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What are pros/cons for applying for PHD/JD program?

Do you want to be a lawyer or a professor?

I believe that, at Northwestern, a JD/PhD means a full-tuition scholarship at the law school plus graduate student funding. It seems like Northwestern is really trying to up its academic reputation while still maintaining its business focus.

There are no pros.

9 times out of ten the two degrees don't compliment each other, the 1 time out of 10 they do you're much better off doing them separately and with purpose rather than indiscriminately combining them and hamstringing yourself.

People have this conception that graduate degrees are mana from the heavens and if you get enough job opportunities will fall from the sky like spring rain. PhDs have atrocious prospects, as do JDs. And except in extraordinarily narrow and competitive beyond imagination scenarios the two degrees don't play very nicely together either.

Is it true that if you have a joint PhD/JD academics devalue the PhD? Is it better to get them separately?

tomhobbes wrote:Is it true that if you have a joint PhD/JD academics devalue the PhD? Is it better to get them separately?

The plain truth:

For law teaching: law teaching gigs are ridiculously, stupidly hard to get. You have to be cream of the crop at your law school and publish. Having a PhD is NOT A REQUIREMENT. Having one helps, but you really need to bring strong credentials legal credentials to the table as well. God help you if you have a bad semester at law school after starting a JD/PhD program.

For non-law acadamia: Why in the god damned hell are you getting a law degree?

For any other* job: WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?

*Having a tech PhD and getting a JD to pursue specialized legal patent work is smart

It's not that the JD/PhD is bad, it's that a tiny, tiny, tiny number of jobs value the combo and before having either you have no good way to know 1) whether you will WANT those jobs or 2) whether you have the ability to qualify for them.

It's a bad, bad, bad career move. You have nothing to lose by getting one degree or the other first and re-assessing.

disco_barred wrote:

tomhobbes wrote:Is it true that if you have a joint PhD/JD academics devalue the PhD? Is it better to get them separately?

The plain truth:

For law teaching: law teaching gigs are ridiculously, stupidly hard to get. You have to be cream of the crop at your law school and publish. Having a PhD is NOT A REQUIREMENT. Having one helps, but you really need to bring strong credentials legal credentials to the table as well. God help you if you have a bad semester at law school after starting a JD/PhD program.

For non-law acadamia: Why in the god damned hell are you getting a law degree?

For any other* job: WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?

*Having a tech PhD and getting a JD to pursue specialized legal patent work is smart

It's not that the JD/PhD is bad, it's that a tiny, tiny, tiny number of jobs value the combo and before having either you have no good way to know 1) whether you will WANT those jobs or 2) whether you have the ability to qualify for them.

It's a bad, bad, bad career move. You have nothing to lose by getting one degree or the other first and re-assessing.

That all sounds plausible to me. I think I'm one of the few people that might benefit from having both. I'm kind of interested in getting a PhD in Philosophy and going into legal academia, but I might as well do it after getting the JD. I know getting a job as a law professor is hard, but I've heard that most (or at least many) Yale grads who want those jobs get them, and having a PhD wouldn't hurt. Philosophy grad programs are ultra-prestige whores, so I probably couldn't get into a good one right now, but I've heard that a Yale JD would make them forget all about my shitty undergrad.

Oh, and LRAP would be paying off my loans for the 5-6 years it took to get the PhD, so getting a PhD is even more of an attractive option.

If it means your entire tuition is covered for all 7-10 years you will be in school + they pay you for an research or teaching assistantship (i.e. they pay for your JD + your PhD) then you should do it. I know a dude that is doing a MD/PhD and they are literally paying him to attend school for all 8-10 years (which is typically how all reputable PhD programs are). Worst case scenario is that you either get kicked out or spend 10 years of your life and still don't make it as a professor or hired as a researcher, but who cares? In that situation you got jerk around in college for 8-10 years after undergrad, drink your face off, and left in no worse a position then you started the program (i.e. you incurred no debt, you really didn't lose anything, you lived for free, and got paid enough money to cover things like drinking your face off, etc.). Sounds like a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

JD/MD is legit, a JD/MBA legit, a JD/MPA maybe but you mine as well just get the JD/MBA. JD/Ph.D is you just like to put alot of letters after your name and impress people because you are insecure, there are very few exceptions.