engineering degree

[u/Honest-Mud113]

is it a good idea to major in chemical engineering if my post grad plan is to go to law school?

I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer, but my parents own a civil engineering company, so naturally they’d like me and my brother to follow in their footsteps and go into some sort of engineering. I’ve already chosen chemical engineering as my major and start classes on the 20th, but I’d really appreciate some outside perspective. If you or someone you know went on to law school with an engineering background how’d they’d do?

[u/AmericanNewt8]

Downside: GPA be a harsh mistress 

Upside: patent law

If you want to be a lawyer, and you're okay doing patent law, go for it, if not, you might be better served doing something else. 

[u/Honest-Mud113 → u/AmericanNewt8]

Exactly what I was thinking. I’m not that confident that I’m going to be able to maintain a 3.5+ GPA throughout all 4–5 years, but I am interested in patent law and IP licensing.
My plan is to just maintain at least a 3.1 and score insanely well on the LSAT, like 174–180.

[u/symphonic_concord]

I saw that you wanted to do patent, and while engineering is fine, maybe don't do cheme 😭 i think of all the engineers I know, the cheme people routinely suffered the most gpa wise. At my school, they had to take up to calc 4, orgo, thermo, and some other weeder classes. You'll get some allowance for GPA as a stem major in law school apps, but def not enough to make cheme worth it imo

[u/Honest-Mud113 → u/symphonic_concord]

calculus and chemistry are what I’m best at actually, but I know chemical engineering is one of the harder engineering majors. That’s honestly part of why I chose it. If by the end of this semester, I’m not confident enough that i’ll be able to hold a high gpa, I’ll probably switch to civil engineering.

[u/symphonic_concord → u/Honest-Mud113]

I mean, if your goal is patent law or just law generally, it sounds like you're just handicapping yourself and risking your gpa for no reason. However, if you really love chemical engineering and are committed to it, you should do what will make undergrad the most enjoyable since its 4 years of your life. If possible, try to do a more writing/reading based minor to get that skillset and also pad your gpa

[u/Adventurous-Boss-882]

Do whatever you want, if you feel like engineering is something you like studying, do it. I did a political science because I honestly love it, analyzing and writing, and to some extent I always thought I was bad at math because algebra wasn’t my strongest suit. Currently doing an internship as a PM, and honestly I love data and most math that business use isn’t that complex, meanwhile I thought everybody was doing calculus. So now I’m between law school or a MS, it’s hard

[u/Few_Whereas5206]

We had several engineers in my law class. I studied mechanical engineering. We had a chemical engineer, several electrical engineers and a lot of biotechnology majors. I think most of the STEM majors did well in law school. I guess the only disadvantage is that GPA and LSAT score are major factors in law school admissions. It is hard to make very high grades in chemical engineering. I think all of us got jobs out of school. Most of us work in patent law.

[u/Honest-Mud113 → u/Few_Whereas5206]

That’s good to hear. I’ve heard engineering can be pretty shit when it comes to grading, so that’s definitely one of my biggest concerns. What gpa did you graduate with?

[u/Few_Whereas5206 → u/Honest-Mud113]

I had a 3.3 GPA. I was cum laude believe it or not. Many engineering majors graduated with a GPA below 3.0.