JD/MBA Forum

[hoyas2010]

Hey all. I am just wondering if anyone is familiar with admission standards for a joint JD/MBA. Although I am sure this varies school to school, I am curious as to whether once already attending a university's law school it becomes easier to gain admittance into their MBA program. I am particularly curious about the following: Vanderbilt/Owen; Texas/McCombs; UCLA/Anderson; Cornell/Johnson and USC/Marshall (but general comments are welcome). Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

[Action Jackson]

I don't know about those specific schools, but in general no, you can't backdoor your way into a school. You're better off applying to both programs at the same time if you really want a JD/MBA.

Of course, if you're just trying to pad your resume, don't bother. They're on the lookout for that sort of thing and do not like it.

[GatorBait09]

I don't think it makes getting in any easier. But from what I understand you already have to be in a university's law school to apply to their grad/business schools. That's at least how it works at W&M and UF (the only 2 I have looked at for this).

[hoyas2010]

Thank you both for your responses.

Action Jackson- I am just curious as to what you mean by "they" are on the lookout for that sort of thing? Are you referring to law firms? If I was planning on focusing on securities law/reg (I studied finance as an undergrad) wouldn't it behoove me to have a more in-depth knowledge of finance than I already do? Or does the MBA not help much in the eyes of firms? Thanks again.

[ShiftyPig]

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[Action Jackson]

Thank you both for your responses.

Action Jackson- I am just curious as to what you mean by "they" are on the lookout for that sort of thing? Are you referring to law firms? If I was planning on focusing on securities law/reg (I studied finance as an undergrad) wouldn't it behoove me to have a more in-depth knowledge of finance than I already do? Or does the MBA not help much in the eyes of firms? Thanks again.

In my last post I was referring to business schools being on the lookout for people trying to pad their resumes with a dual degree.

[rando]

Not to derail what everyone else is saying but I was contemplating applying to the joint program here and interviewed with admissions officers who specifically told me the standards were lower. In fact, it is almost a guarantee because most MBA programs require extensive experience. Experience that almost all law students don't have.
You will still have to do well on the GMAT.
They also take your law school grades into (heavy) consideration if you apply after your 1L year. They told me Top 15-33% was their median acceptance range.

[Action Jackson]

Not to derail what everyone else is saying but I was contemplating applying to the joint program here and interviewed with admissions officers who specifically told me the standards were lower. In fact, it is almost a guarantee because most MBA programs require extensive experience. Experience that almost all law students don't have.
You will still have to do well on the GMAT.
They also take your law school grades into (heavy) consideration if you apply after your 1L year. They told me Top 15-33% was their median acceptance range.

This might be the case at your school, but I'll refer you to my previous comment about being weary to attend a B-school that would lower their standards for admission just because you're already there. Be sure the extra money you're paying for that MBA is going to pay off down the road.

[englawyer]

you can join this thread if you'd like:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... =7&t=97340

if you are trying to obtain the mba to supplement your future LAW career, you have passed a huge hurdle of mba admissions, which is to ensure that you will be employable in a good, lucrative field after you graduate. since law firms are not judgmental about your prior experience, you do not need stellar work experience (as opposed to a plan of trying to get into investment banking). i don't think the admissions standards are lowered persay, just changed, in this case.

[rando]

Not to derail what everyone else is saying but I was contemplating applying to the joint program here and interviewed with admissions officers who specifically told me the standards were lower. In fact, it is almost a guarantee because most MBA programs require extensive experience. Experience that almost all law students don't have.
You will still have to do well on the GMAT.
They also take your law school grades into (heavy) consideration if you apply after your 1L year. They told me Top 15-33% was their median acceptance range.

This might be the case at your school, but I'll refer you to my previous comment about being weary to attend a B-school that would lower their standards for admission just because you're already there. Be sure the extra money you're paying for that MBA is going to pay off down the road.

I'm not in the program so I don't really have a stake one way or another. And I realize it isn't wharton, but Emory does have a good MBA program. They also have a scholarship matching policy so if you are on scholarship at the law school you will receive the same at the b-school.

[englawyer]

emory has an ok mba program, but not good. i think emory law has better prospects, so it makes sense that the better/more prestigious school (law school) can boss around the business school and get some of their students a jd/mba if they want it.

[rando]

emory has an ok mba program, but not good. i think emory law has better prospects, so it makes sense that the better/more prestigious school (law school) can boss around the business school and get some of their students a jd/mba if they want it.

