Top Law Schools

I'm planning on applying to law schools and philosophy PhD programs to (hopefully) pursue a joint JD/PhD. I'm applying to law schools first this fall, and then the subsequent year I'm applying to PhD program(s). I recently learned that the Stanford Philosophy program allows you to do a joint JD/PhD at a different law school and at their PhD program. Does anyone know of any other programs that allow you to do this sort of thing, where you can do a JD/PhD at two different universities?

I think this is decided on a case-by-case basis. Even if a school's website doesn't specifically mention the inter-school option, you can probably negotiate something. I've heard of people doing this at Columbia/Yale and a few other places. You might have more success if you apply for the JD and the PhD in the same cycle, because the two programs can coordinate a little better.

The main problem I see with JD/PhD programs is timing. If you complete the JD, and then it takes you several additional years to complete the PhD, and then you strike out on the academic job market, what happens? Your JD will be several years old and you'll never have had a legal job.

NotoriousRBG5604 wrote:I'm planning on applying to law schools and philosophy PhD programs to (hopefully) pursue a joint JD/PhD. I'm applying to law schools first this fall, and then the subsequent year I'm applying to PhD program(s). I recently learned that the Stanford Philosophy program allows you to do a joint JD/PhD at a different law school and at their PhD program. Does anyone know of any other programs that allow you to do this sort of thing, where you can do a JD/PhD at two different universities?

It's not uncommon to do this. I know of people doing (JD/Ph.D) at Yale/Princeton, Yale/Columbia, Harvard/Princeton, and several Yale/Harvard. How funding and timing works in each of those cases is undoubtably different, but generally flexible.

If you have the option it would probably be beneficial to take more philosophy classes first. Anything that makes you better at analyzing crap and a better writer is at least as helpful as law school classes are for law school exams, and probably a lot more helpful.