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Getting into the JD program isn't a panacea for his lack of experience when he tries to apply to the MBA program.

Let's say hypothetically this would work. Your "friend" is going to spend an extra $50K plus COL to be admitted into a program he is unqualified for to compete for jobs against his classmates who have actual work experience. Getting a job for two years will only take somewhat more time and will be a hell of a lot cheaper.

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It can help a little. It's just not going to help so much that someone with 0 work experience can get into the M7.

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Elston Gunn wrote:Let's say hypothetically this would work. Your "friend" is going to spend an extra $50K plus COL to be admitted into a program he is unqualified for to compete for jobs against his classmates who have actual work experience. Getting a job for two years will only take somewhat more time and will be a hell of a lot cheaper.

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rad lulz wrote:W no work experience you might as well wipe your ass w your mba

noted

an MBA with no postgrad experience whatsoever is worthless. Prospective employers are going to see a resume with only internship experience and an MBA and laugh. Work for a few years as an engineer and apply to an MBA program.

You know, undergrads don't disappear they year you graduate. If you decide that you made a mistake in not talking enough finance classes to do what you want, just get a second major/degree. You will probably be able to do it cheaply if you TA in what you already graduated in.

I was admitted to JD, MBA, and JD/MBA programs this year (likely choosing the latter route at one of the schools you mentioned).

First off, it's very hard to imagine one of those schools' MBA programs admitting someone with no work experience. Unless you have done a bunch of fantastic stuff like sold a successful start-up or had a bunch of leadership roles, Harvard and Stanford are basically out and chances at the other schools are quite slim. At Penn/Columbia, I've heard firsthand (from people affiliated with the programs) that 30-50% of JD applicants are accepted into the joint program as a 1L. The applicants are already a self-selected group, probably have work experience and solid GMAT scores, and obviously they all have great GPAs, so I don't think any of the schools make a big concession for law students...perhaps NYU would as its law school is probably the most "above" its business school, à la Yale.

Second, even if you were accepted into the joint program...well, you are accepted into the joint program. I doubt those schools would let you graduate from the business school without getting your JD. If you want to just get an MBA, work for a few years and then apply.

Third, you shouldn't get your MBA without at least a couple years' experience. People did that in the 70s, but not now. Harvard Business School is known for skewing young, and I think less than 2% enter with a year of work experience or less. As a 30-year-old starting this year, I'm looking forward to youthful enthusiasm at the law school, but a wide variety of more mature, seasoned perspectives at the business school.

This is a horrible idea, that being said, its stupid enough to have a decent shot at working. A JD/MBA at Stanford told me that its significantly easier to get into the MBA program if you're already in another Stanford graduate program (JD, MD, MS, PhD, whatever). He said he personally applied to the programs separately, and they won't give him admission data on people that apply for the MBA after being in another program, but anecdotally, your shots improve dramatically.

He also told us that in such situations, having no work experience may actually bolster your chances of admission, since schools typically have an unofficial quota of people they accept with 0 work experience. The vast majority of these people are not just vanilla K-MBAs. They're typically going to be people that have other graduate degrees, or are currently in other graduate degree programs. Basically, people that sort of have a reason for not having work experience but may still have a valid reason for wanting an MBA.

That being said there's tons of issues with this. The admission rate is likely still quite low as top MBAs are harder to get into than top law schools, so even a significant bump could still be very risky. You also forgo ~80k or whatever just to have a shot. You'll be competing with people who have on average 4 years of impressive work experience when it comes to getting a job. Also, since MBAs are way less specific than JDs, I don't see how someone could be certain they wanted an MBA before having 0 work experience. Not to mention the ethics of it all.

pulstar1 wrote:So I have this friend who is an undergraduate with no real work experience, so it is unlikely that he could be admitted to a top MBA program directly.

However, this friend has a decent shot at getting into law school in at least one of the following universities: Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, UPenn, and/or NYU.

Suppose this friend gains acceptance into a law school at one of the aforementioned universities. He then applies to pursue the JD/MBA joint degree in his 1L year. Upon gaining admission to the university's business school by such means, he decides to withdraw from the law school to become a full-time MBA student.

My friend is wondering if a student could actually do this.

Do you have any intention of working as a lawyer? I hope so or you will be paying an extra 200K for the JD that you never want to use. Doesn't seem like a good idea.

This is incredibly stupid. People find these bizarre circuitous ways to stay in school and avoid getting a job. It's mind-boggling. Why spent $55K on law school when you could make that much in consulting or financial analysis. This is truly bizarre.

Also, it won't work. People above are citing to JD -> JD/MBA being easier than just MBA. This is only true with work experience, which most JD's actually have. The SLS students gaining admission to the b-school are not k-jd (or they are nontraditional in some sense or have start-up experience).

M7 business schools will generate some opportunities independent of your prior professional experience, but they are still limited in scope unless you have something else to say for yourself. Not only do these students at top b-schools tend to have excellent qualifications, but their outcomes tend to be highly tied to the prior experiences which constitute those qualifications. So it can be admittedly tough to break down causality and correlation here, but I would suggest with some force that pre-MBA exp is highly tied to post-MBA, even at the highest levels.

bk1 wrote:Getting into the JD program isn't a panacea for his lack of experience when he tries to apply to the MBA program.

this should be the biggest take-away

law school admissions evaluate how well you can take a fast paced exam based primarily on analysis of language and logical argument forms which can be gained by repeat practice.

business school admissions evaluate a plethora of other factors, but demonstrating you can get and retain a job and build strong professional references/network feature predominantly among them

As noted, your "friend" would be making a huge mistake. What does your friend plan on doing with this MBA that he can't do with a bachelor's?