Top Law Schools

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wert3813 wrote:I'm an idiot and I should just get my MBA

FTFY

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wert3813 wrote:

dabbadon8 wrote:

wert3813 wrote:I'm an idiot and I should just get my MBA

FTFY

Well played sir. Anyone else?

If you can get a JD/MBA at UCLA with only 50k debt, its just 1 extra year of your life in school compared to a vanilla MBA. I don't know what your situation is exactly, but if you really wouldn't mind an extra year of school and you aren't going into much debt either way... there really isn't a wrong answer. Just do whatever you want and be glad money isn't an issue.

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I'm a 0L, so take my advise with a grain of salt.

What I have read from similar threads is that the only value of a JD is if you want to go to practice law after. You go through a lot of BS through law school (and consequently a lot of debt) to only want to go into the corporate world.

General consensus is that a JD/MBA is only worth it if you get it from a top school (HYS, etc) and even then the MBA helps only with finance-related jobs. If you want to go corporate, it may be best to go the MBA only route.

Financially, an MBA saves you a year of debt and opens many more doors in management and different types of industries, whereas a JD limits you to legal-related jobs. The JDs that do go onto corporate jobs are the ones that went to T14 schools. Even then, the actual percentage of JDs that go into these jobs is low compared to the overall number of graduates.

There are three year JD/MBA programs.

If you have decent work experience you should just try to take those stats to a top business school. If you want the JD/MBA, retake the LSAT. No reason to let a low LSAT score keep you from getting into a top-tier B-school.

Might also check out this thread:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=194774

Probably the only JD/MBAs that are worth it are at Harvard, Columbia or Penn.
If you think a JD is "rotten value", an MBA is worse. Pick one or the other, don't do both

A JD/MBA will be beneficial when you strike out at OCI and the only options are making $25-50k. In that sense, I think a JD/MBA is a wonderful option if you can afford the extra tuition and you are at a school where MBA's get jobs that pay $70K +. This post should make you strongly consider that the legal job market sucks.

I worked in the corporate world and know one will care that you have a JD/MBA...

The "rotten value" is related to the overall job prospects from the degree. Unfortunately, the small amount of resources needed to teach a legal education (as opposed to medical, dental and healthcare-related education) combined with the lack of substantial prerequisites means there are more TTTT law schools, which brings down the overall value of a JD.

Go to a T14, and this "rotten value" will be much less.

A JD/ MBA is useful in that it keeps more options open if you are undecided about what you want to do. Besides, the other degree can be useful if you are in certain areas: e.g. the MBA can be useful if you are in corporate law, the JD can be useful if you are doing, for e.g. business development.

That said, the biggest disadvantages are the money and time. If you know which of the paths you want to take (law/ business) just get one degree.

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I'm not saying you're gauranteed a job, I'm saying the value of a T14 JD is valued much higher than a JD from other schools, making it less of "rotten value".

My opinion is that JDs tend to be more unemployed than others because they lack practical skills upon graduation compared to other professional degree programs. Most top MBA programs have prerequisite of 4-5 years work experience, so the level of unemployment after a MBA is much less than a JD. Plus a substantial number of law students are liberal arts majors (who fair even worse for employment without a JD).

dingbat wrote:Probably the only JD/MBAs that are worth it are at Harvard, Columbia or Penn.
If you think a JD is "rotten value", an MBA is worse. Pick one or the other, don't do both

the anti-Stanford and Northwestern trolling is strong in this one.

unc0mm0n1 wrote:

dingbat wrote:Probably the only JD/MBAs that are worth it are at Harvard, Columbia or Penn.
If you think a JD is "rotten value", an MBA is worse. Pick one or the other, don't do both

the anti-Stanford and Northwestern trolling is strong in this one.

I'll amend: if you can get into an M7 business school and a T14 law school, then it may be worthwhile IF you don't know whether you'd rather to biglaw, consulting, or investment banking (and all you care about is making money).
There are 6 schools in this category:
Harvard/Stanford/Penn/Columbia/Chicago/Northwestern

The order changes depending on what you want to do, but generally speaking Harvard is first and Northwestern last