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Major · Legal Professions & Studies

A pathway major, not a career major as the empty career list signals

Pre-Law Studies is explicitly a preparation track for professional law-school study at the post-baccalaureate level — the CIP definition says so in one sentence, and the career list is empty because there is no SOC code for 'pre-law graduate.' About 520 degrees are awarded each year across 81 colleges, with bachelor's completers reporting a five-year earnings median of $64,849. Liberty University produces 165 of the 520 completions (32% of the national total). The honest editorial question is not what careers this major leads to, but whether it is the best undergraduate path to law school — and the answer, based on law-school admissions data widely reported by the ABA and LSAC, is usually no.

Schools offering
81
Annual completions
520
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$64k

About this major

Pre-Law Studies is a preparation track for post-baccalaureate professional study of law. The CIP definition is unusually short and explicit — 'A program that prepares individuals for the professional study of law at the post-baccalaureate level' — and the career list in the data packet is empty, which is itself the major's defining feature. Unlike traditional academic majors, Pre-Law Studies does not correspond to any occupational category; it exists to organize undergraduate coursework around law-school preparation rather than around a scholarly discipline. Typical coursework combines constitutional and business law exposure, legal writing and research methods, logic and argumentation, and liberal-arts breadth requirements.

Program scale is small and highly concentrated. About 520 degrees are awarded each year across 81 colleges, and Liberty University alone produces 165 — 32% of the national total. Michigan State University is the only other program at meaningful scale (111 completions); the remaining 79 schools each produce fewer than 30 annually. The concentration reflects two facts about the US higher-education market. First, Liberty is one of the largest online universities in the country and offers Pre-Law Studies as a named online bachelor's track, which most traditional universities do not. Second, traditional universities advise law-school-bound students into majors like philosophy, political science, history, or English because those disciplines perform better on the measurable signals law-school admissions actually use — GPA and LSAT score.

The earnings data tells a story shaped by the empty career list. Bachelor's completers report a five-year earnings median of $64,849, which is higher than many humanities majors because the student pool is self-selected for professional ambition and because many Pre-Law graduates do attend law school and report post-JD earnings; associate's completers report $42,159, reflecting paralegal and legal-assistant work. The related-majors data confirms the pathway-major pattern — every single related major in the list is another pre-X graduate-school staging track: Pre-Nursing, Pre-Medicine, Pre-Veterinary, Pre-Physical Therapy, Pre-Pharmacy, Pre-Theology, Pre-Occupational Therapy. These are undergraduate organizational frameworks, not terminal disciplines, and the earnings figures reflect the mix of graduates who proceed to graduate professional programs and those who end up in paralegal, legal-administration, government, and generic business roles.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

No federal crosswalk data available for this major yet.

Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$64k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$42k

Bachelor's

$65k

Who this major is for

Students committed to law school who prefer explicit professional-preparation program names and whose institutional options include Pre-Law Studies as an organizational framework — particularly online learners at institutions like Liberty or Michigan State — may find this major an acceptable fit. The practical benefit is curricular coherence: a single program designed around pre-law coursework rather than requiring students to assemble pre-law preparation across multiple traditional majors. That benefit is real for students who find pre-law advising difficult to navigate at their institution. For committed students who enter college already oriented toward law school and want a named structure for that orientation, this major can function as an organizational scaffolding.

Reconsider this major if the goal is to maximize law-school admissions competitiveness. LSAT performance data compiled by LSAC and widely reported by the ABA consistently shows philosophy, economics, classics, history, English, and political science majors scoring higher on the LSAT than Pre-Law Studies applicants. The American Bar Association explicitly emphasizes that no specific pre-law undergraduate track exists for ABA-accredited law schools, and admissions committees weight GPA and LSAT score far more heavily than the specific major on the transcript. A 3.85 philosophy GPA with a 170 LSAT outperforms a 3.6 pre-law GPA with a 158 LSAT at every admissions committee. Also reconsider if there is any meaningful chance of deciding against law school partway through college. The major's empty career list and narrow program footprint mean it provides weaker direct career leverage than a broader humanities or social-science major would; Legal Studies (CIP 22.0000, 2,891 completions) is a more flexible adjacent alternative that remains usable as a terminal bachelor's for paralegal, compliance, and government roles. For most law-school-bound undergraduates, a rigorous traditional major plus targeted pre-law electives is the structurally stronger choice.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Pre-Law Studies

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Liberty University Lynchburg, VA 0 165 165
Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 0 111 111
Central New Mexico Community College Albuquerque, NM 30 0 30
Utah State University Logan, UT 0 21 21
Nova Southeastern University Fort Lauderdale, FL 0 19 19
National University San Diego, CA 0 17 17
Thomas Jefferson University Philadelphia, PA 0 12 12
Husson University Bangor, ME 0 10 10
University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 0 8 8
Missouri Western State University Saint Joseph, MO 0 8 8
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Legal Studies

