Top Law Schools

Good evening everyone,

I have a somewhat unique background and am not sure how it might factor into admissions. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Personal
-29 year old white male

Professional
-Founder of startup that did 50MM of revenue in 2017. Recently sold for large amount.
-Captain in US Army Reserves

Education
-BS in Biology from top state school (3.0 GPA, mainly due to extracurricular interests)
-M.Div from top school (3.86 GPA)

Extracurricular
-Undergrad: Student body president, varsity athlete, member of 15 service, professional, and social organizations over the course of four years
-Postgrad: Heavily involved in local church (ordained minister), mentor for underprivileged youth, donations of $5,000,000 to non-profits through my business

LSAT - 176
GMAT - 780

Target Law Schools
Harvard
Stanford
Yale
Penn

Target Business Schools
Harvard
Stanford
Penn

Reason for JD/MBA - I hope to continue building and leading companies in the future. An MBA/JD would help me navigate some of the challenging issues I faced during my previous experience.

Given that your desire is to continue building and leading companies, I'm not sure why you'd want to pursue a J.D. on top of the MBA. You wouldn't be able to competently advise yourself (or your own startups) fresh out of law school; you'd need at least several years of experience practicing law first. I suggest you go for the MBA and focus on the entrepreneurship you enjoy doing, without taking a detour into law school.

Even with your great LSAT, you basically out at YSH. Penn is possible but still pretty unlikely. I think your work experience probably puts in contention for HSW for MBA admissions, in which case, I'd much rather have an MBA alone from HSW than a JD/MBA from a law school you are likely to get into. NU/Kellogg admission is likely and probably your next best combo besides what you've listed, but again, given your background, I'd just take the MBA from HSW and go with that.

lawschoolhopefull123 wrote:Good evening everyone,

I have a somewhat unique background and am not sure how it might factor into admissions. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Personal
-29 year old white male

Professional
-Founder of startup that did 50MM of revenue in 2017. Recently sold for large amount.
-Captain in US Army Reserves

Education
-BS in Biology from top state school (3.0 GPA, mainly due to extracurricular interests)
-M.Div from top school (3.86 GPA)

Extracurricular
-Undergrad: Student body president, varsity athlete, member of 15 service, professional, and social organizations over the course of four years
-Postgrad: Heavily involved in local church (ordained minister), mentor for underprivileged youth, donations of $5,000,000 to non-profits through my business

LSAT - 176
GMAT - 780

Target Law Schools
Harvard
Stanford
Yale
Penn

Target Business Schools
Harvard
Stanford
Penn

Reason for JD/MBA - I hope to continue building and leading companies in the future. An MBA/JD would help me navigate some of the challenging issues I faced during my previous experience.

are those $50M in revenue and $5M in donations alone real !?!
you have an amazing profile. due to your immensely successful real world experience, i think you are solidly in at HBS or Stan gsb, which can in turn boosts your chances at hls/yls considerably. even though law schools are mainly ug gpa/lsat driven, you are likely the unicorn for which that wouldn't apply.

Were you on Shark Tank?

I think the door to a Penn Law & Wharton JD/MBA is open, which is also a 3-year program as compared to 4 at H or S.

Northwestern's JD-MBA program might be a possibility

lawschoolhopefull123 wrote: Reason for JD/MBA - I hope to continue building and leading companies in the future. An MBA/JD would help me navigate some of the challenging issues I faced during my previous experience.

The JD is a professional degree meant for those who will be practicing law. I'm quite skeptical of the idea that going to law school would be of value to you. One of the main reasons for my skepticism is that law school largely "teaches to the test", the test being the bar exam. Sure, you may pick up a few tidbits along the way that would be helpful in a startup context, but you're going to spend most of your time and effort learning about things that are utterly irrelevant to somebody who doesn't need to take the bar exam. Most of the institutional knowledge and savvy is learned in on-the-job training.

If you're uncomfortable with certain legal aspects of running a startup, take every single law related class offered in the MBA program. Also, hire better counsel who can explain things to you without talking over your head. Bad lawyers try to dazzle their clients with jargon and complexity. Good lawyers cut through the BS and explain things clearly and concisely.

I just don't think it's worth another 2.5 or 3 years to get the JD. The MBA should be plenty.

It's pretty clear you don't understand what a law school education provides, and that's perfectly ok. But please don't think a JD will provide any value for you personally. It really won't.