Top JD vs. Top MBA Forum

[NYCornellian]

I wanna get rich.
In general, which is better?

[rainmaker614]

Skip both. Go to med school.

[Reinhardt]

The best one is the one that best matches your interests and skills. That's where you'll truly excel. Also, define "rich."

[jaudette]

Do both.

[NYCornellian]

rich = billionaire or millionaire at least?

Med school? Really? Why?
Both? Really? Why?

Thanks in advance.

[Jeff Mangum]

Business, without a doubt, but there is more risk involved. Success in medicine or law will provide a stable, generous income, but nothing like what those captains of industry pull in.

[Whatisthis]

rich = billionaire or millionaire at least?

Med school? Really? Why?
Both? Really? Why?

Thanks in advance.

If you really want to become that wealthy, don't look to education. People who become incredibly wealthly (billionares) have at least two things going for them: they've figured out a way to do something that's better than anyone else and they've been extremely lucky. You will not learn how to become a billionare. Though, I'd say you'd make better connections at a top MBA program.

Good Luck

[commoner]

my boss is what you call a captain of industry. his personal worth in dollars i estimate at close to 150 million. that said, the man has no soul, and does not appreciate anything that is done for him. i hate him. i wonder if the money does that to you. i guess years of acting like a bastard erodes your soul. I hope there is an afterlife, so i can see him rotting in hell.

[NYCornellian]

What about:

1. LSAT vs. GMAT
2. Starting salaries: JD vs. MBA
3. Which is easier to get into?

Any advice?

[NYCornellian]

my boss is what you call a captain of industry. his personal worth in dollars i estimate at close to 150 million. that said, the man has no soul, and does not appreciate anything that is done for him. i hate him. i wonder if the money does that to you. i guess years of acting like a bastard erodes your soul. I hope there is an afterlife, so i can see him rotting in hell.

Keep that in mind.

[huckabees]

I've thought about this too and sometimes it makes me bitter that MBAs tend to make a lot more than JDs if they're successful.

I don't think it's necessarily harder to get into an M7 than a T14, and law school is so much more work than business school.

Seeing these posts is making me reconsider attending law school even more than I was before...

[dapoetic1]

What about:

1. LSAT vs. GMAT
2. Starting salaries: JD vs. MBA
3. Which is easier to get into?

Any advice?

1. Two different test. Both are learnable, but the GMAT involves math skills which you should already know. If you take a look at some of the top B-schools the difference in percentile of GMAT scores is not as high as the percentile of LSAT scores for law school.

--ex.The average GMAT score is around 680 Penn (Wharton) has an average score of 715. The average LSAT score is 152 Penn (Law) has an median score of ~168. The difference between the median LSAT and Penn's LSAT is far greater than the difference between the median GMAT and Penn's GMAT. But that's because those two test are not comparable. I took the GMAT and LSAT and did far better (statistically) on the GMAT than the LSAT.

2. B-School grads don't have the pleasure of being hired and paid at "market value" like law students do. Companies do not up their salaries just because a similar company in New York raised it rates. That being said you can greatly increase your starting salary past that of your peers by your previous work experience and skill set. Lawyers are typically paid in a lock-step method according to the size of the firm, or the corporation/office for which they are hired. The ability to make a lot more money early on is greater for businessmen than for lawyers. Also more b-schoolers can choose to go into business for themselves or start their own business than lawyers fresh out of school.
3. Easier to get in to is relative! It matters more which law school you attend than the B-school you attend. There are lots of people that can actually earn an "Executive MBA", 1 yr MBA, online MBA and all kind of other pseudo MBA degrees and they can actually benefit you and increase you income potential. Law school is not that way. Concord's online law school isn't going to cut it!!!

Advice--If you want to go to b-school you should have a background in business, and you have to have work experience. With law school it's a soft factor if you had a few years of work after u-grad in B-school it's pretty much a requirement.

