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Home > Featured Stories > Community of Scholars > October 2008 > Students Take Law Into Their Own Hands

Students Take Law Into Their Own Hands

Law schools actually prefer the method that we have, allowing our students to take advantage of the diversity of our academic programs.

Mary A. Tetro, Coordinator of Pre Law Services at NC State
Law Fair

Over the past few years, members of NC State's Pre Law Student Association have been accepted to some of the nation's most-revered law schools, including Yale, Duke, Harvard, Georgetown and Stanford. 

By Dave Pond, Web Communication

NC State offers a seemingly unlimited number of majors in helping its students prepare for life after college. From accounting to zoology, there's a degree program available to fulfill every dream.

But for the more than 200 students who arrive on campus each year with ambitions of jurisprudence, pre-law support services are also in place – invaluable resources that have helped NC State students secure admission into some of the nation's top law schools.

"NC State is known the world over for its leadership in the sciences, mathematics, and technology," said Mary P. Easley, coordinator of legal academic programming at NC State. "Sometimes we don't recognize that NC State provides the rigorous academic foundation that allows our graduates to attend the finest law schools in America and succeed as lawyers and jurists."

NC State doesn't have a formal pre-law track, but that hasn't stopped some of its alums from being accepted into revered law programs at Yale, Duke, Harvard, Georgetown and Stanford. In fact, most schools prefer that incoming students not be enrolled in an official pre-law program while pursuing an undergraduate degree.

"Law schools actually prefer the method that we have – allowing our students to take advantage of the diversity of our academic programs – so that they are able to choose law school out of any major or any College," said Mary A. Tetro, University Coordinator of Pre Law Services. "They don't want students to feel compelled to follow a specific curriculum to successfully make the transition to law school."

One of the biggest pre-law events on campus is the Inter-Institutional Law Fair, which will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at Talley Student Center. What started with a trio of schools requesting routine campus visits a decade ago has blossomed into a full-day's event that attracted more than 85 law schools to NC State a year ago.

"Because of the growth of the program and the fair itself, law schools want to come to NC State," Tetro said. "There is an identified pool of highly-qualified students who have put this law fair on the map with regard to law schools.

"When you realize that there are about 200 law schools in the entire country and we had 85 of them here in one day, that's pretty significant."

In addition, organizers added a number of workshops to the fair schedule, hoping to give future lawyers and jurists a crash-course in financial matters, writing personal statements (something every law-school applicant must do) and academic misconduct and irregularities.

Unlike others held in the region, Tetro found it important to open NC State's law fair to students at nearby colleges and universities in hopes of giving underrepresented students the same face-to-face opportunities to meet with delegates from the nation's top programs.

"I try to make all of the students aware that the more a law school representative sees you, talks with you or hears about you, the more quickly you become an actual person to them and not just an application," Tetro said. "When they go through their candidate pool – even though there are lots of people in that pool – there's a much greater chance you'll stand out."

That's the hope of Tony Comento ('09), president of the Pre Law Students Association. After transferring to NC State from a local community college, Comento quickly linked up with Pre Law Services and said his experiences will prove invaluable when it comes time to fill out his law-school applications.

"I've got a lot of time and financial constraints – I work full time and I go to class, so I just don't have a lot of time to travel to visit campuses or meet with law school representatives," Comento said. "One of the greatest things about the Law Fair is that you can talk to the people who would potentially be the ones signing your application for admission.

"Through the years, I've actually become closely acquainted with the admissions people at some of the local schools," he said. "The interaction with them is something that I'd never get close to if it weren't for the Law Fair and Pre Law Services at NC State."

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