There are plenty of campus & online colleges with Criminal Justice majors. Find the best criminal justice schools & coolest criminology majors & degrees offered
For all of you potential criminal justice majors out there, ready to jump into the rigors of the academic world, it may be a good idea to take some time to prepare yourself.
By doing some preliminary research on what you might expect from your education you can feel better equipped for the years ahead.
It's a given that criminology majors have to take a lot of classes--let's be honest: everyone does--but the types of courses you will be studying have great importance to you, your community, your country, and your system of law and order.
As opposed to studying the arts or design, where rules are made to be broken, the criminal justice student learns rules by which he or she and the rest of the country must strictly live and work by.
It's a tough road, joining the ranks of the criminal justice system, but one that has the potential for great rewards.
Let's ask a simple question to get things started: What is criminal justice, anyway?
People have been studying the behavior of criminals and the measures society takes to curb crime for centuries. It wasn't until fairly recently, however, that this became an educational focus for those interested in creating a future career in criminal justice.
The criminology world is large--it enfolds the duties of judges, police officers, lawyers, legal aides, probation officers, prison wardens, legal secretaries, and much more.
If you are interested in any of these professions, you'll want to first get your hands on a criminal justice degree.
So, what can you expect from your criminology education?
Like all students at the university or college level, you'll have to take a variety of courses that are called general education requirements.
These include mathematics, English, communication, history, and various other subjects. But once you get beyond them, you'll be signing up for specialty course suited to your field of study.
Some of the required classes for criminal justice majors include:
When the prerequisites have been met, it is time to choose a focus for your future career. Criminal justice majors can go on to become a vast variety of different technicians, managers, supervisors, officers, officials, and aides.
Which facet of the criminal justice system do you want to take part in?
The student life of criminal justice majors isn't easy. You'll have to work long hours, both in the classroom and out of it, and your grades will be of the utmost importance.
Criminal justice careers are growing at an ever-steady increase, but the competition is fierce.
If you work hard, though, and keep your grade point average high, success will be waiting for you.
But before you can become a criminal justice major, you first must choose a school to attend.
If you are considering getting your education later in life, you may want to think about attending an online college or university. These are far cheaper than campus-bases schools and you have the opportunity to keep your day job and still bring home a paycheck while you study.
Fortunately, because criminology is a very popular focus today, most Internet colleges offer degrees in the field.
Some of the more popular online criminal justice schools you can attend include:
But don't be afraid to look at the high profile schools, too. Rutgers University, for instance, offers an exceptional distance learning program in criminal justice that you can complete with a computer and an internet connection.
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