Overview
Preparing for a profession in the law is both an exciting and rigorous endeavor. Legal careers require skills in reading comprehension, critical thinking, and persuasive advocacy (both oral and written). The study of law is about method, a method to analyze relevant issues, distill information, and focus on specific arguments.
Your studies at Monmouth will provide you with the right tools on your path to becoming a legal professional. Your analytical and logical reasoning abilities, as well as communication and advocacy skills, will be refined through rigorous engagement with Monmouth’s general education curriculum, most notably courses in reasoned oral discourse and perspectives. Also, you will hone your research and writing skills through required writing intensive courses.
Students interested in law school should be mindful of proper preparation for the study of law—one that is challenging and interesting for the individual, but also inclusive of the skills mentioned above. No one major is required for law school, but a broad-based approach to the skills necessary for effective lawyering should be accommodated. The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar provides guidance on the core skills and values that a student should seek in pre-legal education.
Although undergraduate grade point average and score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) are primary considerations, law schools consider a wide range of qualities in law school admissions decisions. The LSAT is a 3.5-hour standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) four times a year (February, June, October, and December); it tests on the legal reasoning skills essential for success in ABA-approved law schools, namely logical reasoning (in plain language arguments), analytical reasoning (drawing logical conclusions from structured relationships), and reading comprehension.