New Legal Studies Certificate for Students | Department of Political Science
January 23, 2014

New Legal Studies Certificate for Students

The University of North Texas offers a Legal Studies Certificate designed to prepare students for admission to and success in law school. Effective the 2014 spring term, the 15-hour coursework program concentrates academic learning in five areas: 1) Foundations of the American legal system, 2) Analytical Reasoning, 3) Ethics, 4) Writing, and 5) Applied Legal Studies.

Students from any major may earn the certificate by maintaining a 3.25 GPA from the approved classes as well as a 3.0 overall GPA. Students can "double dip" for credit if any of the required classes for the certificate also count toward their major, minor, or core requirements.

"If students want to know what is needed to go to law school, this program is it," said Wendy Watson, pre-law advisor and instructor of political science. "Law schools consider a student's breadth of education as well as focused classwork. The certificate gives students an incentive to take pre-law classes within a structured, in-depth framework that prepares them for the work ahead, from reading legal cases and hypothetical briefs to analyzing lessons in logic and advanced expository writing."

Additional information is available on the UNT Pre-Law website, and Watson may be contacted directly: prelaw@unt.edu.