Law School after a PHD in Philosophy?

<p>Hi guys...</p>

<p>first post and was just going through some ideas in my head so thought I would bounce this idea off of a bunch of people and looking towards my long term goals. </p>

<p>I was just wondering how valuable a law degree would be career wise? </p>

<p>I am doing a PhD in Philosophy focusing on political theory but was thinking after I am done was going to try to work/lecture for awhile and do some side night classes for law.... </p>

<p>My dream career is working for some ngo or something i.e. UN/Unesco and and also have some lecture status at a university. </p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

<p>I would probably be looking at some night schools in Chicago</p>

<p>Note that I think it would be easier to get into a higher tier law school after I already proved myself getting a doctorate vs. going straight into law school after undergrad as my undergrad wasn't stellar as it should be but my real world work and post undergrad has been top notch since then.</p>

<p>The bad news is that your Ph.D. won't boost your LS admissions odds all that much. It will help some, but not much. Reason? Your LSDAS gpa is fixed at the time you get your first BA/BS. That's the one used in LS rankings. Nothing you do in grad school will boost that #, so it's MUCH more important in LS admissions that your Ph.D. Seems silly? Agreed, but it's true. I remember an assistant philosophy prof at Fordham who applied to LS and was really upset with the results, which were exactly as predicted based solely on his UG gpa (which wasn't great) and LSAT. He said Ph.D. helped him very little. </p>

<p>Second, while you can go to LS at night, you MUST finish by going 4 years, no more. In other words, you can't just take a few LS courses and, by going half time, pick up a JD in six years. It's not permitted. Going to night law school involves carrying a 3/4s load. You'll have a lot of work to do outside class. It's a tough road to hoe. </p>

<p>Third, LS is VERY expensive. Now, perhaps there's a good, low-cost public U LS in Chicago; I don't know. However, if you want to be a university lecturer working for a NGO how are you going to pay back LS loans of $100,000+? The highest ranked LSs do have good loan forgiveness programs, but lower ranked LSs do not. Remember, these are educational loans so they can't be discharged in bankruptcy. </p>

<p>A better alternative: get a job at a university and go to its LS at night. Even better, get tenure and use your sabbatical to go to LS. Many poli scie profs at the university my kid attended for LS had law degrees from the same u. I doubt they paid full tuition. </p>

<p>Another alt: check out joint degree programs at the U where you are a grad student. You might be able to double count some courses. You might be able to get better fin aid. It's at least worth investigating. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>no offense, but if your "dream career" is to work for an NGO, why are you in a philosophy PhD program? International relations, public policy, etc. seem like better choices. There are several people at my law school who left PhD programs at the master's level because they realized they wanted to do different kinds of work than their doctorate would allow.</p>

<p>jonri, that was kind of what I was thinking... too bad, too bad. Definitely will be a more difficult road in that case. But perhaps some things can change up until that time, still have quite a ways to go but like to have some long term ideas in place I can be moving towards. </p>

<p>Stacy I am doing political philosophy as my focus, and you seemed to pick only one part, and not the lecturing at university part... I double majored in poli sci/philosophy in undergrad so there is where the interest comes from. It is more to have a different niche. I am not too interested in statistical analysis, american politics, etc. I took mostly PHM/POT classes...</p>

<p>I'd love to do NGO too, and Grad school in International Studies sounds great.</p>

<p>perhaps it would be better to stop at the masters level, then do the law, same time...2 degrees.</p>