JD/MPP worth it? Forum

[AnaMariana42]

So this isn't exactly a "choosing a law school" thread, because I'm already a 1L, but since you have good advice on most things, I figure you could give a little advice here. I'm at Duke and I'm like 99.9% sure that the end goal is PI/government (hopefully bigfed, although I know those jobs are few and far between). I'm really interested in the political/policymaking side of law, and if I were to get accepted to the MPP program here this year I could have a dual degree in 4 years instead of just a JD in 3. Have any of you been in/looked at MPP programs in conjunction with a JD? Could it give me anything cred-wise/career-wise that just the Duke JD couldn't?

[badaboom61]

If you want to practice law, then no, it wouldn't really give you much of a career advantage in government / PI legal jobs. If you don't want to practice law, you probably shouldn't be in law school, or at least shouldn't be paying for it.

[haus]

I have been working in the DC area in the role of gov contractor or gov employee for a dozen years now (IT/InfoSec). In that time I have meet several people who have had an MPP or MPA degree. The MPP/MPA seems to be most popular among non-trad students who were already involved in some for of gov/policy work who go back to school to pick up the degree to add a bit of extra firepower to their resumes.

Inside this arena the JD can often be perceived as a substitute for the an MPP/MPA, but this relationship cannot be reversed. Hence, I do not think that the combo degree would provide a lot of extra traction, at least within the agencies that I have worked at. Perhaps something external to the government, maybe lobbying, the combo degree might open some extra doors.

[mr. wednesday]

The agency policy people I know either are just JDs, MBAs, or worked on campaigns and then got a policy job with no graduate degree. I don't know that the dual degree will hurt you (except for law jobs... it will probably hurt there) but I can't imagine it's worth another year of tuition instead of income.

[twenty]

At the risk of repeating myself to a large degree: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5#p7008005

The JD/MPA is not a "super JD." If it's rare for the JD/MBA to make sense, it's even more rare for the JD/MPA to make sense. Like the JD/MBA, the JD/MPA augments a very specific career track. I'm working on my last year of a regional MPA currently, and it's been a asset in my career track -- however, I also have almost four years of work experience, and the MPA directly correlates with the kind of work I'm doing right now. There is no way in hell I would recommend an MPA, let alone a JD/MPA to anyone with less than two years of directly-related work experience.

The MPA will not help you at all in policy/political law, especially if you don't have substantial work experience in that field.