Medical school to law school? Forum

[Lakers100]

Hi,

I am in my second year of medical school and am thinking of possibly applying to law school. I have always had an interest in law, but ended up applying to medical school. I am doing well above average now and enjoy the material but do not think I actually want to practice medicine. If I were to leave I would leave with around 100k in debt.

I am not exactly sure whether this would be a good or bad idea; as for stats, I graduated from a competitive private school with a GPA of 3.91 in chemistry and had significant non-medical extracurricular activities both in college and during my gap year after college (read: major NGOs, etc). If I were to apply, I would like to focus on T14s.

I'm not sure exactly what to do and would appreciate some advice. Thank you in advance.

[5571]

I'm not sure if this is possible at this stage in your education but one thing to look in to might be a dual JD/MD program between your current med school and whatever law school you end up choosing. I'm aware of more than one student at my T14 who's enrolled in such a program, including one with another university's medical school. No JD/MD program is listed among the standard dual degree programs officially offered by the school so I imagine this would likely involve some independent coordination on your part, at least at my school. Given most of the other dual degree programs here allow you to shave a year off the amount of time it would take to earn the degrees independently there may be the possibility of that here as well, although I wouldn't count on it. I imagine the typical BigLaw/government employment opportunities pursued by most coming from T14s would be just as open to a JD/MD, if not slightly more so, and I could see the dual degree potentially acting in your favor if you decided to pursue something like intellectual property or injury litigation. If you don't go that route but still want to go into law I don't think your chances at T14 would be significantly impacted by your foray into medicine; just have a good, well-rehearsed answer ready by the time you interview as to why you decided to switch career paths. Law school admissions is largely (I would say 90%, others may go as far as 95%+) driven by numbers, specifically your GPA and LSAT, and 3.91 won't preclude you from any JD program in the country, so at this point the most important determinant of your options will be your LSAT. 173+ with your GPA is very likely to get you in the door at at least one of the T3; 170+ is probably good enough for at least T6; and I would be surprised if you were rejected from all of the T13 with a score of 165+.

[cavalier1138]

Obligatory question: Why do you want to go to law school?

[QContinuum]

I don't think your chances at T14 would be significantly impacted by your foray into medicine; just have a good, well-rehearsed answer ready by the time you interview as to why you decided to switch career paths. Law school admissions is largely (I would say 90%, others may go as far as 95%+) driven by numbers, specifically your GPA and LSAT, and 3.91 won't preclude you from any JD program in the country, so at this point the most important determinant of your options will be your LSAT. 173+ with your GPA is very likely to get you in the door at at least one of the T3; 170+ is probably good enough for at least T6; and I would be surprised if you were rejected from all of the T13 with a score of 165+.

I'd also add that I think OP is, overall, likely to be an extremely strong candidate, so long as they have a good answer for why they're switching now. (I wouldn't wait for the interview to bring this up - this is something that should go into the PS, in my view. Not all schools interview, not all schools interview everyone, so I wouldn't run the risk of having a reviewer bin OP's application because they think his/her dropping out of med school is a red flag.)

But putting aside the med school detour, OP's in a great position. They obviously have extremely strong ECs, given that they got into med school (which values ECs highly). Law schools don't typically care about ECs much, but Yale and Stanford do, and strong ECs can move the needle on the margins at the rest of the T13, especially with regard to merit aid. And OP obviously did very well on the MCAT, which bodes well for their ability to do well on the LSAT.

All that said, I agree with cav: Key right now is to drill down on why law? Not liking med school, or not wanting to be a doctor, aren't good reasons for going to law school.

(Also important to consider whether it makes sense at this point to bite the bullet and finish the M.D. OP's currently an M2 - if they apply to law school this fall, they will have had the time to finish M3 by the time they're scheduled to begin 1L in fall 2021. Why not begin 1L in fall 2022 instead - only one year later - and have an M.D. under the belt to show for all of those years of effort?)

[dvlthndr]

There are some specialized lawyers with the MD/JD combo. You find them doing medical law, patent law, Hatch-Waxman stuff, policy work, etc. You should consider getting the M.D. credential even if you don't want to practice medicine. There are plenty of alternative career paths out there.

[QContinuum]

There are some specialized lawyers with the MD/JD combo. You find them doing medical law, patent law, Hatch-Waxman stuff, policy work, etc. You should consider getting the M.D. credential even if you don't want to practice medicine. There are plenty of alternative career paths out there.

Yep. Like, certainly don't do an M.D. just to do Hatch-Waxman or patent work, but OP is at the point where s/he only needs to delay law school by a single year to finish the M.D. I think it's worth it at this point.

(Obviously, don't compromise mental health, consider debt levels, etc.)

[nixy]

That said (and this may go to the mental health reference), given that the third year is by far the most hands-on/clinical, it could also be the most unpleasant for someone who doesn’t actually want to practice medicine (not like law school where there’s no real qualitative difference).

[dabigchina]

Something you should ask yourself is are you running towards the law, or away from medicine. It honestly sounds to me like you are running away from medicine. It's generally not a good idea to trade one grueling, all consuming profession for another and expect it to be any better.

If I were you, I'd at least finish medical school.

[zeglo]

My friend in law school did what you are describing: left med school for law school. Such a background makes you attractive to firms that work in health care, with patents, etc., or you can abandon your science background altogether.

Only go to law school if you actually want to practice law. If you do, then sure, your plan works. With a good LSAT, you'd be in good shape admissions. I just don't understand why you would go through all the effort to actually become an MD and then just leave.