Will graduating College in 3 Years Affect my Grad School Choices?

Question

I'm an undergraduate at a competitive state school. My major is political science and I currently have a GPA of 3.89. I recently found out that my school has given me sophomore status(I just enrolled Fall 2007) due to my AP test scores from highschool. Bascially, I currently have enough credits to graduate with a BA in 3 years. I am leaning towards taking this option rather than double majoring (would take 4 years) because it would save me a lot of money. However, I am interested in going to law school, and I want to know if this would have any effect, positive or negative, on how attractive I would be as a candidate for a top law school. Obviously I will try my best to keep my grades up and I am saving up for an LSAT prep course as I'm typing this. Just wondering if its worth the money to double major and go all four years, or just graduate in 3 and look at law schools sooner.

Just to clarify, I'm not taking extra classes or anything to graduate early. I have my gen. ed requirements done allready because I took the AP equivalents in high school. Political Science is normally a four year degree, I just allready have 32 credits toward my school's 4 year program.

Answer 1

Unless you are planning on going into some specific area of law, you do not need to double major. Most grad school programs will look at you as hard working, dedicated and success-minded if you complete in 3 years with a high GPA. DO NOT sacrifice your GPA and bombard yourself with too much work to get through in 3 years! I would graduate in 3, start applying to grad schools at the beginning of year 2 (even without your LSAT scores), and work really darn hard.

Answer 2

i don't think it would be necessarily a push to your acceptance into law school cuz they all know that poly sci has fewer requirements than other majors and is considered to be on the slightly easier major side, so usually with humanities majors, you will see double majors to show that you are serious and competitive; with science majors, it is known that those require heavy requirements and a lot of classes so usually just the major will suffice and that usually takes 4 years in of itself...of course, since money issues are involved here, i dont think it would necessarily be a bad thing as long as you keep your grades up, your resume good, and have good lsat scores

Answer 3

To the other poster, PolSci is not necessarily an easier degree, but it would be good to take rigorous coursework such as statistics in the major. Also, law schools don't particular seek out polisci majors--you can major in anything. They like English classes, logic, mathematics, even physics--you need to show good logical reasoning ability.

That said, 3 years is fine--it's the degree not the years that count. Take your LSAT next year. Good luck!

Answer 4

You definitely should apply to a top tier graduate school. You are obviously very capable of doing research in your own field (your thesis) and are academically strong. A 3.8 is nothing to sniff at, even if it's at an "easier" state college.