Pathway to Law Requirements
Pathway to Law Requirements
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There are seven required courses for the Pathway to Law program. The majority of them are general education courses and classes most students take as an undergrad. While all seven must be completed, only 4 of the 7 are required to be completed at SJCC or another community college that also has the Pathway to Law program.
Students should apply to the program prior to completing all of these classes. Your completion of the classes is not required for acceptance into the Pathway to Law program.
ENGL 001A - English Composition
ENGL 001C - Critical Thinking/Composition
COMS 040 - Introduction to Argumentation
MATH 063 - Elementary Statistics
AJ 016 - Street Law
POLSC 001 - Politics and Government in America
HIST 001, 017A, 017B - Survey of American History or History of the United States (A and B)
Grades and GPA
Grades and GPA
Because law school is extremely competitive, grades are extremely important in college and in the Pathway to Law program. We require that students maintain a 2.5 CUMULATIVE GPA (no semester can fall below 2.5) in order to be recognized as a Pathway Scholar and receiving some of the benefits of the program during law school admission.
However, a 2.5 GPA will not be sufficient to get accepted into a law school. Students should aim for a 3.0 or higher while in community college and nothing less than a 3.5 while at a 4-year university.
Something to keep in mind: While 4-year universities generally accept Academic Renewal (replacement of a low grade by repeating the same course or having the grade manually taken out of calculation), law schools do not. ALL grades are calculated as part of your GPA. It is very important that if you are going to fail a class, that you drop the class and retake it, rather than having that low grade affect your cumulative GPA.
If you are struggling in your classes, please meet with counselor, Rachel Hagan, for study skills resources and time management tools.
However, a 2.5 GPA will not be sufficient to get accepted into a law school. Students should aim for a 3.0 or higher while in community college and nothing less than a 3.5 while at a 4-year university.
Something to keep in mind: While 4-year universities generally accept Academic Renewal (replacement of a low grade by repeating the same course or having the grade manually taken out of calculation), law schools do not. ALL grades are calculated as part of your GPA. It is very important that if you are going to fail a class, that you drop the class and retake it, rather than having that low grade affect your cumulative GPA.
If you are struggling in your classes, please meet with counselor, Rachel Hagan, for study skills resources and time management tools.
Majors
Majors
The good thing about law school is that you can major in anything that you want. As long as you have a solid foundation in reading, writing and critical thinking - all key components of law school, you can be successful.
Students should major in something they are interested in and passionate about. The more interest you have in a subject, the better you tend to do, and the higher your grades.
The most common AD-T degrees that students pursue while at SJCC include:
Communications
Business
Political Science
Law, Public Policy & Society
Psychology
Sociology
English
History
Social Justice
In terms of transferring, if you are transferring to a CSU, ideally, your major at SJCC will meet the requirements of the transfer major, even if it is a different name. However, major prep is what is most important, so students may select a different major to transfer to and we may not have a corresponding AD-T. In that case, we try to match a student to an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Social Science, Arts & Humanities or Science.
Many schools also have minors in legal studies or pre-law. Be sure to do your research and work with a counselor.
Other majors or minors to consider at UCs (in addition to those above):
Rhetoric
Legal Studies
Public Administration or Public Policy
Philosophy
Other recommended courses:
Other recommended courses:
In addition to the required courses, there are other courses at either SJCC or Evergreen Valley College (EVC), that can be helpful for law school preparation.
AJ 011 - Criminal Law
AJ 112 - Introduction to Evidence
COMS 020 - Oral Communication
PHIL 060 - Logic and Critical Thinking
PHIL 065 - Introduction to Ethics
(Classes at EVC - Legal Assistant program)
LA 010 - Introduction to Law
LA 071 - Legal Research
LA 072 - Advanced Legal Writing
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