. Being part of a law review can be beneficial to build a resume and gain strong professional experience.
A pre-law review provides an opportunity for students to participate in an academic journal prior to their graduate studies. Undergraduate universities with a pre-law review circulate the review to several law schools. For students who participate in a pre-aw review, they build a strong resume for law school applications. You would also develop strong writing and editing skills which would be useful for drafting a personal statement.
Unfortunately, there are a few downsides. First, not many undergraduate colleges have a pre-law review. BYU is unique in being one of the few undergraduate colleges that has one. If your undergraduate does not have a pre-law review, you can look for opportunities to participate in other undergraduate journals related to your major. That way you still have the same experience of writing and publishing before you graduate. Secondly, the pre-law review is applicant based. This is good because it allows a journal to select strong applicants to write and edit the review. However, it also means that not everyone has an opportunity to contribute. You should work hard to be accepted to write for a review.
Pre-Law Resources
Much like the Law Schoolers website, pre-law advisement centers provide several resources dedicated to helping pre-law school students have the most information possible. Below are some of the resources the pre-law center may provide:
- Information about choosing a law school and what law school is like
- Law school related statistics
- How to manage the cost of law school
- Career options after law school
- and more
I have not used these resources often. However, when I did have questions about law school, the pre-law resource page was one of the first places I would go for answers.
Advisors
Your college is likely to have an advisor who can help you prepare for law school. My pre-law advisor directed all pre-law activities at BYU. These included: the pre-law lecture series (lectures from lawyers to help students learn more about legal careers), events, set up internships, and workshops. You can also meet with the pre-law advisor during office hours for any additional questions you have.
Hint, because the advisor is over pre-law related courses, working as a TA for an advisor would be an ideal relationship to form when it comes time to request letters of recommendation.
Editors
The pre-law editor should be one of your most utilized tool at the pre-law advisement center. Any questions you have about your law school applications should be addressed to the editor. The editor is likely a current law student who recently when through the law school application process. Therefore, you should bring a draft of your personal statement and resume to be edited.
You will likely meet with the editor several times during your undergrad. After you receive initial feedback on your personal statement and resume, you should make the suggested changes. Then present those changes to the editor.
In other words, use the advisor for learning about law school and the editor to apply to law schools.
Internships
As discussed in other article, internships are one of the best things you can do during your undergrad to build up a strong resume. Don’t do what I did and seek the internship directly from the law firm. Instead, you should go through the pre-law advisement center.
The pre-law advisement center takes initiative by finding internship positions in the surrounding area. Then the center fills those positions with students who are looking for experience in the legal field. Because internships are so beneficial in helping students decide on if law school is right for them, the pre-law center has an interest in setting up positive internship experiences.
Summary
Below is a summary of the resources you can utilize at the pre-law advisement center.
- A network through social events
- Prelaw review
- Resources
- Advisors
- Editors
- Internships
I would recommend using each of the resources provided. If your college doesn’t provide a pre-law advisement center, you can find substitute resources through your major department.
