<p>I'm new to the forums so I'm sorry if the question was already asked.</p>
<p>Currently I'm about to graduate a university with a dual degree in Mechanical Engineering (Robotics) and Aerospace Studies, with minors in Business, IT and High Performance Land Vehicles. My current plan is to go for an MBA to raise my GPA and then take the LSAT to get into law school to become a patent lawyer.</p>
<p>I was also considering getting a second MS in CS, since I mainly would like to work in Silicon Valley or for a technology firm (assuming I won't get a job with the government).</p>
<p>What do you guys think? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>get a couple years of engineering work experience. That should distance you from the UGPA a little bit. Northwestern will accept mid/high 170’s and < 3 GPA with some experience. </p>
<p>Anything to distance you a bit from that GPA will help, and law firms also like tech experience.</p>
<p>As someone who reviews resumes frequently, I think that your educational plan shows a lack of focus. Unfortunately, I have seen many such CVs. Do you want to be a lawyer, a mechanical engineer, a computer science engineer, a manager, or an aerospace engineer?</p>
<p>Why do you need all of those degrees to become a lawyer? (um…, you don’t) You certainly don’t need an MBA to be a lawyer. You already have enough of a science education to become a patent lawyer. A CS degree is nice for a patent lawyer, but all you really need is a sufficient knowledge in CS to understand things and to talk intelligently to the clients – take 1 or 2 courses in CS, that’s fine (you’ve probably done that by now).</p>
<p>Your grand master plan requires a lot of tuition and likely debt. Granted, the economy is now lousy and law firms and companies are not very active in hiring lawyers, but such hiring is 4 years away for you. So why do you want to spend 3 years in law school, 1 year for a MSCS and 2 years for an MBA? (A total of 6 years beyond college @ $50K = $300K Yikes!)</p>
<p>Decide to become a lawyer and go to law school ASAP. Or decide to become a manager and get an MBA ASAP. Or decide to become a sofware engineer and get the MS CS ASAP. Just pick one thing and do it. Unless, of course, you want to be a professional student.</p>
<p>I would say the smarter plan is to go out and TRY software engineering or law (via paralegal) or whatever else BEFORE getting the graduate degree. How much will it suck to get a MS in computer science and then realize you hate programming?</p>
<p>The early 20’s are a good buffer zone for you to try out a career and ensure you like it before pursuing graduate education. </p>
<p>In any case, getting a series of graduate degrees without every working is clearly not the right choice :).</p>
<p>I am wondering if it would be useful to take a few practice LSAT’s to see if OP can score high enough to balance the GPA. It could also reveal if law is a possible career path.</p>