<p>I am finishing up my Bachelor in Real Estate from a state college and wish to get a graduate degree. The problem is, I am torn between either choosing MBA, JD, or MBA/JD. I’ve been trying to get to the root of the issue and it seems to boil down to “time.” Here is the deal. I am a commercial investment real estate broker. For those who don’t have an idea what that entails - it is a full time job (40+ hours/week). I am doing surprisingly well at this job and wish to continue to work here possibly for years to come.</p>
<p>The thing is that I really want a JD. I don’t plan to become an attorney, but you’ve no idea how much prestige and usefulness a law degree has in the industry I work in (much more so than an MBA). I also think that it is, overall, one of the most useful degrees as it applies to everyday life. Furthermore, I’ve taken some law courses in college and immediately loved the subject. However, I also understand that an MBA has some advantages as well; being able to make connections with prominent current/future business owners (potential clients for me, by the way), being perhaps the biggest of these. Note that I don’t care how much people with an MBA or JD get on average as I do not see a point in becoming a CEO or a full time attorney anyway. In helping me choose the program I should go for, please keep in mind that I need to be able to work full-time and go to college at the same time. I also know that I can pull off almost any load of work from my past experience of taking 22 hard-class units in college and working full-time while getting a 3.8 GPA, but I do want to have a little free time to go to gym and because I am still very young (19).</p>
<p>Please assume the following colleges I can get into for the following programs:
UC Davis: JD or MBA/JD
CSU-Sacramento/McGeorge School of Law: JD or MBA/JD
Stanford or UC Berkeley: MBA</p>
<p>The questions then are thus:</p>
<li>How much time (realistically, not “officially”) does the JD program in UCD/McGeorge require (lectures and homework if possible)?</li>
<li>I know Stanford has a lot of these, but does UC Davis also have some business owners I can forge relationships with in their MBA program?</li>
<li>Is UC Davis Law School perceived in any way (not necessarily ranked) as a joke in the real world? Although I want to say I don’t particularly care, I still feel the need to ask.</li>
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<p>These are the questions that I’ve been contemplating for a while, although I know there are a few others that I am forgetting and will ask later. I with to thank you taking the time to read and offer your opinions.</p>
<p>As an aside, some of the JD students will want to invest in property in the future too - both schools will provide good networks. Unless you're hoping for entreprenuers to buy office space or something, but other than that they should be somewhat similar.</p>
<p>Maybe consider that at a top-flight MBA program like Stanford (btw, this is the most competitive program you mention BY A MILE) the students are not necessarily local, or from that state, or from the US. It seems that you might live in California, but a lot of Stanford grads are going to be focused on two areas: the Silicon Valley, and NYC. So that client base you suggest might not stick around your area. Just something to keep in mind.</p>
<p>I appreciate your response as you have shed light on something I've never really considered - the georgraphic composition of top-tier business schools. This will definitely be a significant factor for me as I mostly deal in commercial land (although I have Office background as well), which typically means that most of my clients are NorCal based developers/investors who like to have the ability to manage the property and development closely themselves.</p>
<p>I realize that Stanford is uncomparable in rank to most state schools (especially in business), but I figure that if I have to sacrifice having to live away from home to go for an MBA, I might as well just aim for the top. At the risk of sounding cocky and naive, and also knowing full-well that top 10 b-schools are almost unpredictable in their admission process, I think I can get into Stanford Business, in part due to my past grades, work experience, and a few people that I've had the privilege of developing good realtionships with.</p>
<p>That said, I am being more and more persuaded that I should go for a law degree, and being aware that I can never get into Stanford Law (nor that I aspire to, honestly), Stanford is looking almost out of the picture now. However, I still don't know the answer to some vital information. That information being, how is UCD Law and McGeorge Law school in terms of time constraints and quality of education? I don't place great emphasis on the prestige of the law school (although I'd still like to know if lawyers generally think of UCD Law as a joke for some reason), but I **do **care a lot about the instructors and the curriculum, so I can actually learn stuff and have some knowledge of being able to apply it in the real world. Would McGeorge and/or UCD Law be able to fulfill this requirement? If anybody can shed some light on these questions some more I'd greatly appreciate it.</p>
<p>You will find lawyers tend to lack knowledge of business and business students lack knowledge of the law - however passing the bar s/b a goal also, although the CAL bar is one most people would want to avoid. All people in business ideally would have the combo JD/MBA with undergrad training in acctg too</p>
<p>From what I can gather, UCD is not considered a "joke." I asked some friends who are practicing attorneys or in law school, and the general consensus was that it was a good program. Not HLS, but good nonetheless.</p>
<p>Be forewarned, in law school you need to like the reasoning process best typified in the movie the PAPER CHASE. At a minimum, you need to able to quickly grasp what's referred to as "black letter law" which are the basic elements of law, although in practical terms you will be also reading massive amounts of appellate cases. Some people can handle this and some cannot. The bar exam itself due to the importance of the multi-state exam (except Lousiana and a few others) will be due to a large degree an IQ test, requring very fast reading ability and the ability to quickly pick out the least worst answer. High scorers on the LSAT test have a major advantage on the bar exam, because nearly always strong multi-state results will correlate with high LSAT scores</p>
<p>MBA programs are usually about working with case studies, and will require some (at least) minimal quantitative abilities. Sometimes the concepts can be harder than law school, but the pressure can be less, because the tests typically are more balanced out - often combined with credit for answering questions in class</p>
<p>Don't attempt these degrees just for the end product, you have to enjoy the process itself</p>
<p>I do enjoy law (from the limited experience I had in law classes and being present in a few legal cases) and I also enjoy business very much, but I see that there is still a little more research I have to do and reflect some more before making a final decision. I have very recently gotten to know a few people who went to all of the above mentioned schools and I will try to talk to them about the subject as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses. You guys have been a tremendous help and I appreciate all of you taking the time to share your thoughts and information on the topic. :)</p>