While it looks impressive to have both a law and business degree, some students are finding that it is not all it’s cracked up to be. Take Dina Allam, for example. After graduating from Ohio State University with a J.D. and MBA, she struggled to get a job.

Why? Well, according to Allam, “people don’t see the value in the joint degree. They think I’m confused.”

Long, long ago, a degree was crucial in achieving success. However, the Web (in my opinion) and all it has to offer has been one of several factors in changing all of that. Today, passion is a huge asset and street-smarts to achieve big dreams is also a plus. Now, degrees are still impressive to investors looking to help you out with a start-up business but is the dual degree really the impressive part? Maybe not.

I think so but I’m not hiring lawyers with an MBA. And according to Allam, “they [law schools] made it sound like there were so many careers you could go into. I definitely think all the interviews I had were because I was in business school and not because I had a law degree.”

Popularity: 7% [?]

College isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be nowadays. After 4-6 years of studying, students are asking themselves: Where do I go from here? And with times changing rapidly, degrees don’t necessarily guarantee a job nor do they promise great money and stability. Therefore, pushing on with an education is becoming more and more popular. Law enthusiasts who majored in business often wonder which choice is better for their career: a JD or an MBA.

Well, here are a few opinions that were found on various blogs. Take it with a grain assault…or not. But, whichever choice you make, the bottom line really comes down to where the passion lies. If you love to do something, pursue it! You will succeed…sooner or later.

“Don’t go to law school. I wish I had entered an MBA program instead. MBA will earn you as much as if not more money than being a lawyer, you finish school in half the time and you don’t have to worry about passing some stupid bar exam at the end of it. I’m in my 3rd year of law and I am still wondering if I want to be a lawyer.” anonymous - mbwana.blogspot.com

“I went to law school for 1 year, did relatively well (3.2 GPA) and didn’t return. Now I’m doing my MBA instead. I liked the intellectual aspect of Law, but the practice is MUCH different. After working for a firm over the summer and seeing what was in store, I cut and run pretty quickly. Plus, I never really “wanted” to be a lawyer, I just thought law school would be a logical place to go after getting a BA in philosophy, plus I had no job prospects at the time. 2 very bad reasons to spend $16,000 to not get a degree.

So, I’m doing an MBA instead. While Law school was more intellectually challenging, the MBA offers SO many choices of fields to go into. It has been pretty eye opening for me. True, getting a law degree isn’t a bad thing for your job prospects. But, if you’re like me who didn’t even want to be a lawyer, much less know how I would apply a law degree outside the field of law, then maybe the MBA is best.

Sometimes I regret quitting law school but then I think back at how lost I felt there and how I dreaded graduating and trying to get a job at a firm or market myself as a non-lawyer with a law degree.” anonymous - mbwana.blogspot.com

“These days, when people consider doing an advanced degree, their thoughts often turn towards an MBA. Why an MBA over another degree? It’s a general degree that opens many doors (e.g., finance, HR, consulting, management) in many industries (e.g., healthcare, finance, manufacturing). With healthcare professionals, an MBA is often the degree of choice when looking to leave clinical work behind or enter administration,” Cynthia Piccolo - medhunters.com.

“You might want to do a combination program like law/MBA. If so, you’ll have to do well enough on the LSAT (the standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council and used as an admissions tool at more than 200 law schools throughout North America) to be admitted into the law program. And remember that it will take longer to complete a dual program.” Cynthia Piccolo - medhunters.com

Popularity: 8% [?]

After spending countless hours studying in law school, a break is definitely needed. However, taking a semester off isn’t always a good option. Breaking the academic routine can turn into a permanent thing. Getting back in the game isn’t as easy as it sounds. Therefore, exploring other options is the way to go.

While ditching school is a bad move, choosing a summer associate program in another country…now that might be your ticket. And speaking of tickets, these associate programs abroad offer discounted hotels, ticket rates, etc… Think about it — traveling the world while getting school credit along with the benefits of an education outside of the classroom doesn’t sound too shabby, huh?

Take Natasha Y. Hsieh, for instance. She is a third-year student at Boston College Law School but during her summer associate program, she spent seven weeks in Palo Alto, Calif., and six weeks in Hong Kong as DLA Piper summer associate.

“They specifically were looking for people willing to go abroad, especially Asia, so this is how I entered the firm,” said Hsieh.

New hires are actually seeking lawyers who are willing to work abroad. So, pack your bags, enjoy your life, and work in a land far, far away where the experience will never be forgotten.

Popularity: 8% [?]

With the economy falling apart right before our eyes, lawyers in school are very worried about their chances at scoring a job come graduation.

“It’s definitely not the best economy to try to find a job in,” said a third-year law student.

It is estimated that nearly 44,000 law students nationwide will graduate and their most pressing concern is loan debt. Without employment, paying off student loans is overwhelming to say the least. According to law school career services, they are trying to give students a positive outlook.

“I’ve got students coming in asking if they should go for an LL.M,” said Carole Montgomery, director of career development at George Washington University Law School in Washington. “I tell them, ‘you need to make a good-faith effort to get yourself a job. They’ve got to have a back-up plan, and a back-up, back-up plan.”

