Certificate in Legal Studies
According to the American Bar Association (ABA), you are not required to have any specific major to be admitted into law school. However, you should acquire important skills, knowledge, and experiential learning to prepare effectively for law school and the legal career. Skills that prepare you for law school and the legal career include problem solving, critical reading, oral communication, writing and reading, research, and others. You should also be exposed to the practice of law and have background knowledge.
The Certificate in Legal Studies is designed to provide you with substantive skills to hone your analytical and logic reasoning, critical reading and thinking, and writing and research. It also encourages your familiarity with the law, experiential learning in the legal field, and your desire to pursue a legal career. The certificate joins your academic coursework with experiential learning opportunities, and courses may count towards your major or minor.
The Certificate in Legal Studies is open to all majors in the university. Students pursuing the Certificate in Legal Studies must complete 15 semester credit hours. Courses that count for the certificate should be taken during fall 2020 and thereafter.
If you are interested in earning the certificate, fill out and submit the Request to Pursue the Certificate in Legal Studies form and contact your Certificate Program Advisor Dr. Ana Alvarez to discuss your certificate degree plan.
View Certificate in Legal Studies Curriculum.
Request to Pursue the Certificate in Legal Studies.
To earn the Certificate in Legal Studies, students must complete two steps. Failure to fulfill any of the two steps described below will result in certificate denial.
- Students interested in the certificate should request approval to pursue the certificate a week prior to Census Date for the certificate coursework count from that semester and on. Per the Registrar’s guidelines, if students submit the Request during or after Census date, we will mark the certificate pursuit for the following semester. Request approval allows tracking certificate coursework in DegreeWorks. Request to Pursue the Certificate in Legal Studies.
- During their last semester at UT San Antonio, students should apply for this undergraduate certificate to the Registrar at https://onestop.utsa.edu/forms/registrar/ by the deadline indicated in the undergraduate application. This application will allow the Registrar to verify certificate coursework.
View the 2026 Summer Law School Preparation Academy Curriculum. The additional 3 credits required to earn the Certificate in Legal Studies must be earned with an internship academic course as indicated in the certificate curriculum.
For more information, contact Dr. Ana Alvarez at ana.alvarez@utsa.edu.
