Pre-Law at TCNJ

The Politics, Law and Philosophy Minor is intended to expose students who are considering law school to the law school application process—a process that typically commences toward the end of the third year—and to provide a sound foundation for the law school experience itself. An interdisciplinary program, the Politics, Law, and Philosophy minor enables students to focus on the law from a variety of other disciplines including political science, philosophy, history, criminology, and economics. The minor program does not attempt to reproduce for students the specific studies of the law they will pursue once they begin law school. Rather, the minor program provides students with an interdisciplinary context within which they can more fully appreciate and understand the law as a discipline. The minor program therefore requires students to take a selection of challenging courses outside their own major. In addition, the minor program offers students rigorous preparation in analytic and writing skills. Developing such skills through a challenging course of study should be useful to students both as they prepare to take the Law School Aptitude Test and once they enter law school and begin their study of the law.

Required Courses (2 course units):

Note:  PHL 220:  Metalogic, usually requires PHL 120: Introduction to Logic, as a prerequisite.  However, for qualified students, Metalogic may be substituted in place of basic logic without having taken PHL 120 with the permission of instructor.

Options Courses (3 course units):

• Only one course can be double counted toward a major.

• No more than two courses can be from the same department.

• At least two courses must be at the 300 or 400 level.

Note: PHL 430:  Advanced Ethics (Abortion, Procreation and Harm), which will be taught spring 2008 only, may also count as an option for this requirement.