I am a current high school senior. Currently, I am very interested in business, economics, and political science. Looking to apply to undergrad business programs, such as Georgetown’s McDonough, WashU’s Olin, or some other Liberal Arts-oriented schools such as Northwestern (major in econ/poly sci, certificate/minor in Business from Kellogg) or Penn (major in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics - 1 degree program). My father is a COO of a company, and he suggested that in an executive position (or in a variety of other fields), a law background is very useful for contracts and in a broader sense of communicating persuasively and intelligently. My goals in life are to go into a management/executive position in a business, or work in the finance industry, perhaps ibanking (temporarily), hedge fund, or VC.
What are the best tracks for ultimately attaining a JD/MBA dual degree? Is an undergrad pre-professional major such as finance/business law/accounting worse than a Liberal Arts major, such as economics, government, or poly sci?
Business or accounting are not a good undergrads for a JD. The skills that students work on in these majors are not those they will need to get in or do well in law school. Math, philosophy, economics and poly sci tend to be good majors. LSAC publishes yearly data on the GPA, LSAT scores and acceptance rate of students in different undergraduate majors.
JD admissions are much less holistic than undergrad admissions. The main criteria for admission to law school will be your GPA and your LSAT score. You should choose a major that will help you maximize these two scores.
Perhaps the majority of colleges that send their students on to highly regarded JD and MBA programs do not offer pre-professional majors such as business or finance:
No major is required for a JD or a MBA. Study whatever you want undergrad.
Since there are a limited number of combined JD/MBA programs another option might be to study business as an undergrad, maybe work for a couple of years, and then go for a law degree after.
Lots of people will tell you that a JD is “good” or “useful” for jobs other than being a lawyer, but generally speaking, you shouldn’t get your JD unless you actually want to be a lawyer. You can learn to communicate persuasively and intelligently in so many cheaper, less time-intensive ways than going to law school - like taking humanities and social sciences classes in college and doing internships so you get practice communicating with others. There’s really zero use for an additional $150K in loans if you don’t actually want to be a lawyer, and it’s not like having a JD will necessarily give you an advantage over an MBA for the types of jobs you want.
If you want to be an executive or go into finance or banking or VC or a hedge fund, get an MBA. There’s no need for the JD part.
If it was me I’d probably go for economics. It’s a good mix of preparation for both! However, listen to the above posters advice and think carefully about the program. Make sure you pick a major that you wouldn’t mind being stuck with in the event that you cannot afford to do a JD/MBA program.
Engineering management could be a good thing too I think @TooOld4School . That would probably cover some basic patenting issues as well as basic management and engineering!
