JD-PhD in African-American Studies? Forum

[bluestarrynight96]

Hello everyone, I'm new to TLS so my bad if this has been asked already (don't think it has)

Background info about me: AA Female at a "public ivy" 3.7 GPA, in the honors college, liberal arts major. I have substantial work experience, a learning disability and a low-income background. I'm planning to take the LSAT this September. I took a proctored practice exam that my school offered a few months ago and got a 162 cold...not spectacular but I'm hoping to get it up to a 168 or higher.

My question: Lately I've been thinking about applying for a JD-PhD in African-American studies. Does anyone here have experience with that combination of degrees or know someone who does? I'm interested in studying Black women & criminality, Black political thought, and how critical race theory and postcolonial theory can be applied to international law. Ideally I would want to do research and/or teach in both fields and be on tenure track in at least one of them...and during summers I would like to do pro bono work in inner-city communities, maybe take a team of students with me too. So long story short I know what degrees I need for this and I know what I want career-wise, but I guess I'm wondering how to get from point A to point B? Do I have to get substantial litigation experience before I can join legal academia or should I focus more on research and publishing? Is a clerkship a good idea? Are the career prospects for this niche even worth all the trouble? Any guidance or insight on the path I should take would be helpful.

[sparkytrainer]

Number 1 rule to get legal academia: go to Yale.

Number 2 rule to get legal academia: go to Yale.

Number 3 rule to get legal academia: go to Yale, if not, go to Harvard or Stanford.

Further, if you want a PhD of this type (I know nothing about it), most legal academics do their PhDs separately from their JDs. I might suggest you get your PhD first because it isn't a cost sink. Go attempt to get into the relevant schools for that PhD (I have no idea where they are offered in this case) and you aren't risking a lot of money. Sure time and some expense, but PhD's generally get their tuition covered and a stipend. Whereas a law degree is costly and it doesn't sound like you actually want to be a lawyer. Law school doesn't train you to be an academic, it trains you to work as a lawyer. If you want training as an academic, get your PhD.

Honest advice: go try to get your PhD first. Less risky cost wise. Then after 6-7 years of that, if you feel that a JD is still necessary, then go do that. Preferably Yale. Which your LSAT isn't going to cut at the moment, but its not even an actual score yet.

[Vegas bound]

You could do a jd/ma in aas in 3 years. I don't know how tied you are to getting the phd in aas though. You will still be a doctor with the jd and most likely can reach your career goals on with the jd/ma combo.

[nixy]

If the goal is academia, no, an MA won't cut it.

OP, academia is a tough tough goal, but if you want to go that route, getting the PhD will help. And you should focus much more on research and publishing than litigation experience - in fact, if you practice for too long you will make it more difficult to get an academic job as you won't look sufficiently scholarly. A clerkship is a good idea in that clerkships tend to correlate with high grades/writing ability, which are key for academia. The career prospects are going to be tough, though - there just aren't a lot of academic jobs compared to the number of people who want them.

[SReid1122]

Hey I know this thread is old but, I’m also seeking a similar path. Northwestern University is one of the only law schools that I’ve found that has the JD-PHD AA Studies route.

[SamuelDanforth]

Hey I know this thread is old but, I’m also seeking a similar path. Northwestern University is one of the only law schools that I’ve found that has the JD-PHD AA Studies route.

I'm not sure what this means. Do you mean a special program that involves a JD-PhD in AA Studies? Plenty of top law schools allow their students to do JD-PhDs, and you can do the Ph.D in whatever subject you choose, as long as you are admitted to both programs. I know someone doing a joint JD-PhD in AA Studies at Harvard, and several people doing a JD-PhD in History or Political Science at Yale. What are the best PhD programs in the field?

[QContinuum]

Hey I know this thread is old but, I’m also seeking a similar path. Northwestern University is one of the only law schools that I’ve found that has the JD-PHD AA Studies route.

I'm not sure what this means. Do you mean a special program that involves a JD-PhD in AA Studies? Plenty of top law schools allow their students to do JD-PhDs, and you can do the Ph.D in whatever subject you choose, as long as you are admitted to both programs. I know someone doing a joint JD-PhD in AA Studies at Harvard, and several people doing a JD-PhD in History or Political Science at Yale. What are the best PhD programs in the field?