[Quine]

Getting to millionaire/billionaire status, even in a small amount of time, has little to do with what degree or profession you get into. People with that degree of net worth are consistently investing in land and industry, doubling and tripling their capital as they go. All that matters is building a small fortune with which to begin investing. And if you are going to get started on this immediately, I would look for a job where you will be making $100,000+, and simply try to live on as little as possible while you build capital. Once you have a good sum of money (in the tens of thousands or more) you should immediately begin investing in long-term assets, like property. Also, once interest rates kick back up, you can begin putting excess money in very simple, low risk investments making as little as 4-6% and just skim the returns and put them into more investments. Diversification is important, but also time consuming. I recommend becoming an expert in one area of investment, and then riding it out. Stick with necessary commodities and resources. If you make the right investments, you can start out in your 20's making $100,000, and be worth at least tens of millions by the time you're in your mid thirties. Honestly here, if you're all about the money, go to real estate school. It's like a couple months to get your certification, you won't go into hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt, and if you're intelligent enough to get into a top law school, you'll blow everyone else out of the water, and begin working right away.

[dextermorgan]

Skip both. Go to med school.

This. Easy way out.

[Quine]

Don't do med school. Med school really has to be about wanting to help people, because the money is not going to justify another 8 years of schooling. In that extra time, that you already would have been out of an MBA or JD program, you'll be getting further into debt instead of building your wealth. Even is venture capitalism isn't your thing, at a large firm the ceilings are higher than as a physician. Not to mention, if you're already through undergrad, it's probably too late to reconsider pre-med, and the MCAT is a very different beast than the LSAT or GMAT - you can't just pick up that breadth of content in a couple months and sit for it (and expect to get a good enough score to subsequently enter a medical school).

[NYCornellian]

I hate science, so med school is really not my thing.

[mrman17]

MBA's have a lot more job opportunities, as the degree is much more versatile. I am strongly considering doing both JD/MBA, especially since I'm most interested in business/corporate law. From what I understand a JD/MBA is a strong combo. Plus, it would only take one extra year or less (depending on the school) to pick up the MBA.

[huckabees]

MBA's have a lot more job opportunities, as the degree is much more versatile. I am strongly considering doing both JD/MBA, especially since I'm most interested in business/corporate law. From what I understand a JD/MBA is a strong combo. Plus, it would only take one extra year or less (depending on the school) to pick up the MBA.

Generally this is true.

However, you can always be a business person with a JD, but not a lawyer with an MBA.

Many execs of the Fortune 500 have law degrees.

[rainmaker614]

rich = billionaire or millionaire at least?

Med school? Really? Why?
Both? Really? Why?

Thanks in advance.

Do I really have to answer? I'm no med school expert but med school grads trump all other professional school grads in terms of starting salary and progressive salaries. Sure you have to go through residency but who the hell cares when your pulling in more money than you know what to do with after. Also, with med school, the school you go to seems to mean jack shit. A kid from my college went to the Caribbean (imagine a geographical area full of "Cooley's" or PCOL's in some cases) and now makes a very nice starting salary. My cousin recently graduated from Wayne State Med School (well respected school in Michigan and the largest med school in the US) and is now a doctor making 750k a year PLUS pulling in an extra 120-175k or so working at his fathers clinic part time. Oh and he's 29. I don't think ANY other professions are going to give you a GOOD chance of making close to a million a year being under 30. EVERY single kid I know that went to med school makes a boat load of money annually and had no problem finding a job. Graduating from a decent med school with decent grades and decent scores on your tests will give you a much more financially secure future than any JD or MBA program, IMO.

[NYCornellian]

rich = billionaire or millionaire at least?

Med school? Really? Why?
Both? Really? Why?

Thanks in advance.

