Undergraduate majors · PreLaw Advisor

How undergraduate study fits in

What law schools look for can be built in any field: careful reading, clear writing, reasoning from evidence, and the habit of finishing difficult work. A major you are interested in is the one you are most likely to do well in, and your record in it is what an admissions committee reads.

Some colleges offer a program called pre-law or legal studies. It is one option among many and carries no special weight in admissions. Pre-law advising is a different thing: a service most colleges offer to students in every major.

PreLaw Advisor does not rank majors and does not use your major to assess or predict anything. On your profile it is simply a record of what you studied.

One special case

Patent practice before the USPTO

Representing inventors before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in patent matters requires separate registration with that office. To register, a person must show scientific and technical qualifications and pass a registration examination. The Office accepts certain bachelor’s degrees in technical subjects and also sets out other ways to qualify.

This is a rule about one kind of practice, not about admission to law school. It does not apply to trademark or copyright work, and lawyers without the registration work on patent disputes in court. If patent prosecution interests you, read the Office’s current requirements directly, because they change.

USPTO: becoming a patent practitioner (opens in a new tab) · About patent law

Fields of study

Find your field

The list below is the federal Classification of Instructional Programs, the standard vocabulary colleges use to report their programs. It has 2,143 programs. If yours is not there, your profile accepts your own wording.

Create a profile

All groups / CIP 16

Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services

Foreign Languages and Literatures, General16.0101
Linguistics16.0102
Language Interpretation and Translation16.0103
Comparative Literature16.0104
Applied Linguistics16.0105
Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services, Other16.0199

African Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

African Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.0201

East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.0300
Chinese Language and Literature16.0301
Japanese Language and Literature16.0302
Korean Language and Literature16.0303
Tibetan Language and Literature16.0304
East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.0399

Slavic, Baltic and Albanian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Slavic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.0400
Baltic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.0401
Russian Language and Literature16.0402
Albanian Language and Literature16.0404
Bulgarian Language and Literature16.0405
Czech Language and Literature16.0406
Polish Language and Literature16.0407
Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian Languages and Literatures16.0408
Slovak Language and Literature16.0409
Ukrainian Language and Literature16.0410
Slavic, Baltic, and Albanian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.0499

Germanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Germanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.0500
German Language and Literature16.0501
Scandinavian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.0502
Danish Language and Literature16.0503
Dutch/Flemish Language and Literature16.0504
Norwegian Language and Literature16.0505
Swedish Language and Literature16.0506
Germanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.0599

Modern Greek Language and Literature

Modern Greek Language and Literature16.0601

South Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

South Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.0700
Hindi Language and Literature16.0701
Sanskrit and Classical Indian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.0702
Bengali Language and Literature16.0704
Punjabi Language and Literature16.0705
Tamil Language and Literature16.0706
Urdu Language and Literature16.0707
South Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.0799

Iranian/Persian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Iranian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.0801

Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.0900
French Language and Literature16.0901
Italian Language and Literature16.0902
Portuguese Language and Literature16.0904
Spanish Language and Literature16.0905
Romanian Language and Literature16.0906
Catalan Language and Literature16.0907
Hispanic and Latin American Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.0908
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.0999

American Indian/Native American Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

American Indian/Native American Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.1001

Middle/Near Eastern and Semitic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Middle/Near Eastern and Semitic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.1100
Arabic Language and Literature16.1101
Hebrew Language and Literature16.1102
Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.1103
Middle/Near Eastern and Semitic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.1199

Classics and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Classics and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.1200
Ancient/Classical Greek Language and Literature16.1202
Latin Language and Literature16.1203
Classics and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.1299

Celtic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Celtic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.1301

Southeast Asian and Australasian/Pacific Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Southeast Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General16.1400
Australian/Oceanic/Pacific Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.1401
Indonesian/Malay Languages and Literatures16.1402
Burmese Language and Literature16.1403
Filipino/Tagalog Language and Literature16.1404
Khmer/Cambodian Language and Literature16.1405
Lao Language and Literature16.1406
Thai Language and Literature16.1407
Vietnamese Language and Literature16.1408
Hawaiian Language and Literature16.1409
Southeast Asian and Australasian/Pacific Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.1499

Turkic, Uralic-Altaic, Caucasian, and Central Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Turkish Language and Literature16.1501
Uralic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics16.1502
Hungarian/Magyar Language and Literature16.1503
Mongolian Language and Literature16.1504
Turkic, Uralic-Altaic, Caucasian, and Central Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.1599

American Sign Language

American Sign Language (ASL)16.1601
Linguistics of ASL and Other Sign Languages16.1602
Sign Language Interpretation and Translation16.1603
American Sign Language, Other16.1699

Second Language Learning

English as a Second Language16.1701

Armenian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Armenian Language and Literature16.1801

Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other

Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other16.9999

Browse by group

Sources

1.National Center for Education Statistics. Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP 2020) (opens in a new tab) Codes and titles. Program definitions are published by NCES.
2.United States Patent and Trademark Office. Becoming a patent practitioner (opens in a new tab)

CIP 2020 is the current edition. Categories that are not fields of undergraduate study, such as residency programs and secondary diplomas, are left out of this list.