First responder here. I was kind of bummed when nobody replied after I did because I spent some time making that list... I'm glad a conversation started =) To give a bit of background, I was a JD/MBA applicant back in 2008 (got into Harvard for both, deferred 2 years to do TFA, matriculating to HBS next year) and did a considerable amount of research on MBA programs prior to and during my application process. Given that I'm personally about to make a $200k investment in this education and still have the option to back out of either degree, I do my best to make sure I'm as informed as possible. Still, I'm not a CEO or partner or anything, so feel free to take this advice with a grain of salt...
jnorsky wrote:To group NYU Stern and Duke Faqua as well as Yale's school of business in with Chicago's seems odd. And if you group those schools then Michigan (Ross) should be included as well for their MBA program and probably Virginia (Darden).
That's a fair point. I wasn't really grouping the MBAs by themselves, but rather the notion of the JD/MBA being "worth it" together. The fact is that even though Yale's SOM doesn't have the weight of Chicago, doing a Yale JD/MBA only takes 3 years while Chicago takes 4, making it easier for me to bucket them together as 'relatively worth it'. With respect to Duke and NYUs programs, you're probably right. I was really on the fence on whether to bucket them together with Chicago or in the lower bucket with Mich and Virginia. In my conversations with current MBAs and young alums, Fuqua and Stern held a little more weight than Ross and Darden, but that's highly subjective...
CCNP wrote:
Further queries:
1. However, a JD/MBA sounds very flexible to me. Let say hypothetically after 10 yrs you are tired/disillusioned/bored of law. Due to getting a MBA you can easily go into consulting/management, I think. Or, the MBA can prep you in managing fellow/lower associates and clients and running an office. And due to network at B-school, maybe you can collect some prospective clients. Is this right reasoning, or young naive thinking?
2. Qualifying number 3 above? : a very small number of JD grads go straight into "business/industry" as per schools' sites. Are these people effectively barred from law?
3. Qualifying number 1 above? : Stern/Ross/Yale/Johnson/Haas can't be be that bad?
Thx
I'll start with #3. You pay a price for getting the JD/MBA. Having two degrees makes you look less committed to a given career path unless you have a really good justification. Law firms are going to ask "Why MBA?" and be wary of investing their time and money into building you up just to have you jump ship to the first client that comes along. Judges are going to be a bit perplexed as well. Business firms are going to ask "Why JD?" and question the common sense and commitment of someone who decided to invest $100,000 (two years of tuition) into a legal education and not go on to use it.
If you're getting your JD/MBA from H/S, answering the "Why?" question is relative easy - the network and the educational rigor come to mind instantly. A recent study on Harvard JD/MBAs showed that they felt much more attached to and supported by the MBA network than either the JD or JD/MBA network. If you're going to Ross ... yeah, it's not "bad" (b-school is actually really fun) but you're gonna have a hard time justifying the year of your life, $50k, and whatever your first-year salary would have been ($160k if you're going that route) that you're paying for the experience.
Next is #2. They're not barred from law, but a lot of complications arise. If you're not going to work at a law firm after graduation, you have to decide whether or not to take the bar. The bar isn't a pleasant test, nor is it a cheap one (bar-prep courses are very expensive and typically paid for by the biglaw firm that hired you) - why take it if you're going to work at McKinsey? Further, you're going to have a pretty hard time answering the "Why didn't you go into law after graduating from law school" question - no matter what you say, the person interviewing you is probably thinking "Could it be because you were burned out or because no law firm would hire you?" Pretty damning stuff.
Finally, #1. This matches up my reasoning pretty closely, actually, and why I feel my own JD/MBA is going to be worth it and pay off dividends in the long run. People who bash on the JD/MBA, in my opinion, are very short-sighted about it's value. The JD/MBA isn't about your first-year salary right out of grad school, it's about your salary potential 5 and 10 years out. Having the MBA by itself isn't going to help you land the job or be a rain-maker. But if you're savvy, the fact that several years down the line all your b-school buddies are in power and leadership roles will give you a huge advantage over your peers with respect to bringing in business or jumping firms. It's just one factor, but it's a big one.
