Pre-Law

Students interested in Pre-law are advised in the Office of Pre-Law Advising.

Law is a part of all aspects of our lives from the environment to the music business, from athletics to the international arena, and from adoption to elder law. If you are interested in a career that requires precision in thinking, research and writing, and you want to be involved with people and their social, political, cultural and economic aspirations, you should consider being an attorney. In order to resolve conflict and promote orderly change, attorneys call upon many fields of learning. They need skill in analysis, breadth of vision and a commitment to justice, for law is a humanistic pursuit based on the purposes and principles of the civilization it serves.

With over 200 accredited law schools in America, it is very important to create a competitive application, a process that takes time and planning, including more than academics. Therefore, all students who are considering law school should consult with the Pre-Law advisor early in their undergraduate career or as soon as they identify an interest in law.

Students are free to choose any major in accompaniment with their Pre-Law designation. Law schools choose their students from all majors, so pre-law students can pursue their interests in areas as diverse as architecture, planning and design; agricultural economics; engineering; philosophy; business administration; history; and political science, among others.

Pre-Law students also have the advantage of our extensive interdisciplinary curriculum, including the natural resources and environmental sciences secondary major and the International Business and Primary Texts certificates. There are Pre-Law tracks of study in five departments and three colleges within the university. We currently have pre-law tracks in Agricultural Economics, Communication Studies, Philosophy, Physics, and Political Science, and we are developing them in other areas as well. In the College of Business, students select a pre-law-based thematic sequence through their courses. These are part of an expanding curriculum of courses that allow pre-law students to prepare for legal careers.

APPLE: Accelerated Pre-Law Path to Legal Education

The Accelerated Pre-Law Path to Legal Education (APPLE) is a joint program that Kansas State University has with the University of Kansas School of Law. Qualified students will get a jumpstart on their legal careers by earning their KSU Bachelor’s degree and their KU Law degree in six years. Students begin the program as freshmen and have guaranteed admission to KU Law with scholarship support, as long as they meet admission requirements.

ADVISOR: Daralyn Gordon Arata, Esquire, is a practicing attorney and the pre-law advisor at K-State. She earned her J.D. degree from the Marshall Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and a Master’s of Law in Taxation from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Arata is one of the top advisors at Kansas State and has been awarded the university’s top advising award, The Presidential Award for Undergraduate Advising.

Additional information about Pre-Law can be found on the official Office of Pre-Law Advising website.