STEM major chances Forum

[duran150]

Hey everyone!

I am a junior biochemistry major and have been debating between pursuing a career in IP law or a career in medicine until recently. I decided that law was a better fit given my passion for reading and writing and my general life goals. However, I am not sure which law schools I should apply to given my major, stats, and extracurricular activities. I have not taken the LSAT yet (I will this upcoming summer/fall). I have a 3.94 GPA (3.9ish STEM gpa). I tutor organic chemistry, volunteer at a hospital, participate in research, and am on the executive board of my school's biological honors society. I have also received two academic awards (highest grade in general chemistry and outstanding sophomore). I do not know what schools I should aim for. T14? Tier 1,2, ect? I still need to do more research on schools but any input/advice would be awesome since I am new to this whole law school thing. Thanks!

[UVA2B]

You have an awesome GPA. Study for the LSAT and do well on that, then play the same admissions game all elite candidates play. Apply to the entire T14, and play them off each other to ensure you pay as little as possible for your law degree.

Unsolicited advice: all of this is too soon. You shouldn’t consider applying to law school for 3-4 years with a couple years in a real world job first.

[heartlessjester]

Hey everyone!

I am a junior biochemistry major and have been debating between pursuing a career in IP law or a career in medicine until recently. I decided that law was a better fit given my passion for reading and writing and my general life goals. However, I am not sure which law schools I should apply to given my major, stats, and extracurricular activities. I have not taken the LSAT yet (I will this upcoming summer/fall). I have a 3.94 GPA (3.9ish STEM gpa). I tutor organic chemistry, volunteer at a hospital, participate in research, and am on the executive board of my school's biological honors society. I have also received two academic awards (highest grade in general chemistry and outstanding sophomore). I do not know what schools I should aim for. T14? Tier 1,2, ect? I still need to do more research on schools but any input/advice would be awesome since I am new to this whole law school thing. Thanks!

Aim t13 or don't go to law school. A biochem BS is a very weak patent background, you will have to aim for lit which is especially prestige + law grade dependent.

[QContinuum]

Hey everyone!

I am a junior biochemistry major and have been debating between pursuing a career in IP law or a career in medicine until recently. I decided that law was a better fit given my passion for reading and writing and my general life goals. However, I am not sure which law schools I should apply to given my major, stats, and extracurricular activities. I have not taken the LSAT yet (I will this upcoming summer/fall). I have a 3.94 GPA (3.9ish STEM gpa). I tutor organic chemistry, volunteer at a hospital, participate in research, and am on the executive board of my school's biological honors society. I have also received two academic awards (highest grade in general chemistry and outstanding sophomore). I do not know what schools I should aim for. T14? Tier 1,2, ect? I still need to do more research on schools but any input/advice would be awesome since I am new to this whole law school thing. Thanks!

With a ~3.9 GPA, the world's your oyster as far as law school admissions go, so long as you study hard and get a great LSAT score (entirely doable given enough effort, IMO, for anyone able to get a 3.9+ GPA as a STEM major). Law school admissions is almost entirely a numbers game, based on your GPA and LSAT score. Law schools pretty much don't care about ECs (aside from Yale, and then Yale only cares about extraordinary ECs, not typical college activities/honors).

That said, all of your ECs seem to be med school-oriented. The research, the hospital volunteering, the biological honors society, the orgo tutoring, the highest grade award in chem - that's pretty much the dictionary definition of a premed. Now, that won't hurt you in law school admissions (as noted above, law school admissions is almost purely numbers-driven, very unlike med school or even undergrad admissions), but I encourage you to really think through whether law is actually what you want to do. You shouldn't go to law school merely because you're passionate about "reading and writing" - believe me, you'd get to do plenty of reading and writing in med school. There are sound reasons to decide against pursuing a medical career but having a passion for reading and writing isn't one of them.

What do you envision yourself doing out of law school? What kind of lawyer do you aspire to be?