Legal studies major...

OCMary124

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Joined
Jun 11, 2022
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...has about 50 graduates a year. Why? Is it selective, not popular, or something else entirely?
 
Wow didn't realize my major was a low one huh, my guess? Law's not as interesting compared to alllll the other majors. It's my cups of tea not everyone's
 
...has about 50 graduates a year. Why? Is it selective, not popular, or something else entirely?
There is a huge difference between a degree in legal studies as compared to a law degree. It is sad but a degree in legal studies isn't even given as much thought or consideration from employers as a paralegal certificate. If you are looking at getting into criminal justice or law enforcement, court reporting or legal assistant, this degree helps. But if you want to be a lawyer a pre-law degree is so much different.

Now, I have a masters in legal studies with an emphasis in constitutional law, because well I'm nerdy and constitutional law excites me. But, I did it to further my profession and also help non-profits I'm part of, however as I got my masters in legal studies I often questioned why I didn't just go to law school to work towards a juris doctorate.
 
Oh wow. I kind of expected that number to be much higher. I just assumed it would be one of the more popular engineering majors.
Yeah there's a few factors at play (coming from a MechE major so take it with a grain of salt).
1. By virtue of being USAFA we attract a lot of people interested in airplanes so aero is much more popular than usual (same thing for Astro, especially with the Space Force now)
2. The department has a not-so-great reputation. I have really enjoyed my teachers and classes in mech but a lot of aero majors who have to take a lot of mech classes love to crap on the department (personally I just think they're being babies about taking classes that are actually hard) and because there are so many more aero majors than mech majors that really poisons the well with a lot of people who were thinking about mech.
(sidenote, I've also had several 4degs tell me that aero majors that you need to get a degree in aero to be a test pilot, not true)
3. Mech is hard at USAFA, GPA matters and it's hard to get a good GPA when you're pursuing an academically rigorous major (same thing with ECE or astro). A lot of people would rather take an easier major and preserve their chances of getting the job they want.
4. The number of mech majors is much higher in the previous two years, mid 20s for both the class of 24 and 25
 
Yeah there's a few factors at play (coming from a MechE major so take it with a grain of salt).
1. By virtue of being USAFA we attract a lot of people interested in airplanes so aero is much more popular than usual (same thing for Astro, especially with the Space Force now)
2. The department has a not-so-great reputation. I have really enjoyed my teachers and classes in mech but a lot of aero majors who have to take a lot of mech classes love to crap on the department (personally I just think they're being babies about taking classes that are actually hard) and because there are so many more aero majors than mech majors that really poisons the well with a lot of people who were thinking about mech.
(sidenote, I've also had several 4degs tell me that aero majors that you need to get a degree in aero to be a test pilot, not true)
3. Mech is hard at USAFA, GPA matters and it's hard to get a good GPA when you're pursuing an academically rigorous major (same thing with ECE or astro). A lot of people would rather take an easier major and preserve their chances of getting the job they want.
4. The number of mech majors is much higher in the previous two years, mid 20s for both the class of 24 and 25
Thanks for the information. Funnily enough, just the past couple of days I’ve been considering changing my future major from Aerospace to Mechanical Engineering. You can definitely do a lot with a degree in either.
 
My DD is legal studies - the hardest of the fuzzy majors is what I have heard LOL.
Ah yes, supposed our "writing " class will filter out those who don't "want it"....then again I'm the person who just had a 2 hours ethics debate ( outstanding because it helped a fellow future officer understand maybe the rest of the world doesn't see the way we do and we can't necessarily force it) at 1 in the morning.....
 
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