Law School/Business School - Graduate Degree

Applying to College
1

<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),<br>
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>

2

<p>You ought to try asking on the Law School and MBA forums.</p>

3

<p>lot of people get their JD right after undergrad. If you cannot get into a joint program, try applying for the JD and doing your three years. That way, you have three more years of experience (even if it’s not work experience) that can transition into a good MBA bid.</p>

<p>Your grades and background is just fine, right? So you should focus instead on a likely path. MBA programs tend to require experience. JD programs do not.</p>

4

<p>lawyers are having a tough time finding jobs.
unless you want to be an ambulance chaser it it really really hard!</p>

5

<p>3.3 at UNC won’t get you into any of those schools.</p>

6

<p>Your LSAT and work experiences are well qualified, and you’ve got some good essay/interview topics from your experiences. Your GPA is the only thing dragging you down. You want at least a 3.7 for a decent chance</p>

7

<p>You have a 3.3 in journalism (an easier, non-quant major) from a solid, but not spectacular university, and you expect to score a 175 to 180 on the LSAT?</p>

<p>Just out of curiosity, have you taken a timed practice exam at a place like Kaplan?</p>

<p>If you actually do end up with that high of a score on the LSAT, then you are going to need to change your study habits for law school. I know two people who went to top tier law firms (Georgetown, Harvard), and both of them graduated at the top of their undergrad class and scored 170+ on the exam.</p>

8

<p>Why do you even want an MBA/JD? What do you want to do as a career? Business and law are quite distinct fields; there are very few fields in which they overlap (only one I can think of is managing a large corporate law firm, and even that can be achieved just as easily with just an MBA or just a JD).</p>

<p>Also, while a JD doesn’t need work experience, that MBA is not going to be very useful without extensive work experience, since it is very, very hard to actually learn real-world business by simply taking classes in business (which is what you do for the MBA, along with networking).</p>

<p>I also agree with Bill73. Your GPA is fairly low, in a major that is not necessarily very difficult. How sure are you that you will get an extremely high GMAT?</p>