Many law schools have joint degree programs, and they all say that you have to apply separately and be accepted to both programs. The claim is that there is no advantage to applying to a joint-degree program, but is this really accurate? I'm wondering if this is kind of like how schools say "we consider all aspects of an applicant's application and have a holistic admissions process" but many schools are clearly driven almost purely by numbers. I assume that any advantage conferred by just being an applicant is negligible, but I feel like there might actually be an advantage once you're accepted into one of the programs, and I assume the larger advantage could be getting accepted into the law program somewhere. I'm not so much advocating for this theory as I am noting that it makes sense and wondering what everyone else thinks. My reasoning is partially that there is some psychological advantage to getting into another program if they know that you're desirable and 'good enough' to get into another program at the same institution. But mostly, I feel like it's possible that, since law schools have every reason to want to keep their offer/acceptance ratio high, they might be willing to put in a good word for someone with another department in order to help retain an admit. does this seem reasonable? is acceptance into a law program any kind of bargaining chip (kind of like how getting accepted into multiple law programs gives the applicant negotiating power, they can say "give me more scholarship money or i'm going to X school"), in that the applicant can say "I am only interested in this school if I can do the dual degree"? Does this work in favor of the applicant at all? I find it perfectly likely that, if an admissions office got an email saying "thanks for the acceptance, but I'm only wanting to do the joint degree here, because if I'm just doing the law degree alone I should go to X higher ranked school", they would AT LEAST be prudent for them to write a quick email to the other department, whatever it may be, and say "we want this applicant, give him/her a good look".
p.s. i hope this thread isn't seen as wanting to debate the relative merits of joint degrees or whether or not this should be a criteria for choosing law school. for the purposes of this thread, let's just assume that someone has a guaranteed job lined up after graduation that requires a joint degree from any school. i know that the first instinct when reading this thread is to say "don't choose a law school based on a joint degree acceptance" or "pick one degree and just do that" and etc. but i'm conceptualizing my question as if these considerations don't apply here
thank you
