JD/MBA Right After College?

Graduate School Law School
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<p>I am on such a split decision whether or not I want to go through application processes for law school and/or business school. </p>

<p>I definitely know that I want to get my JD and MBA sometime within the next 5 years, but I just don't know if I really should try to pursue it after college. Everyone told me that I should wait before I go to grad school so that I know what I want to do with my life... well I already know exactly what I want to do, no doubt. I'm just stressed because it's a lot of work on my shoulders to do in the next couple of months. </p>

<p>First of all, I want to go to a school that offers both JD/MBA dual degrees (3 exception schools though that I will only apply for one program). Here are the list of possible places that I want to apply:</p>

<p>Law Schools:
1) Duke
2) Georgetown
3) Cornell
4) University of Florida
5) Miami
6) UCLA
7) University of Southern California </p>

<p>Business Schools:
1) Yale
2) Johns Hopkins
3) Georgetown
4) Cornell
5) UF
6) Miami
7) UCLA
8) USC</p>

<p>A little about myself:</p>

<p>School: UNC Chapel Hill
Major: Journalism and Mass Communications in the Advertising concentration
Minor: business
Study Abroad: 3 times --> twice in Mexico, once as a student, once as a TA, and this coming fall to Korea
GPA: 3.3
LSAT/GMAT: potentially 175/780, I've been studying all year
Work Experience:
Marketing Manager for a small startup (promoted within the first month of employment),
Created an online collegiate publishing site, created my own online clothing store,
Broadcast journalism intern at FoxNews,
TA for study abroad program,
Publishing intern at a metropolitan magazine (marketing, writing, and graphic design),
Campus rep for Roomsurf.
Recommendation Letters:
One from the Pre-law advisor/Dean at Duke university,
One from the Dean of School of journalism from UNC,
One from my employer.
Other things to note:
I will be graduating with 3 year college experience rather than 4
I will be 20 at the time of application
I will have only been at UNC for 4 semester -- took 1 semester off, will be abroad for 1
I was an international student entering college -- Korean/Canadian citizenship
Awards:
Best Buy Scholar --academic/community involvement scholarship
Blyth Scholar --from the study abroad program where I was a TA
Quincy Sharpe Mills Scholar --from UNC School of Journalism
Important Classes I've Taken:
Operations Management
Strategic Management
Managerial Accounting
Corporate Finance
Marketing
Media Law
Media Management
Advanced Microeconomics
Lastly:
some of the classes that have brought my GPA down, I've made sure that I take an advanced class a level above that and improved my grade.
Ex. I got a B- on econ101 and then I got an A on econ410, I got a C on poli100 and got a A- on poli101</p>

<p>So with all of that said, I just want to know if it's worth applying for law/business schools this fall. I'll be taking the LSAT in october and GMAT by the end of summer. I don't know if I should try to enjoy my senior year, graduate early and just explore life before applying OR stay the 4th year of college to get a second degree in business administration OR go through hell and apply to the schools. </p>

<p>I realize that opinions/advices I get here isn't guaranteed truth for admission, but I just want to know what other people think about this. I am just on a complete panic mode right now because I don't know what to do and the clock is ticking. </p>

<p>THANKS!</p>

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<p>You have said that you know exactly what you want to do. What is that you want to do that requires a JD/MBA?</p>

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<p>How about getting a job first?</p>

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<p>I want to eventually start my own medium sized company. Somewhere down the the art/creative industry. I realize that a JD has nothing to do with art but I’ve always wanted a law degree for a strong background knowledge of the legal system as well as the prestige of having the degree.</p>

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<p>Do you know how much that degree will cost you?
Average annual tuition is $50K plus $25K for living expenses per year. On top of that you will lose out on opportunity costs, ie. the money you would have earned if you were working those 3 years.
Still think it’s worth it?</p>

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<p>Not a good enough reason to get a JD. You go to law school if you want to practice law - period. You do not even leave law school prepared to do that and you’ll know even less about starting and running a business. You do not leave law school with an understanding of the legal system. You get that by practicing law. It is on the job training. Having a law degree carries with it very little prestige in the business world. If you want to open your own business, the best training you will get is working for a well run existing business whose leaders are also mentors.</p>

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<p>Listen to cbreeze and cartera45; that’s a lot of money for a degree-the JD-that you’ll probably never use, based on what you’ve said. There’s no denying there’s a level of prestige if you get a JD from a top school, but be very wary of debt, especially if you’re never going to practice law.</p>

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<p>Johns Hopkins University doesn’t have a Law School.</p>