Do I really have to answer? I'm no med school expert but med school grads trump all other professional school grads in terms of starting salary and progressive salaries. Sure you have to go through residency but who the hell cares when your pulling in more money than you know what to do with after. Also, with med school, the school you go to seems to mean jack shit. A kid from my college went to the Caribbean (imagine a geographical area full of "Cooley's" or PCOL's in some cases) and now makes a very nice starting salary. My cousin recently graduated from Wayne State Med School (well respected school in Michigan and the largest med school in the US) and is now a doctor making 750k a year PLUS pulling in an extra 120-175k or so working at his fathers clinic part time. Oh and he's 29. I don't think ANY other professions are going to give you a GOOD chance of making close to a million a year being under 30. EVERY single kid I know that went to med school makes a boat load of money annually and had no problem finding a job. Graduating from a decent med school with decent grades and decent scores on your tests will give you a much more financially secure future than any JD or MBA program, IMO.

Good to know.
But Law vs. B-school, which would you rather choose?

[Quine]

rich = billionaire or millionaire at least?

Med school? Really? Why?
Both? Really? Why?

Thanks in advance.

Do I really have to answer? I'm no med school expert but med school grads trump all other professional school grads in terms of starting salary and progressive salaries. Sure you have to go through residency but who the hell cares when your pulling in more money than you know what to do with after. Also, with med school, the school you go to seems to mean jack shit. A kid from my college went to the Caribbean (imagine a geographical area full of "Cooley's" or PCOL's in some cases) and now makes a very nice starting salary. My cousin recently graduated from Wayne State Med School (well respected school in Michigan and the largest med school in the US) and is now a doctor making 750k a year PLUS pulling in an extra 120-175k or so working at his fathers clinic part time. Oh and he's 29. I don't think ANY other professions are going to give you a GOOD chance of making close to a million a year being under 30. EVERY single kid I know that went to med school makes a boat load of money annually and had no problem finding a job. Graduating from a decent med school with decent grades and decent scores on your tests will give you a much more financially secure future than any JD or MBA program, IMO.

Well it was only a matter of time before the anecdotal evidence started rolling in! He already said med school was out, so let's just drop that from the discussion. As far as a JD/MBA program, you really don't need both, and they offer them like that almost as a scam. No employer looking for a specific MBA candidate is going to view a JD/MBA joint program the same way, they understand that this usually entails just half-assing both degrees to squeeze them in together in 4 years. I think the point about needing a JD to be a lawyer is best. Plenty of people move into business positions without an MBA, sometimes with no advanced degree whatsoever, But only a couple states allow you to even sit for the bar without an ABA degree. A JD is a better degree because the knowledge is more specialized. An MBA is like trying to pack some business experience into an advanced degree, so you can start ahead of people with experience. You can glean all of the useful knowledge accompanying an MBA simple by being on the business side of things for a while while practicing law.

[Teapot]

my boss is what you call a captain of industry. his personal worth in dollars i estimate at close to 150 million. that said, the man has no soul, and does not appreciate anything that is done for him. i hate him. i wonder if the money does that to you. i guess years of acting like a bastard erodes your soul. I hope there is an afterlife, so i can see him rotting in hell.

i just spit tea all over myself and my computer. this is funny and true and that makes it even funnier.

[Quine]

Come on! Not everyone makes money being a douche! People hate them too much! For every asshole boss you've encountered there's a generous recluse, or an Andrew Carnegie. I think some people would be surprised how many rich people are really nice and happy and compassionate, as should be expected given what little they have to complain about.

[Teapot]

Come on! Not everyone makes money being a douche! People hate them too much! For every asshole boss you've encountered there's a generous recluse, or an Andrew Carnegie. I think some people would be surprised how many rich people are really nice and happy and compassionate, as should be expected given what little they have to complain about.

carnegie crushed a lot of people before he started making libraries and trying to buy haiti.

[Quine]

This is exactly the problem. There's this skewed view that people have to lose in the market for others to win. Free-market capitalism is not a zero-sum game. There are plenty of people who get rich, help people, and don't shit all over everyone beneath them on the way up. Andrew Carnegie crushed a lot of competitors, but there weren't too many people working under him who would share the above poster's opinion of his greedy boss.