Hi...I am currently 22 years old (female) and am working at the International Monetary Fund on a two year contract in the Research Assistant Program with the Monetary and Capital Markets Department. I did my undergrad in a double major from University of Maryland Smith School of Business in Economics which was an Honors Thesis as well and in Finance witha GPA of 3.8 where I was in many leadership positions such as being a resident assistant and on the council for diversity within residence halls and incharge of developing a conducive academic environment in my residence hall. Along with this I have also worked with Ernst & Young in Consultancy in India and have helped them give advice to pharmaceutical companies to setup in India. I also have produced a paper based on my recommendations and work there. While in high school I have been involved with setting up of small home-businesses for rural women in India and for excellence in Academics, ExtraCurricular/Leadership and Sports I was awarded an Excellence Award given to only three people in a batch of 60+ in my high school graduating class. My GMAT scores are 700+. I will be applying in the dual degree JD/MBA program later this year.

What do you think my chances are of making to:
Harvard
Yale
UPenn
Colombia
Georgetown
NYU
Duke
UVA

Many thanks for taking time to evaluate my profile and giving me any tips you might have for the application process and making choices. I sincerely appreciate it.

Also apart from the above mentioned schools if you think I should consider some others which could be a good fit please let me know. Thanks!!

Why are you doing a JD/MBA? What do you want to do after you graduate?

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com

For a number of primary and secondary reasons:

-Eventually I want to start up my own business and get into enterpreneurship and I think having both an MBA and a JD will help me understand the legal aspect and the financial/business aspect of running a successful business so I can have an insight into both.

-I am interested in corporate law and I wanted to have an MBA to be able to complement the JD. Though I have heard it is not needed, I feel like it might give me a competitive edge after I graduate. Would you agree?

-Job security. I am an international student and I don't know of many international students who have done their JD in the US been accepted at good law firms for internships and jobs and have had no visa issues (H1B/Green Card etc). For these reason, if my JD leads me to a dead end I want to have a backup plan. (Though obviously this is not a reason I will cite to the business schools I apply to lol!)

What do you think? Thanks again for your insight! Appreciate it.

Here's the thing.

Business is a profession of generalists, whereas Law is a profession of specialists.

In business, your job as a manager isn't to be the "expert" at any one thing, but to make sure the experts are working together. You are an enabler. If you think of most successful entrepreneurs, they are really good at getting people who are smarter than they are to work for them. And this is what an MBA teaches you - it gives you a broad base of skills which allow you to be that generalist - whether it's managing a group at a bank, starting your own business, being a VP or CEO of a company, and so forth.

The law, on the other hand, is the opposite. It's a profession of specialists. Since the legal system is so complex, there is no such thing as a "generalist" lawyer. A corporate attorney will still need a divorce attorney to handle his divorce. A trademark lawyer will need a litigation attorney to handle his/her lawsuit. A securities lawyer in need of an H1B or green card will still need to rely on the expertise of an immigration lawyer. An entrepreneur who used to be a corporate lawyer will need an labor attorney if his/her company is being faced with an employment discrimination suit.

In short, only do a JD if you plan on practicing as an attorney.

Unlike an MBA where the knowledge you learn can be directly applicable to the business world, you don't learn anything specific enough in a JD that will help you UNLESS you are a practicing attorney.

In those 3 years in a JD, you are learning how to THINK like an attorney -- and how to apply those critical thinking skills within the context of the legal system. BUT, you really don't have the skills or expertise to be a real lawyer with just a JD. All the JD gives you is the means to go on and write the state bar. And you only develop your "trade" as a lawyer working as an associate at a law firm in the speciality of your choice. Talk to any lawyer about something not in their speciality, and they are not that much more knowledgeable about it than you are -- a trademark attorney probably doesn't know that much more about securities law than you do (or at least not enough to make him/her qualified to give advice on securities law).

If a company is going through a lawsuit, no one is going to trust you to handle it in lieu of a litigation lawyer just because you have a JD (but never practiced as a litigation attorney). And even if you were working as internal counsel, the company would probably hire a law firm to help you out anyways.

Again, a JD teaches you NOTHING about the practical applications of the law. Talk to most lawyers, and they will tell you that a JD is a waste of time unless you intend on practicing law. Your actual value as a lawyer comes with experience in a particular specialty.

As an entrepreneur, the smartest thing you can do is not to get a JD, but to hire good lawyers to work with you.

So if you're looking for a JD/MBA, only do so if you're looking to be a practicing attorney in a speciality where business knowledge may be valuable (i.e. trademark/IP in tech, sports and entertainment, etc.). In other words, a JD/MBA is for future lawyers who want business knowledge, and not future businesspeople who want legal knowledge. If you're a future entrepreneur/business professional seeking legal knowledge, hire a good lawyer - the fees you pay to a trusted attorney are worth every penny. Getting a JD to save on future legal fees is the dumbest idea there is (but one that probably drives so many folks to want a JD/MBA aside from the fact that it might look impressive to themselves even if employers really don't care).

It sounds like you really need to talk to more attorneys and business professionals out there. You're young, so you have plenty of time to figure stuff out.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com

Thanks Alex for some great advice. Keeping the reasons aside, what do you think, based on my credentials, getting into a top program is possible or no? If I were to apply for an MBA alone.

Thanks again.

Harvard and Wharton are stretches - worth applying like a lottery ticket, but make sure you apply to other schools

Columbia, Yale, Duke, UVA, and NYU - you should be competitive for these schools; these are the schools you should be focusing on.

Georgetown - a good "backup" school for you.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com

Thanks Alex...I was wonderinf with my profile...wat are my chances at Stanford. I recently cisited their website and though my goals were much aligned to what they talked about on their website. Any insights from you, much appreciated.

Same as HBS -- slim to none.

It's not about aligning your goals or fit (well it is, assuming you're competitive for the schools you're targeting) - you're competing against the same group of kids who are applying to HBS and Wharton.

If it's a dream for you to go to Stanford, by all means apply, but know that it's a lottery ticket, and focus on schools that are more within your range.

And focus more on why you are wanting to go back to grad school (and what kind of grad school). My hunch is that you're more focused on branding your resume instead of figuring out why or what it's for in the first place (which is far more important).

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com