If you are planning to be lawyer, I have an unorthodox suggestion. Rather than jump immediately from undergraduate school to law school, find a job as a legal support professional and work at a law firm for two or three years. This advice comes from my own experience: I worked for my law firm as both a legal secretary and a paralegal for two years prior to starting law school.
By doing so, I found I had several advantages:
1) I was able to observe the business end of running a law firm, something rarely covered in law school. While many ideals surround the legal profession, and rightfully so, at the end of the day, you have to make enough money to pay the rent and your employees, and you have to make decisions just like any other business does.
2) I saw how “my” attorneys lived their profession before I dived into the effort and expense of law school and knew that I wanted to live that profession, too. (We do live our profession; you can’t just flip the lights out at 5 and leave it behind.)
3) I had a nuts and bolt knowledge of the legal profession that I didn’t receive in law school. When I graduated law school, because of my experience as a legal support professional, I knew how to draft and file a complaint, answer discovery, calculate deadlines and prepare and file motions and responses, things other new attorneys did not know.
4) I had established a network of people I knew in other law firms. While I had the rare good fortune to be employed as an attorney at the same firm I worked at as a support person, such an opportunity is rare. Had I needed to look for a job, my connections would have been invaluable.
5) I had the opportunity to put up some savings before I started law school. (I didn’t take advantage of that opportunity, but you should.)
Those extra years of experience were invaluable to me both as a student and an attorney. If you want to be a lawyer, and have the ability to do so, take a two or three year break before law school to garner legal experience for yourself. You won’t regret it.