2,891 completions/yr

Pre-Nursing Studies

2,197 completions/yr

Pre-Medicine/Pre-Medical Studies

1,018 completions/yr

Pre-Veterinary Studies

553 completions/yr

Pre-Physical Therapy Studies

255 completions/yr

Pre-Pharmacy Studies

176 completions/yr

Pre-Theology/Pre-Ministerial Studies

122 completions/yr

Pre-Occupational Therapy Studies

93 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

Why does this major have zero careers listed in the data packet?
Because Pre-Law Studies is structurally a preparation track for professional law-school study rather than a career-track major, and US occupational coding reflects that. Bachelor's-level careers are indexed to SOC codes representing jobs people actually hold, and 'pre-law graduate' is not one of them. The CIP definition is explicit: 'A program that prepares individuals for the professional study of law at the post-baccalaureate level.' The related-majors data confirms the pattern — every single related major in the list is another pre-X track: Pre-Nursing, Pre-Medicine, Pre-Veterinary, Pre-Physical Therapy, Pre-Pharmacy, Pre-Theology, Pre-Occupational Therapy. These are undergraduate staging areas for graduate professional programs, not terminal credentials. The $64,849 five-year bachelor's median reflects whatever graduates end up doing when they either don't go to law school or haven't yet — paralegal work, legal administration, government, law-enforcement support, and generic business roles rather than any single career coded to this major.
Does majoring in Pre-Law Studies actually help with law-school admissions?
The evidence consistently says no. The American Bar Association and Law School Admission Council have long emphasized that there is no 'pre-law' track for ABA-accredited law schools — any rigorous undergraduate major prepares students for legal study. Published LSAT score data by undergraduate major routinely shows Pre-Law Studies applicants scoring below philosophy, economics, mathematics, English, classics, history, and even physics and chemistry majors. The pattern has been stable across multiple decades of LSAC reporting. Top law schools treat the undergraduate major as nearly irrelevant relative to GPA, LSAT score, and recommendations. A student committed to law school is typically better served by majoring in a discipline that demands rigorous reading, writing, and analytical reasoning — and that will produce a higher GPA and stronger faculty recommendations — than by an undergraduate major labeled Pre-Law.
Why does Liberty University produce nearly a third of all graduates in this major?
Liberty's 165 completions represent 32% of the 520 national total, an extreme concentration that reflects two factors. First, Liberty is one of the largest online universities in the US and offers Pre-Law Studies as a named online bachelor's track — something most traditional universities do not, because those institutions advise law-bound students into philosophy, political science, history, or English instead. Second, Liberty's curricular approach emphasizes explicit professional-preparation framing (Pre-Law, Pre-Nursing, Pre-Ministry, etc.), which appeals to students who want credential-forward program names. The consequence for prospective students is that the national Pre-Law Studies population is not representative of the broader pool of law-school-bound undergraduates, who overwhelmingly major in other disciplines at traditional universities. Michigan State University (111 completions) is the only other program at meaningful scale; the remaining 72 schools produce fewer than 30 completions each.
If Pre-Law Studies is usually suboptimal, what should law-bound undergraduates major in?
The standard advice from law school admissions officers, legal educators, and LSAT-performance data points toward majors that build reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, writing, and logical rigor: philosophy, economics, history, English, political science, mathematics, and classics are the traditional strong performers. Philosophy in particular consistently posts among the highest average LSAT scores of any undergraduate major — a pattern driven by philosophy's core training in formal argument, logical analysis, and long-form written reasoning. Students interested specifically in corporate or intellectual-property law often major in economics, finance, accounting, or STEM fields because those backgrounds differentiate them in practice areas where technical fluency matters. The key insight is that law schools care about two measurable signals — GPA and LSAT — far more than the label on the transcript. A 3.85 philosophy GPA with a 170 LSAT beats a 3.6 pre-law GPA with a 158 LSAT at every admissions committee in the country.
What about students who are unsure about law school — is this a reasonable fallback major?
It is the wrong major for that use case. The empty career list and the 520-student-per-year national footprint reveal a major that functions almost entirely as graduate-school preparation. Students who decide against law school after starting Pre-Law Studies often find that the degree provides weaker direct career leverage than a broader humanities or social-science major would have. Legal Studies (CIP 22.0000, 2,891 completions) is a more flexible alternative that covers similar content while remaining usable as a terminal bachelor's degree for paralegal, compliance, and government roles. Political Science, Philosophy, Economics, and History all function well as dual-purpose undergraduate majors that keep law school open without foreclosing non-legal careers. For students with even moderate uncertainty about law school, one of those broader majors plus pre-law electives (constitutional law, business law, logic) is almost always a better structural choice.