Profile Eval--Should I take the GMAT/Do I have a shot @ MBA?

Based on your description and fantastic LSAT score, I think you will do very well on the GMAT (there is still a chance to screw it up but I think we can check mark it for the sake of discussion). Ross is a great and very competitive program; it may be tough to get in with just a few years of legal clerk experience but not impossible.

One weakness of a dual degree I can see is that your lack of work experience (not for admission sake but for your sake of looking for a job). It is tough finding a job (even with a Ross MBA) if you have not proven yourself in the business world - one reason it is not recommended to get an MBA without a few years of work experience. Your main chance to get the experience and exposure to employers is the internship in the summer and I am not sure how it will work with JD/MBA schedule. MBA is a good thing to have on your resume but due to lack of experience, you will have to start a bit lower on the ladder and work your way up. You have to pay your dues and you do that before or after (most of the time, not always)

The only negative I can see with dual degrees is that they are somewhat of a weaker proposition than just a dedicated degree (usually you don't get in as deep and with the interruption in the LAW school, you have to catch up after the break for bschool). The U of Michigan JD/MBA program is actually the better of what I have seen. You would get 3 semesters in business school and 5 semesters in Law School. So, you are technically only skipping a semester of BSchool and a semester of Law School.

You will also get out of sync with the friends you make in law school since you will go to bschool the second year. On other hand, in bschool you will be a bit out of sync since everyone will be doing internships and looking for jobs whereas you will have another 2.5 years to go until you complete the degree and can be employable or take the bar.

I think the bottom line is - you will do great with a LAW or JD/MBA or MBA degree from Ross or any of the schools you have mentioned - there is no doubt about that. So, the worst case scenario is you spend a year or two extra at school and have an extra $75K in student loans.

My suggestion would be - think of jobs you would like to have and do and then research what experience/background/education some of the key people in that field have. If not, and the extra $70K and 1-2 years does not scare you (and you feel confident you are capable of interviewing well and getting a job locked in), then in the grand scheme of things and in retrospect - $70K is not that much.

Just to add one more thing - I don't think the application should be the deterrent in the decision.

Thanks for your thorough analysis. I hadn't considered the disadvantages of a dual degree before... definitely a great point. Social dynamics (and the ability to make substantial friendships) in grad school is also fairly important to me so I can see how being off temporally could put me at a disadvantage.

I'll take your suggestion and look into what some of the successful people in my field of interest have done academically and make my decision from there. You've gone a lot more in-depth than anything I've considered so far so I really do appreciate your comments. Thanks again.

Take it for what it is worth - I know very little about you and some of these things may not apply to your profile. You may be a very energetic/motivated and focused person or you may be a person who takes forever to make a decision (the answers would be different for those 2 personalities ).... and there is no shame in taking forever to make a decision - I am thinking of the time I was shopping for pants or shoes (luckily that happens only once every few years)

I have encountered a number of JD/MBA folks and most of the time they did not work in a legal role. They were in real estate, consulting, or making deals for others and I think they were getting an MBA first and JD second. You are in a slightly different boat though. JD first and MBA second. I guess it would not hurt but what is the better option - a stellar lawyer or a middle of the road legal/business guy?

P.S. Business school is very different from the law school in the fact that the future performance is driven by your experience before the shcool. As someone said it here, bschool is like a car - it can be a Bentley (HBS) or a Volkswagen (Kellog) but at the end, it comes down to how good of a driver you are. A Bentley will not make you drive better. It is simply a tool/machine.

There is a similarity too between JD and MBA - better schools get better job offers and though you are not guaranteed a job, 80%+ students at the top 10 bschools have at least one great job offer at the time of graduation. However, it is less critical than at the law school and you are not ranked at graduation - nobody knows if you were the best or worst student in BSchool. I don't think anyone asks for GPA or anything like that.

I didn't know BSchool students weren't ranked/employers didn't ask for GPAs during interviews... that sounds like a fantasy world compared to law school.

Law school conditions students to stay as far away from middle of the road as possible (B-/C+ law students do not get good enough offers to justify a $150k+ investment imo). It's like day and night when it comes to the value of grades in BSchool vs LS.

The idea of business school serving as a car for the good driver instead of a driver's ed class focused on theories behind why people drive (law school) is illuminating. I vastly underestimated the differences between law school and business school. Loving the insight.