Samuel is correct. Key is to have a top J.D. and a top Ph.D. No need to attend a special "J.D.-Ph.D. program."

[akhlaw12]

Hello: I have recently been reviewing different JD and PHD programs and coincidentally came across a JD/PHD program in African-American studies; I believe it was at Harvard. Most schools will advertise a joint JD/MA program but the schools that go straight to a PHD without a Masters program before it, are probably offering the JD/PHD combo. They offer these programs to give a student the opportunity to pursue both programs while reducing the amount of time it would normally take to finish each separately. In my opinion, it doesn't seem like you are trying to reduce the amount of time you need to finish both programs so IF time is not an issue, do yourself a favor and do one program at a time!! Both programs will offer you the opportunities you seek but it sounds to me (and you write like), the PHD is more up your alley. Now...you mentioned gaining legal experience and the importance of how much and when, etc. In my opinion, if you are seeking legal experience, the younger you are, the more the legal world seems to accept you entering their "arena" so to speak; i know, it's biased but unfortunately, it's pretty true (in my experience). IF you are trying to save money, definitely do the PHD route first. The more endowed colleges will assist you in paying for the PHD programs much more readily than they will helping you to pay for a law program. So unless you are striving really hard to attain a higher LSAT score (AND you actually do attain it in order to be viewed "better" on paper by top tier law schools), you can just bring your desired schools down a bit to what you have already attained that is over their "average entering class stats" for the most recent incoming class and those schools might cost you less money (if any) OR you save up some money for your first 1-2 yrs of law school while working on your PHD and go then. Again, I would advise you to complete your PHD first. As far as gaining legal experience, once you get into law school, you can do a summer law program where you intern at a law firm, do law clerk work for a court or even sign up for a legal clinic to gain experience. You sound like a bright individual with very high confidence but let me give you a bit of advice (and I'm not saying this to discourage from choosing either or both programs): law school is kind of like going into the military (so I've been told); they strip you of your dignity and confidence and then guide you into being a "better" thinker (i.e., soldier). Hmmm.......I don't know about THAT analogy per se because in my experience, they tried to strip me of what I absolutely KNEW to be true about myself (that is that I'm a pretty smart cookie with compassion and common sense) but then they left me there! Looking back, I can honestly say that they taught me NOTHING that I didn't already know (but had forgotten). I taught myself how to guide myself. Which I guess may have been the purpose all along. Dam shame it took so much money to learn that lesson. If they had told me the first day "hey angela, you will have to teach yourself these concepts; this class is just for review" I wouldn't have had such a confusing time at first. Oh, well.....I know one thing: I can teach myself pretty much anything now because I was taught how to think and/or go to the right resource to get the help I needed without waiting on other people to tell me what to think or where to go!! Dam skippy. But I digress. Ok, so my youngest daughter (21yrs old) is about to go to graduate school after she graduates next year and her area of interest is AA studies so we have been searching for schools for her. She (like you) is trying to do a really specific part of AA studies. The BEST school we have seen so far for her "niche" in AA is the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I haven't looked to see if they have a law school but like I said before, if you aren't worried about whittling down the time to do both of these programs, take a lookey-loo at Univ of Wisconsin. Oh yeah, the reason why I'm reviewing JD and PHD programs is because I was in law school and due to medical reasons, had to leave during my LAST year and just couldn't finish. NOW, I have to redo the whole dam program again and since I'm really passionate about doing both law school and doing the PHD (since I love to write and believe I have some pretty good things to share with the world), I'm trying to decide which one to do first. I've worked in the legal field for almost 21 years. I've worked as a law clerk, paralegal, docket clerk, legal research aid, legal secretary and law admissions clerk. I've worked for the smallest firms to the largest firms and every government level as well (city, county, state and federal). You speak so passionately about what you want to do in the PHD program; if you are that passionate about the law program, then do both. DO WHAT THE HELL YOU WANT TO DO GIRL!!! LOL. But if your heart is in the work that you can do in the PHD program, don't do a law program "just because". You'll wind up being a jack of all trades and master of none. Hope this helped.