Most Affordable Online Law Degree Programs 2024

Want to pursue law, but aren’t sure whether to start?

You’re faced with an overwhelming number of options when looking for an undergraduate degree that might lead to law school. You could major in legal studies or take on a general undergraduate degree with a pre-law focus. You could enroll in an accelerated 3+3 program with a direct pathway to earn your juris doctor (JD), or enroll in a deferred program.

You also might not even be sure if you want to head to law school after graduation. Instead, you might want a degree that can lead to jobs within and beyond the legal field.

We’ve got you covered. Read on to learn more about pathways into the legal career.

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

While a number of countries offer the undergraduate bachelor of laws (LL.B.) degree, the United States no longer does. Schools in the United States phased out the LL.B. degree in the 1960s in favor of the juris doctor (JD) degree. Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg, William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O’Conner, and Anthony Kennedy are examples of people who received a bachelor of laws degree.

Most U.S. jurisdictions require people with LL.Bs from outside of the U.S. to have an additional legal degree from an accredited U.S. law school in order to practice law in the U.S. While U.S. colleges no longer offer an LL.B, they do have a number of pathways to law school, including pre-law degrees and programs that can lead you to law school.

Schools offer both degrees in the legal field and a pre-law focus in a number of other concentrations to prepare you for law school.

Many programs offer both bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees. While a bachelor of arts degree is more focused on theory and a broad study of the humanities, a bachelor of science degree typically includes more applied learning and hands-on experience.

A law concentration in your undergraduate studies isn’t required for admission to law school. A number of majors have applications in the field of law, and schools also allow students to add a pre-law concentration to certain majors. Additionally, you’ll likely be able to add elective law classes and studies regardless of your major.

A number of undergraduate business majors, like a bachelor of business administration degree, include instruction in areas related to the legal field. Business majors often deal with rules and regulations and compliance with regard to business, familiarizing students with the legal realm as it relates to private enterprise.

Economics includes a heavy emphasis on analysis, critical thinking, and communication. All of those skills are highly transferable into law school. An ability to analyze and distill complicated information is key when studying for a JD, and an economics degree includes those relevant skills.

With a heavy focus on writing, reading comprehension, and critical thinking, an English degree can prepare you for the demands of law school. You’ll be required to do a large amount of academic reading in law school and will have to distill and apply that information. An English major’s heavy focus on literature and interpretation can help you prepare.

Law school involves a study of law going back to its foundations and applying longstanding precedents to the present day. A degree in history can help you prepare to study and understand cases and precedents from long ago. It can also help you build knowledge of how government has functioned from the past to the present.

Philosophy’s heavy focus on rhetoric and arguments applies directly to law school. The deconstruction of an argument and understanding what makes a good argument are critical skills for lawyers — and a degree in philosophy can help boost your skill set in that area.

Political science includes a number of applications to law school, including an overview of the courts and legal system, as well as the many functions of government and how laws are made. A political science degree will provide you with the fundamentals of government and the legal system, as well as critical and analytical thinking skills that will be useful in law school.

In addition to its study of human behavior being transferable to law school, a psychology degree usually also includes instruction in history and coursework applying theory in a practical context. The ability to understand and apply abstract concepts can help prepare you for JD coursework.