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<p>I know, that’s the exception that I wrote. I’m only applying for bschool there.</p>

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<p>The most famous JD/MBA graduate in the world right now is surely Mitt Romney, and he never practiced law for a single day in his life. Nevertheless, he seems to have done rather well for himself - I’d be quite pleased to have just 1% of his net worth.</p>

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<p>You seem like someone who wants to attain academic credentials just for the sake of getting the credentials.</p>

<p>I am a JD/MBA. I was like you. Don’t get a degree just because of “credentialism”.</p>

<p>There is a vast oversupply of lawyers, and the MBA degree, in my opinion, has been cheapened as well, with MBA schools down here in Florida advertising on billboards on I-95.</p>

<p>You say you definitely want to get an advanced degree within 5 years, but you don’t really offer a good reason as to why.</p>

<p>I am sure you will ignore the above advice, but I offer it to you anyway.</p>

<p>First, figure out what you want to do. To simply say that I either want to get an MBA or a JD, or both, shows that you have not thought things through.</p>

<p>A JD/MBA program would take up FOUR YEARS of your life. And cost a fortune. Better to get a job, and then perhaps work for your MBA degree at night, at a slow pace. </p>

<p>In reality, you will NOT learn that much about our legal system by attending law school, and certainly not enough knowledge to merit a 3 year undertaking. Also, a law degree is not that useful for someone who wants to work in the business world.</p>

<p>I think that your comment about the “prestige” of getting a JD degree proves my point.</p>

<p>You are seeking self validation and status. You don’t have a genuine interest in getting a JD degree.</p>

<p>Get a job, and stick to it for five years. Then re-assess at that time.</p>

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<p>Mitt Romney was the son of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Not only did he have the connections to secure admission, but he had no problem paying it off right away. The OP has neither of these things.</p>

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<p>Actually, this would seem to be even more of a reason for the OP to choose a JD/MBA (at least from an elite program) than for Romney to have done so. I agree with you that Romney was well-connected and the OP is not, and the implication of that is that Romney was likely to have been financially successful if he had never even graduated from high school simply due to the strength of his connections. Therefore it seems to me that it is precisely those people who lack connections who need an elite education the most…if, for no other reason, that’s probably the only way they’ll ever establish a connection with a future Romney. Let’s face it - you probably weren’t going to ever establish a connection with somebody like Romney if you spent your whole life at a regular job. </p>

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<p>Given the legendary frugality of not only devout Mormons in general, but also of the [Romney</a> family](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/us/politics/two-mitt-romneys-wealthy-man-thrifty-habits.html?pagewanted=all]Romney”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/us/politics/two-mitt-romneys-wealthy-man-thrifty-habits.html?pagewanted=all) in particular - it’s highly doubtful that Mitt had the capacity to simply pay off his student debts immediately. For his father, George, to have just given free money to Mitt to pay those debts would be entirely out of character, particularly when he refused to even give Mitt a car while in high school during a time when his father, ironically, was President of a car company (AMC).</p>

<p>But that’s not to say that Mitt didn’t indeed pay off his debts quickly. I’m sure he did, having leveraged his degrees into a remarkably lucrative career in management consulting and then private equity.</p>

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<p>Sorry to bring up an old thread, but if I may…</p>

<p>Romney actually paid for his JD/MBA himself. He donated his inheritance.</p>

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<p>as a side note, I love the “I’ve been studying all year” so there’s the clear potential to score 10 points away from Harvard Business School’s highest GMAT score for an incoming student for the class of 2014.</p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

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<p>Don’t listen to gomestar. </p>

<p>I got a 770 on the GMAT and at least one other law student (Duke) I know got a 770.</p>

<p>I almost got a JD/MBA at Duke, but decided that I was finished hoarding a massive amount of debt, so I got out with my MBA.</p>

<p>I personally recommend working for a few years and then getting an MBA at a really top school. I’m not seeing the benefit of a JD these days.</p>

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<p>Really top B-school = Harvard/Penn</p>

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<p>B-schools that are worth what they cost generally do not admit students straight out of undergrad, even if they have part-time work experience. It will make it harder, not easier, for you that you are younger than average and have spent less time in college.</p>

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<p>OP: What do you mean by: LSAT/GMAT potentially 175/780 ? If you haven’t taken the tests yet, then potentially the scores would be 180/800, but if you’ve taken them, then why use the word “potentially” ?</p>

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<p>Although the most elite MBA programs strongly prefer several years of post-undergraduate work experience, not all employers do because they want to mold freshly minted MBAs in their company’s culture.</p>