Unique Minors

With guest authors Savannah Misius ’26 and Mia Starke ’28

Many students don’t realize that every single major and minor is acceptable for law school! With no required “pre-law” major or minor, undergraduate students are often unclear about what curricula they should declare in pursuit of attending law school. At the University of Illinois, there is an abundance of unique majors and minors that are all suitable for future success in law school.

Generally, law schools appreciate and value majors and minors that uniquely reflect applicants’ interests and long-term goals and help enhance the diversity of knowledge, professional, and academic experiences that future students will bring to the law school community.

Pre-law students are encouraged to think about how minors can help expand their knowledge in different subjects, provide different types of learning environments and communities, help develop important academic skills, and feed unique individual interests. In this blog post, we will highlight several less common minors for pre-law students available on our campus and how they can aid in an undergrad’s educational and future law school plans.

WHAT DO LAW SCHOOLS SAY ABOUT MAJORS AND MINORS?

There is a common misconception that the best majors and minors for future legal studies are those that are most common amongst pre-law students, such as political science, legal studies, history, and philosophy. While these curricula make excellent choices for pre-law students and provide unique opportunities to explore an interest in law and study legal topics, many majors and minors will support an undergraduate’s journey to law school, and choosing curricula should be a completely individual choice.

Each year, law schools accept students who have majored in a wide range of curricula. Law schools encourage students to utilize their undergraduate degree to pursue topics that are of primary interest to them, that are conducive to their academic skills and success, and that provide opportunities to gain experiences that may be relevant to their future goals. For instance, if you are a student interested in working in corporate law, picking majors/minors that allow you to learn about corporations and the business world will be incredibly helpful to your future in legal studies. 

HOW TO UTILIZE MAJORS/MINORS STRATEGICALLY?

While majoring or minoring in any curriculum is qualifying for future for law school admissions, if a student is in a less common major among their pre-law cohort, it can be helpful to pick up a minor in a discipline or subject that is typical for providing opportunities in law-related topics or for building academic skills associated with legal studies. For example, if an aspiring pre-law undergraduate is a STEM major, it may be helpful to consider a minor in a Liberal Arts subject. By doing so, students can centrally focus on their genuine and unique interests, such as biology, as well as including curriculum opportunities more traditionally related to law. Conversely, if you are majoring in a more common Liberal Arts subject, you might consider picking up a minor to help explore your more unique interests.  You can also utilize minors to more fully expand a central interest. For example, if you are very interested in future work in Intellectual Property, you may want to consider majoring in a STEM field with a business-related minor as many intellectual property related practices intersect with business law related topics. 

The PLAS Office has an abundance of experience in supporting undergraduates on their prelaw paths, and they encourage students to pursue subjects, areas of study, and minors that they are genuinely interested in.

Below, we highlight some unique minors to consider:

Public Relations Minor

The first unique minor that pre-law students should know about is the College of Media’s Public Relations (PR) minor. It is designed to provide undergrads with a foundational understanding of how public relations practitioners manage relationships between organizations and their stakeholders and manage the reputations of those organizations. Courses within the PR minor aim to help students develop skills in writing, research, strategic planning, relationship management, and crisis communication that can be directly applied to a career in law.

Student View: Illinois Pre-law student Raven Collins, Class of 2026, is nearly complete with her PR minor. When asked about the benefits of the minor, she said, “The minor is a helpful and valuable complement to my other courses. The classes I have taken will no doubt serve me as a future attorney, specifically with crisis management skills and client relations. I recommend the PR minor for pre-law undergraduates”. For full details regarding the minor, including requirements, please visit here.

Earth, Society, & Environmental Sustainability Minor

Many pre-law students are interested in pursuing practices related to environmental law. One way that students interested in the environment can craft their field of study to model this interest is by picking up a minor in Earth, Society, and Environmental Sustainability (ESES). Within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, this minor serves to provide students with a background in topics related to the intersections between society and the environment, as well as addressing the sustainability of Earth’s ecosystems, societies, and economics. The ESES minor categorizes itself as being extremely flexible and manageable and is designed to cater to all students at the University of Illinois, independent of their major or college. The open choice of classes allows students to examine sustainability from whatever perspective they are interested in, and is perfect for establishing a background in environmental sustainability before pursuing a career as an environmental lawyer. Students will also gain skills in the natural sciences, the societal and political impacts of environmental crisis, and methods of sustainability.

