For many UVU students planning on continuing their education after their bachelors, there is help on campus from councilors able to point them in the right direction. But for those students planning on attending law school after graduation, they have an expert at their beck and call.
UVU is the proud home to one of the nations best known pre-law advisors, Eileen Doyle Crane J.D., who has been pre-law advising since before pre-law advising was considered a career choice.
“It’s an incredible privilege to be in that intersection of a persons life in which a student makes huge decisions about their future,” Crane said. “I think of that as a sacred privilege . . . and I’m nuts about it.”
After raising eight children, Crane decided to go back to school to further her education. She established BYU’s pre-law program in 1990 and graduated from BYU’s political science program in 1993. She left her pre-law advising post and went to law school in 2004, believing her pre-law advising days were over. But pre-law advising would call her name again, this time from UVU.
“I missed pre-law advising tremendously,” she said of herself after graduating law school. “So, I came down here to offer my services to UVU.”
Crane’s job requires less of her than she gives it. That is evident by her dedication to understanding and knowing for herself and her students what makes a successful law school candidate.
“I collected data for 14 years about how to study for the LSAT,” Crane said. “I’ve visited 92 law schools and sat in on first year law classes in 76 different law schools.”
While most of this knowledge and experience was acquired while advising at BYU, Crane has started again from scratch to establish a program of equal quality here at UVU, this time geared toward the specific needs of our students.
“The pre-law program as a whole has experienced growing pains, but within five years it will evolve into a moving, grooving organization,” Crane said. It just needs time.
The pre-law program offers UVU students services ranging from LSAT prep and personal statement workshops to meetings with admissions deans from around the country that come on campus to recruit UVU students to attend their law schools.
While not every question about law school can be answered in a personal meeting, Crane has created a Culture of Law class designed to answer for students the questions; how do I get into law school, what happens once in, and how will I know if I will like it.
“I have two mantras here at UVU that are unique to UVU,” Crane said. “One, your LSAT study starts today, I want students to play a logic game every day. And two, a pre-law student’s job search also starts today.”
Wondering if law school is right for you?
For more information about the pre-law program at UVU, or to meet with Eileen, visit LA101c and check out her workshop schedule or set up a personal meeting.
