re: OT Attorneys - Is an MPA/JD dual enrollment worth my time?

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Law school packs media outlets, corporations, the Hill, every state government house in the country, the FBI, the State Department, the CIA, etc. Plenty of ibankers have law degrees, so do plenty of Bain and McKinsey analysts. It can be a good start to get you in the direction you want to go.

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It is woefully inefficient to go to law school to get into any of these areas. If you want to be in media, go get a communications/journalism degree and write your arse off. If you want to be on the Hill, go study polisci and then get a masters in something like an MPA or something. If you want to go work at Bain, get an MBA from Penn or Duke and pray. Same for being an ibanker (and kiss your life away because you'll work all day every day).

If you go to law school, you should know you want to be a lawyer. Can it get you into some other positions? Maybe. Probably you get into those other positions because you have experience outside of the law that translates, like a degree in economics or business administration. You won't become a Bain consultant simply by virtue of a JD. You need to have something more. I can tell you I could not get a job as a consultant despite 4 years of being an attorney because my background is English, not business.

To say the JD opens all these doors is disingenuous at best, and lying at worst. It is a line that has been fed by law schools to kids with no direction to pump up admissions. And it is, largely, bullshite.

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Inefficient


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Go study polisci



Oh the irony.

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I'm not in politics. What would you study to get into that field?

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I've been looking at doing either the MPA or MBA program at LSU. Will probably start in the fall. I plan on working in the public sector but I think an MBA would be way more invaluable.

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MBA is useful in both private and public sectors. MPA is useful in the public sector but next to useless in the private. If you know you'll stay in the public sector then the MPA is a solid choice and arguably more useful than the MBA. If you'll be in the private sector, get the MBA and don't think twice.

(no message)

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I think you'd be surprised how many doors a JD can open up for someone. The key distinction is that a JD will only open additional doors for certain types of candidates. Just having a JD really doesn't mean a whole lot. But when you factor a JD with prior work experience, connections, success in law school, etc., a JD is a valuable degree to have

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This is what I'm saying. The JD is just evidence that you know how to work fairly hard at something. It is, outside of the law, worth nothing on its own.