Pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta assists students who are interested in attending law school by hosting guest speakers and informational events throughout the year. Additionally, faculty pre-law advisors lend their guidance and support.
PAD organized transportation for a group of roughly 30 students to attend a law school fair at the University of Rochester on Monday Sept. 25. Various schools from the greater Rochester area set up presentations. It was an informative event intended to give undergraduate students ideas about where to apply for law school.
Although Geneseo does not have a formal pre-law track, it offers a variety of resources, including pre-law advisors and organizations like PAD and Mock Trial. PAD president senior Zack Keegan believes that the absence of a formal pre-law program, however, doesn’t negatively impact Geneseo students interested in pursuing law.
“The fact that we don’t have an official pre-law program really doesn’t put us at any disadvantage,” Keegan said. “Law schools actually don’t like when students are studying law in college because they don’t want you coming into law school thinking you know the law when you don’t.”
PAD vice president senior Cody Austin agreed with Keegan.
“In lieu of an actual formal program, we do have the advisors who are more than willing to help and steer you in the right direction and help show you where you stand,” he said.
PAD also helps students find law internships—a good opportunity for students who are thinking about applying to law school. Furthermore, PAD has around 100 official members and 50 active members who meet on a weekly basis. At PAD meetings, members have the opportunity to discuss upcoming events and share helpful resources available to them on campus.
“I plan the events that we do along with the rest of the speakers. I contact guest speakers to come in to talk to our members about pre-law,” Keegan said. “I’m basically the liaison between the students and the advisors.”
Professor of English Graham Drake serves as both a pre-law advisor and the advisor for PAD. Lecturer in the School of Business James Quinn—who went to Cornell Law School—also advises pre-law students.
“For students who take advantage of our help, we are very active working with them on their applications to different law schools,” Quinn said. “We just need to make sure that the students take advantage of challenging courses that do involve analytical thinking and critical reading and a lot of work, and Geneseo has more than a share of those kinds of courses.”
Students interested in pursuing pre-law advisement can request a mentor and view a list of advisors on the Geneseo website. Although not a formal track, the Geneseo pre-law advisement program offers a mailing list, on and off campus events, tools for applying to law school and career development information. Interested students also have the option of completing a legal studies minor.
“We have tons of resources on campus,” Keegan said. “Our advisors are great at giving us the materials we need to apply and get into law school,” Keegan said.u