Public Health Minor

The Public Health minor is available to all undergraduate students across campus and is within the College of Applied Health Sciences. It is intended for students who seek an introduction to the medical field and its disciplines, and those who anticipate knowledge in public health will help them succeed in their careers. The Public Health minor provides students with an introduction to the public health field and establishes a basis of knowledge of our systems of health and how they interact with the public and different communities. Coursework offers students exposure to the concepts, core functions, and applications of public health in a variety of specializations, including health promotion and education, epidemiology, and environmental health. Through the completion of the minor, students cultivate skills for their future careers as lawyers by gaining exposure to the concepts, core functions, and applications of public health in a variety of specializations, including health promotion and education, epidemiology, and environmental health.

Computer Science Minor 

A Computer Science (CS) minor falls under the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science and is available to all students except students pursuing a CS or Computer Engineering degree. These courses introduce students to the foundations of CS and introduce students to different coding programs and further applications to mathematics. This is a great minor to add for students who have a strong math background or are interested in furthering their education in utilizing technical programming. This minor would teach students about the foundations of a myriad of coding programs and algorithms and the nuances of how to use programming languages to create desired outputs. This minor would aid a student who has an interest in privacy or cybersecurity-based law. By knowing how these programs work, a lawyer could help reinforce protections surrounding these programs. Moreover, with their specified knowledge, they would be able to discuss and take apart the nuances of a program and see how it affects consumer protection and how algorithms legally or illegally take data from individuals every day.  

Urban Studies & Planning Minor 

This minor is under the College of Fine and Applied Arts and is targeted toward students who want to learn more about their communities and how social and structural factors affect the communities they come from. The minor engages with social, systemic, and other issues tied to communities as these aspects influence the development of communities and the success of each one. This minor would be a great fit for individuals who have interests in real estate law, law related to fair housing, local government, and city planning. Students would be able to take away skills related to providing equitable resources for individuals in a variety of communities and how local governments engage with communities; this illustrates the overlap between law and housing. Urban Planning also includes aspects of social justice that aren’t always typically considered, students who want to explore the concerns and challenges of modern urban planning and impacts on communities, would highly benefit from this minor. 

Business Minor (for Non-Business Majors) 

This minor falls under the Gies College of Business and is specifically for non-business majors at Illinois who want to learn more about how companies work and the departments that comprise them, like marketing and finance. Students are required to complete foundational business coursework, followed by more specialized choices. This is a great minor to add for students who plan on working in corporate law, plan on starting their own law firms, or who want to better understand the corporate world. This minor engages with a variety of skills that individuals would need in a business setting, from accounting to business management, and it can introduce students to what the business world would look like.

CONCLUSION

There is a myriad of minors across campus that allow pre-law students to engage with a wide-range of important topics and subjects important for future lawyers. From Informatics to Sociology, it is clear there is no designated major or minor that a student needs to have to go to law school! This blog post has highlighted only a few of the unique options available to students at Illinois as a way to inspire pre-law students to explore their many options!

Pre-law students can utilize the University of Illinois’s numerous course offerings by adding a minor, allowing them to enter into classrooms outside their major, and learn more about their world. A minor is much more than simply another bullet point on a resume, as it can provide unique knowledge and experiences to take into law school and the legal world to further one’s interests and solidify how each pre-law student believes they can help change the world. If you are considering a minor – speak to your academic advisor, your professors, upper-level classman, and the PLAS office for insights on what might be a unique and exciting fit for your undergraduate experience!

Please click here for a list of all minors at Illinois.  

Have a non-traditional pre-law major?

Consider partnering a non-traditional pre-law major (or traditional one) with a more traditional choice! Here are some good options below to consider…

Thank you!

A special thank you to our student guest authors and Advisory Council members, Savannah Misius and Mia Starke.