Concurrent degrees

The Kellogg JD/MBA is interesting. I just wonder what a top-flight law firm thinks of those law degrees. No LSAT required? Done in three years WITH an MBA? It sounds sort of watered down. Other JD/MBAs take four years.

Read into the program a little further... it's not just three academic years, it's THREE HARD years of sweat, blood, and tears with minimal breaks. The avg. GMAT for the select few that are admitted is now over 700 and most candidates do take the LSAT as well.

I wonder if there is a more demanding joint JD/MBA program on the planet? It would take some serious multitasking just to "hack it" between both schools under the time constraints (especially in year 3). Curious as to what Pelihu has to say about this...

Here is a snap shot of the class of 2009:

Class Size: 22
Number of Applications: 160
*Selectivity: ~13%
Undergraduate GPA: Middle: 80% 3.1-3.9
GMAT Mean Score: 707
Full-time Work Experience: 100%
Average Years of Full-time Work Experience: 5.0
Average Age: 28
Female: 23%
Minority: 36%


Undergraduate Majors
Undergraduate majors include computer science, economics, engineering, English, finance, government, history, industrial engineering, political science, philosophy and religion, public relations.


Undergraduate Institutions Represented
Amherst College, Boston College, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Harvard College, Louisiana State University, Northwestern University, Princeton University, Purdue University, Stanford University, Vanderbilt University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Notre Dame, University of Texas – Austin, University of Utah, and University of Virginia.

I took a quick look a the course description at that link. The most surprising thing that they say is that students have typically satisfied all Kellogg requirements by the end of the second year. That's cramming a lot of stuff into the first two years. The 3rd year of law school is generally pretty laid-back. Most people have jobs and are just taking some electives and taking it easy. The same seems to be true of this program.

The other key aspect is that the first summer is spent taking required courses. This isn't such a burden because most law students are not able to land paying internships during their first summer - but when the economy is good students from top schools do have a chance to get paid (same pay as a 1st year associate) for their summer. I was lucky enough to land a job my first year, and I think the economy might be good enough right now, especially for the type of elite student that could quality for this program.

Other than that, the selectivity seems to be in-line with top 15, but not top 5 law schools. Selectivity at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Penn & Berkeley law schools are all below the 13% for this program (6.2% at Yale & 7.8% at Stanford). Average GPAs for this bunch seems low compared to top law schools. For example, the 25-75% range for Stanford/Yale is 3.8-3.96. Even Northwestern's own law school has a range of 3.46-3.78. Still, these people have been out of school longer, so their GPAs carry less weight (just like MBA candidates). GMAT is pretty in-line with top business schools, but from a percentile standpoint pales in comparison to LSAT scores at top law schools. 707 would be about the 93rd percentile, but top 10 law schools (including #12 Northwestern) have average LSAT percentiles around 97-98th.

Selectivity seems to be more comparable to the business school side of admissions - the average of 5 years of work experience is certainly something that law schools cannot boast. I would say that this looks like a challenging and competitive program, but probably slots under the top law schools in terms of selectivity and in terms of prestige. For example, I would say that Harvard Law School has more clout in the business world than this program; but of course that is an extreme case. I'm curious as to whether most students go on to pursue business or law.

There is some coverage of JD/MBA programs here:

https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=21559