My bad. You're right. We are on TLS, #22/426 is "OK." What is your ranking like in LS? this good?
The difference in ranking is so minimal your logic just does not make sense.

[englawyer]

emory has an ok mba program, but not good. i think emory law has better prospects, so it makes sense that the better/more prestigious school (law school) can boss around the business school and get some of their students a jd/mba if they want it.

My bad. You're right. We are on TLS, #22/426 is "OK." What is your ranking like in LS? this good?
The difference in ranking is so minimal your logic just does not make sense.

ratio doesn't matter; what matters is career prospects. a T3 mba is awesome (hbs, wharton, stanford), a T7 mba is great (columbia, mit, booth , kellogg), and a T10 mba (nyu, yale, haas, michigan, dartmouth, etc) is good. the dropoff is even steeper than law schools. the rest don't have the recruiting pull to make it worth it full-time for two years, at least relative to a law school with decent biglaw prospects.

[rando]

emory has an ok mba program, but not good. i think emory law has better prospects, so it makes sense that the better/more prestigious school (law school) can boss around the business school and get some of their students a jd/mba if they want it.

My bad. You're right. We are on TLS, #22/426 is "OK." What is your ranking like in LS? this good?
The difference in ranking is so minimal your logic just does not make sense.

ratio doesn't matter; what matters is career prospects. a T3 mba is awesome (hbs, wharton, stanford), a T7 mba is great (columbia, mit, booth , kellogg), and a T10 mba (nyu, yale, haas, michigan, dartmouth, etc) is good. the dropoff is even steeper than law schools. the rest don't have the recruiting pull to make it worth it full-time for two years, at least relative to a law school with decent biglaw prospects.

Sigh.... I admittedly don't know anything about MBA programs. But the b-school is right across the street and I know several JD/MBA grads, as well as one that works at the firm I will be working at next summer. We socialize with the b-school students on occasion. I can tell you undoubtedly that their job prospects are much better than ours (and generally most law schools right now save T10).
You are probably right about your reasoning because it looks like you know more about it than I do. But the generalization (from my experience) does not apply across the board.

BTW: I was just using the ration as a hyper-exaggeration assuming (apparently incorrectly) that you were just a trolling numbers elitist.

[Action Jackson]

Sigh.... I admittedly don't know anything about MBA programs. But the b-school is right across the street and I know several JD/MBA grads, as well as one that works at the firm I will be working at next summer. We socialize with the b-school students on occasion. I can tell you undoubtedly that their job prospects are much better than ours (and generally most law schools right now save T10).
You are probably right about your reasoning because it looks like you know more about it than I do. But the generalization (from my experience) does not apply across the board.

BTW: I was just using the ration as a hyper-exaggeration assuming (apparently incorrectly) that you were just a trolling numbers elitist.

If you want to work in business instead of law, and the job prospects with an MBA out of your school are truly better than the JD prospects, then just switch to the MBA program. I don't really understand what the thinking here is. You either want to be a lawyer or you don't. If you want to be a lawyer an MBA only helps you in a couple of areas, in very specific ways, and might not make up for the cost of the extra degree. If you don't want to be a lawyer and the job prospects are better on the MBA side, then stop paying for law school. But you're not going to get MBA job prospects out of your law degree just because you also got an MBA. Right?

[rando]

Sigh.... I admittedly don't know anything about MBA programs. But the b-school is right across the street and I know several JD/MBA grads, as well as one that works at the firm I will be working at next summer. We socialize with the b-school students on occasion. I can tell you undoubtedly that their job prospects are much better than ours (and generally most law schools right now save T10).
You are probably right about your reasoning because it looks like you know more about it than I do. But the generalization (from my experience) does not apply across the board.

BTW: I was just using the ration as a hyper-exaggeration assuming (apparently incorrectly) that you were just a trolling numbers elitist.

If you want to work in business instead of law, and the job prospects with an MBA out of your school are truly better than the JD prospects, then just switch to the MBA program. I don't really understand what the thinking here is. You either want to be a lawyer or you don't. If you want to be a lawyer an MBA only helps you in a couple of areas, in very specific ways, and might not make up for the cost of the extra degree. If you don't want to be a lawyer and the job prospects are better on the MBA side, then stop paying for law school. But you're not going to get MBA job prospects out of your law degree just because you also got an MBA. Right?

Your answer is a bit out of context. I don't want to get an MBA.

[imchuckbass58]

From what I can tell, this post is pretty accurate regarding the different approachs adcoms at different schools take to JD/MBA applicants

http://blog.veritasprep.com/2009/04/pro ... jdmba.html