Pre-Law

History for Pre-Law

The best major for law school is the major that most interests you and in which you will excel. That said, history remains one of the most popular majors for students interested in applying to law school because it teaches you how to think analytically, solve complex problems, and make connections in support of an argument. It also teaches you important content that you might bring to your understanding of the law, whether in practice or as an object of study. As reported by McMillan Education, using data provided by the Law School Admission Council [LSAC], “History produces the highest law school admission rate of any major with a significant applicant pool in the LSAC dataset.”

Any history course will prepare you well for law school, but we offer a number of courses that directly speak to legal history and the importance of law:

• HS 212: America Since 1945: The Cold War Years
• HS 216: A Queer History of Europe and North America
• HS 218: The Civil Rights Era
• HS 219: African American History Since Emancipation
• HS 240: The Peoples of Early America
• HS 241: Revolutionary America
• HS 242: History of Civil Rights and Human Rights Law
• HS 243: The Civil War & Reconstruction
• HS 244: African American History through Film
• HS 251: Global Histories of Disability
• HS 223: Women and Gender in the Middle East
• HS 232: Law, Lawyers, and Litigants in European History
• HS 277: A History of Poverty and Poor Relief from Antiquity to Modernity
• HS 330: Gender, Race, and Class in Modern Europe
• HS 355: African American History as Public History
• HS 382: Crime and Punishment in Latin America
• HS 386: History of the Police
• HS 389: Gender and Power in Modern Africa
• HS 492: Minority Identity and Citizenship

Our curriculum emphasizes the ways that law and society intersect, creating both new opportunities and constraints for people to navigate in their particular context. As such, a history degree will well prepare you to understand not just the letter of the law, but how it operates and shapes our world.

Interested in combining an interest in history with political science as you prepare for law school? See this page for additional information.

Additional information on pre-law at Loyola.

History and Political Science for Pre-Law