Pre-Law Related Major: History

  • Read complex texts to understand how arguments are made and supported
  • Craft exceptional writing samples
  • Pursue a concentration in Law, Politics, & Social Justice
  • Enroll in HIS 401 seminar class, the capstone course in History focusing entirely on research, public speaking and writing, while satisfying the SBC requirements WRTD, SPK and EXP+
  • Study and talk with professors who teach and do research on topics that are interesting to students
  • Several of our faculty members have served as expert witnesses in high profile court cases
  • Pre-Law Society; consider participating in the mock-trial program
  • History Club publishes the student-run journal, The Stony Brook Undergraduate History Journal; also hosts debates on contemporary topics)
  • URECA  -- engage in a year-long independent research project
  • One- or two-semester independent research project opportunities

Courses that our students have found beneficial, especially as first-year law school students, include:

  • WRT 380:  Advanced Research Writing: Theories, Methods, Practices
  • WRT 381:  Advanced Analytic and Argumentative Writing 
Course Title

HIS 301

Reading and Writing History 

HIS 314

Indigenous-Settler Relations in the U.S. 

HIS 325

Civil Rights and Black Power

HIS 331

Immigration in American History

HIS 365

Environmental History of North America

HIS 366

Carceral Studies: Histories of Policing, Prisons, and Surveillance

HIS 371

Law and Society in American History, 1620-1877

HIS 374

Surveillance State: A History of U.S. Domestic Spying

HIS 401

Research Seminar in History

 

Requirements for the Major in History

Professor April Masten, Undergraduate Program Director
Department of History

Dylan Poje, Career Coach - Government, Law and Public Service
Career Center