Is it best to go to law school once you complete college or earn your Master's degree?

In my opinion, if you know you want to be a lawyer, I would recommend going straight to law school. A masters degree isn't necessary and unless you are planning on being a lawyer in a very specialized field (such as patent law) a masters degree isn't going to be all that helpful in helping you secure a job. If you really want a masters degree as well as a law degree, some schools will allow you to do joint degrees (the most common of which is a JD/MBA), which is great because some classes can be used for both degrees so you can generally get both degrees more quickly than the time it would take to get one degree after the other.

If you aren't sure that you want to be a lawyer, I think that getting some real world experience would be more helpful than getting a masters degree before law school. Getting out into the real world for a while can be a great experience and help push you out of your comfort zone to decide what you really want to do with your life.

Hi Catherine,

That's a great question. If you want to be a lawyer, you will need to graduate from a law school. You do not need a master's degree to get into law school.

Law school requires critical thinking, analysis, and reading comprehension skills so I took courses in college that I believed would help me improve these skills. There are also some colleges that provide pre-law courses that can help you improve these skills. Law school admissions will look at primarily your LSAT scores, your undergraduate grades, and your extracurricular activities. I studied hard in college, served in leadership positions in various extracurricular activities, and prepared for the LSAT by enrolling in an LSAT prep course. When I was preparing my undergraduate and law school applications, I had several peers and mentors review and critique my applications.

Being a lawyer has been a rewarding experience for me and I love being able to help people. I hope this information is helpful to you! Good luck and study hard!

Hi Catherine!
The only reason that you might want to get a masters degree in a career area is if you would want to do some specialized law related specifically to that career area. Then it would pay off as you could charge higher fees as you would be doing specialized law and possibly be involved in a an area of law that would more interesting to you.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/law-admissions-lowdown/2012/09/24/do-advanced-degrees-help-in-law-school-admissions

Hi, I found this link that seems be related to your question...hopefully some other nice Lawyer will answer your question as well...but, this can get you started with some information.

Good luck!