The Pre-Law program is an area major designed to afford qualified students a broad-based liberal arts education integrated with course work in business, economics, and accounting. Though mastery of content in such courses will develop students’ appreciation for the complex interrelationships of society and its institutions, an equally important strategy in this major is to equip students with the fundamental skills in writing, analysis, and oral communication so indispensable for effective performance both in law
school and in the legal profession. A brief description of the role these skills assume in legal training will help students focus on the strategic relationship between the requirements of the major and graduate legal education:

1. CRITICAL THINKING - The law school experience from the classroom to the moot courtroom where students stage mock trial competitions revolves around the case study method. Law school texts are "casebooks," collections of actual court decisions that require students to analyze the development of the law in specific subject areas such as contracts, personal injury, and criminal justice. Students are expected to read and prepare written summaries (called "briefs") of the assigned cases in preparation for class discussions, and then prepare (and
   continually revise) course outlines for each class. The outlines are a semester-long project intended to prepare students for final exams. This methodology employed in law school classes  (a) reading, discussing, and briefing large numbers of cases;  (b) extracting the legal principles held in those cases; and then  (c) organizing those principles into coherent, detailed course outlines -- requires intensive and sustained critical analysis of complex fact situations.
   
   The professors will remind students often that they are “helping you to think like a lawyer."
    

2. ORAL COMMUNICATION - Actual class time in the majority of law courses unfolds in a rapid-fire exchange of challenging discussion questions directed by the professor to individual students in what is known as the Socratic Method. The idea is to simulate the actual atmosphere of the courtroom in which lawyers must think fast on their feet in delivering cogent and persuasive arguments even while being constantly challenged by judges’ questions. This dynamic dialogue in the classroom requires a facility to think and speak when called upon to deliver.
    

3. WRITING - Law school grades usually are based on a single examination for each course at the end of the semester. These examinations typically are essay style and require students to apply the law they have learned to complex fact situations. The writing first must reflect clear thinking, and must be concise, coherent, and organized. One cannot wonder at a time like this about "how to write." Writing is the necessary tool for performance in law school and must be
   second nature. Unlike other graduate institutions, law schools do not require students to complete specific prerequisites in undergraduate law courses, preferring instead students be well prepared in these essential thinking and communication skills. The area major in Pre-Law studies, therefore, is a cross-disciplinary curriculum housed in the Humanities Department of the School of Arts and Sciences that also includes diverse allied courses from a number of other academic schools. In completing the area major students need not also complete a minor course of study since the area major incorporates a minor.
   The area major in Pre-Law Studies is specifically designed to accommodate students interested in attending law school as preparation for practice in the legal profession or in allied professional pursuits.
    

To complete the major students must earn 60 credit hours, including 45 hours of required course work in five subject areas, plus 15 Pre-Law elective hours. Students desiring the Bachelor of Arts degree in Pre-Law Studies must complete the following: