Yale Moves to Make Its Three-Year JD/MBA Program Official

Scott — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:11:36 +0000

For the past two years Yale University has offered a three-year joint JD/MBA degree, offered between Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management. Now, after a nearly year-long review, the Yale Law School faculty has voted to make the joint degree a permanent offering. While the SOM faculty has yet to vote, it is expected that it will also vote in favor of making the program permanent.

Yale’s JD/MBA program is only six semesters long, with no summer component, making it one of the shortest such programs in the country. Students spend two academic years in the Law School and one year in the School of Management. While Yale’s accelerated JD/MBA is not the first such program in the nation — Northwestern, Duke, and Penn also offer similar programs — the fact that Yale Law School has finally embraced this model is big deal, and it could mean that more top universities will soon follow.

Note that for a while now Yale has offered a more traditional JD/MBA that spans four years. Nine students are currently enrolled in the three-year program, and many of them have stated that the accelerated program’s lack of a summer term attracted them to the program. While Yale hasn’t yet created purpose-built courses that merge the two disciplines (as Columbia has done), it may start to do so in the future.

For more information about Yale’s three-year JD/MBA program, visit the Yale website.

Is a JD/MBA right for you? We’ve written about this subject multiple times. Start with this article, and ask yourself some tough questions to help yourself determine whether you truly need both degrees, or if you just like the sound of a JD/MBA. If you decide a JD/MBA is right for you, take a look at Veritas Prep’s specialized JD/MBA admissions consulting services. And, as always, be sure to find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Is a JD/MBA Right for You?

Scott — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:11:53 +0000

Mmm... the best of both worlds.

We get a lot of calls from applicants who are thinking about pursuing a JD/MBA. With potential paths into almost countless professional opportunities, such a degree seems the a can’t-miss, best-of-both-worlds prospect, right? Especially in an uncertain job market, why not invest a little extra in one’s education now and be in an even better position to succeed down the road?

We do like JD/MBA degree for a lot of reasons, and love some of the newer, more innovative joint-degree programs that some leading universities have rolled out in recent years — see our coverage of recent announcements at Columbia, Yale, and Penn — but we end up talking a majority of these JD/MBA candidates out of one degree or the other.

Why? Because these applicants rarely have thought through all of the implications of pursuing both degrees.

We’re not here to tell you a JD/MBA is a bad idea. We think it’s a terrific program, but it’s certainly not for everyone. With that in mind, here are three things you should ask yourself before applying:

How Much More Will You Spend on Your Education?
A joint degree often makes more sense for a law student seeking to add the MBA than a business school student thinking about pursuing a JD. This is true for a simple reason: law school is a longer program. Since most JD/MBA programs are four years in length (the most notable exceptions are Northwestern, Duke, and Penn, all offer three-year programs), it is only one extra year for a law student, yet it is double the length for an MBA student.

For an MBA student, the financial advantages to a JD/MBA are sometimes hard to identify but it usually comes down to versatility. A JD/MBA may not increase immediate earning power, but it will provide some security in a recession economy. Lawyers are seeing bonuses minimized and salaries frozen, but for the most part they are keeping their jobs. “Legal” is often the last budget item to get cut. Therefore, it can be quite comforting to have a JD in a time when Wall Street banks are transforming into nationalized institutions, right down to the government jobs. For law school students, the benefits of adding an MBA are more immediate and more tangible. Most (not all) top law firms pay a JD/MBA bonus that is equitable to a low-level federal clerkship bonus ($15K-$30K), and many will start an incoming associate with a JD/MBA at a second-year salary.

On the other hand, there is the increased cost to consider. A four-year program requires staying in school for at least one more year (two if you are an MBA student), while three-year programs feature higher annual tuition rates due to the summer coursework. However, this is only part of the equation. You also need to account for the lost earnings during that additional year of school. Many people use the wrong calculus here, adding in housing and living expenses (you are going to have to pay for those things whether you are in school or working), but ignoring the wages they fail to garner.

What Career Do You Want to Pursue in the Short-Term?
What you want to do right after you earn you graduate will have a big impact on whether or not you should add the second degree. At the highest level, you can break this down into legal careers and jobs outside of the legal field. Legal careers include general counsel work, public interest work, academia, and, of course, practicing at a big firm. Non-legal careers are basically anything else that does not require admission to the state bar.

Assuming you want to pursue a legal career, adding an MBA can soften the learning curve. Many corporate attorneys will tell you from firsthand experience that this advantage is short-lived as you quickly acquire the knowledge you need, but there is no denying that a new associate can come out of the gates with more confidence and can perform tasks more quickly if they have a solid understanding of the business principles in play. Merely possessing a comfort level with the vocabulary can make a world of difference. There is nothing that feels worse than having a senior associate explain mezzanine loans to you or map out an org chart on the back of some scratch paper. Again, it is really only relevant during the first 18 months or so of your practice, but that is increasingly becoming a good chunk of a corporate attorney’s shelf life.

The biggest downside to securing an MBA on the road to a legal career (beyond the financial and opportunity costs outlined in previous posts) is the perception it might create among potential employers. Simply put, a JD/MBA is often seen as a “red flag” at law firms, due to increased flight risk presented by the JD/MBA applicant. That said, this stigma is starting to go away and for good reason: there’s nowhere to fly off to. Many of those lucrative counterpart jobs have dried up in the wake of the financial markets’ meltdown. So while a JD/MBA is still looked upon with some measure of suspicion by many BigLaw firms, the fear that they are hiring a banker-in-training is starting to go away.

For non-legal careers, pairing a JD with an MBA can be a great way to entice a variety of potential employers. However, for the most part, there is only one traditional MBA career path that consistently rewards and appreciates the JD/MBA degree: management consulting. Many elite consulting firms prefer law students over their business school counterparts due to the critical thinking, logical reasoning, speaking, and writing skills that are often produced at top law schools. However, the downside with a JD is that he may or may not know the first thing about business. Therefore, adding an MBA – and the presumed quantitative skills that come with it – is an easy way to put those fears to rest and present a “best of both worlds” scenario to consulting firms.

What Career Do You Want in Five to Ten Years?
If you pursue a legal career right out of school, there are two ways in which earning an MBA, in addition to a JD, can help you. The first role in which a joint degree can help is as a partner at a law firm. There are a variety of “soft” skills necessary to performing the tasks of an elite law firm partner, including negotiation, human resource management, rainmaking (i.e., sales), and expansion -– all key elements to growing a practice and a book of business. Being an associate is about acquiring the skills to be a great lawyer, but by the time the firm is looking to mint new partners, they assume technical legal skill and start looking for the other areas so they can bring in more business. Versatility can also help in transitioning from a firm to a company — i.e., “going in house.” A general counsel position requires more understanding of business concepts, challenges, shortcomings, and everything else that is necessary in order to successfully operate within a large organization. Having an MBA and, more importantly, having worked with MBA students, is a huge asset when transitioning into that world.

Assuming you pursue a non-legal career right out of school, the advantages of a JD/MBA are similar: It can be a huge asset in reaching the upper echelon of a corporate hierarchy. Just as an MBA can help a lawyer transition into business, so too does a JD often put an executive over the top as a CEO candidate. It is not so much legal knowledge that a CEO needs but rather the skills and tools that lawyers often possess –- the ability to understand regulatory frameworks, a comprehension of deal timelines, recognizing transaction costs, and (this is the big one) knowing which questions to ask in a given situation. Lawyers often prove to be the best CEOs and a quick look at the Fortune 100 shows that companies are certainly aware of that fact.

Still think a JD/MBA may be right for you? Give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with one of our JD/MBA admissions consulting experts. To stay on top of all of the news and trends in grad school admissions, be sure to find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Columbia Introduces New Three-Year JD/MBA Program

Scott — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:27:20 +0000

Recently Columbia Business School and Columbia Law School jointly announced a new three-year JD/MBA program, joining schools such as Northwestern and Yale that have seen these accelerated programs grow in popularity over the past few years. The new program will accept its first class in the fall of 2011.

While the program’s final details are still taking shape, this is what we know so far: Columbia JD/MBA students will spend their first and third years at the law school and their second year at the business school. Students must complete each school’s core curriculum requirements, and can enroll in electives cross-listed at both schools. JD/MBA students will also be able to choose from any electives listed solely at either school. These students will be considered full-fledged members of both Columbia Law School and Columbia Business School. As such, they will have access to all of the academic, networking, and career opportunities that all students can use in both schools.

Columbia actually already offers a four-year JD/MBA dual-degree option, which will remain in place. The new three-year program is offers students one more way to complete the requirements for both Columbia degrees.

One way in which Columbia’s new program differs from the Northwestern JD/MBA is that applicants must apply separately to both the business school and the law school. Time is somewhat limited if you’re interested in joining the first class: The application deadline is February 15, 2011! You can visit Columbia’s site for more information on admissions.

If you’re applying to Columbia or other top schools this year, be sure to download Veritas Prep’s Annual Reports, 15 free guides to the world’s most competitive business schools. For more business school news and analysis, remember to find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Veritas Prep Blog » JD/MBA

Yale Moves to Make Its Three-Year JD/MBA Program Official

Is a JD/MBA Right for You?

Columbia Introduces New Three-Year JD/MBA Program