What is the value of a JD relative to other degrees?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I'm just looking at the curriculum vitaes for some of the professors that I've had as an undergraduate. Some of them have JDs in addition to "normal" degrees. Now I've always thought that college degrees go like this: associate's degree (but many people skip this level) for two years in a community college, bachelor's degree for four years in a university, and then after that comes the master's, and finally the PhD. Well, where does the JD fit into all of that? If you have a JD, are the master's and PhD not as useful? Or vice versa? What if you have both? One of my professors has this listed as her education:</p>

<p>B.A., Stanford University, 1966
J.D., Yale Law School, 1972
M.A., History, University of Washington, 1991
Ph.D. History, University of Washington, 1995</p>

<p>It looks like she has spent over 30 years all in highly ranked universities, earned four degrees, and still isn't above being an associate professor teaching undergraduate courses (she could also retire soon). Another one of my professor's education:</p>

<p>B.A., University of Colorado, 1990
J.D., American University, 1993
Ph.D., Stanford University, 2002</p>

<p>Looks like she skipped the M.A. She's also an associate professor, so I guess the M.A. doesn't really affect anything? Also, I thought law schools were all about the rankings. American University is apparently barely in the top 50. That's evidently not a major setback, is it? Anyway, in both cases, it seems that the J.D. is something that is above the B.A. but below the Ph.D, is that right? So just because you have a J.D., that doesn't necessarily mean it's the end of the line for you? What benefits are there to earning a Ph.D after one has already earned their J.D.?</p>

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<p>You get an M.A. en route to a Ph.D. in most schools.</p>

<p>For research-based professorships, a Ph.D. will tend to be favored over a J.D. A faculty member not being promoted to full professor is not a function of where they went to school, but rather their productivity as a scholar (evidenced by number of publications in top journals) and as a loyal administrator (as evidenced by teaching performance, mentorship of graduate students, being part of various committees in their respective departments, serving on boards of editors for journals, etc.).</p>

<p>You can’t really compare a J.D. to a Ph.D. as the former is a professional degree, which has its uses, and the latter is an academic degree, which prepares one for scholarly research.</p>

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<p>These professors look like they were career changers, having gotten their PhDs one or two decades after their JD; it’s not fair to compare the JD to the PhD here. To answer your question, the value of the JD relative to your other degrees depends on what your job is. Since these people are college professors, their PhD matters more than any of their other degrees.</p>