The thing is this: No degree promises a permanent position in today’s world. And many, many lawyers are competing for the great jobs out there, making it a challenge. Nothing comes easy and yes, the economy is bad but can you eventually land the job of your dreams? Absolutely. It takes creativity and ambition. Anyone who wants something bad enough will eventually get it. Therefore, apply for positions you are craving! Seek out jobs you feel passionately about and forget about the economic “crisis.” In every bad situation, there is something good. Find it! With all of the financial chaos emerging, people need lawyers who they can really believe in.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Change is in the air at Harvard Law School. Following in Yale Law School’s footsteps, the top school is converting the longtime grading system from A,B,C,D and F to honors, pass, low pass, and fail.

According to officials at Harvard, the changes are intended to discourage students from focusing so much on specific grades, and pay more attention to learning. But hold up…tell that to the C student who will be thrown into the “low pass” category with the D’s. I don’t know about you but when a class is really hard, a C is worth celebrating because it’s much better than a D, right? Not anymore.

Robbing the C of its pride, who knows if this system will be an instigator in more academic learning or just something to push the C’s over the edge.

A’s are obviously the “honor” students and B equals pass, which in my opinion, doesn’t sound nearly as cool as a B! Pass, shmass! I want my B.

President of the Harvard Law School Bar Association, Daniel Thies, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the new grading system, but has questions…

“We need more information right now. We are blindsided by it,” Thies said.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The University of Michigan Law School is making things a whole lot easier for their own undergrad students. Starting very soon, the elite law program is introducing a new program called the Wolverine Scholars Program, which will open their law school doors to in-house undergraduates with the requirement that they have a 3.8 GPA, completion of at least their junior year and have NOT taken the LSAT.

Yes, you heard it right. This particular program bypasses the LSAT completely. While some folks in the legal community have criticized the change as an attempt to climb up the law school rankings, admissions Dean Sarah Zearfoss said that is definitely not true. Instead, she claims it is an attempt to persuade more Michigan undergrads and in-state residents to enroll because right now, the vast majority of students are from out of state.

“There’s a perception among Michigan undergrads that they don’t have a chance of getting in [to the law school],” Zearfoss said. “People end up not applying because their LSAT score is below the median. They just give up.”

Additionally, Zearfoss said, the law school wants to spare top Michigan undergrads the stress and cost of taking the LSAT.

The Wolverine Scholars Program will consider factors such as hours the students work, whether they come from an “educationally deprived” background with few assets and whether they are responsible for the primary care of family members.

While this sounds like a great plan, especially for those students who aren’t jumping for joy over test-taking, I personally think it’s a bad idea. Think about it - if you get into a school under different standards then the rest, you’ll always be considered “the student who couldn’t pass the LSAT.” With that kind of stigma, it can have long-lasting effects on the ego, pride and self-worth. And in the future, would someone pay big bucks for a lawyer who bypassed the LSAT or one who took it, nailed it, and got accepted to a competitive school by actually competing with his fellow colleagues for a spot?

Popularity: 6% [?]

Once upon a time…an education guaranteed stability. College was for those high-achieving folks who would later go on to get paid decent to high salaries, own a home, live comfortably. So much for once upon a time. Today, college grads are waiters/waitresses and doctors are puppets to the greedy insurance companies.

Lawyers are taking on employment, like everyone else, where the cost of living has tripled and the pay has remained the same. It has seriously made “the american dream” a faint memory and most people work incredibly hard without being able to make ends meet. Resentful? You bet!

According to Dan Griffin, a prosecutor for the Cook County State Attorney’s Office in Chicago who has taken on a second job at night doing construction, it’s the only way to pay off his $70,000 law school loan, save for a house and have a chance at some future stability.

“I never thought I’d be working this hard as a lawyer,” said Griffin. “I love my job, but the guys I work with on construction, who are union, make more than I do as a lawyer. It’s pretty ridiculous.”

Griffin is part of a growing group of prosecutors and assistant public defenders who are moonlighting to make ends meet.

“More and more people are asking for permission to teach,” said Howard Finkelstein, public defender for Broward County, Fla. “I always give them permission. I want to keep people because turnover is such a huge problem so I have to let them make enough money to feed their families.”

In short, a formal education has become more of a burden than an asset. However, it is one thing that can never be taken away from you. Still, paying it off and trying to survive financially makes you wonder…is it all worth it?

Popularity: 4% [?]

After spending several years busting out the books and studying all day/all night while trying to keep up with your fellow students/competitors, when law school is close to an end, the dreaded bar exam is just one last remaining obstacle (until it’s job search time, that is, but we won’t even go there today). Feared by students nationwide, the same recurring question comes to mind: “Will I pass?”If the cramming in school wasn’t enough, the bar exam is like an added big barrier that must be overcome and when it comes time to climb this hurdle, students are tired and well… pretty much over the books, terms, memorizing, and coffee-indulging, sleepless nights.

That is why when columnist/lawyer, Eric Turkewitz from the Turkewitz Law Firm writes an article about New York bar exam’s legendary screw-ups at www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com, law students everywhere started cringing.

In 1985, the multi-state exam given inside one of the New York Passenger Ship Terminals on the west side of Manhattan was either lost or stolen. Yep, that’s right, all your work…gone, baby, gone. And guess what? Hundreds had no choice but to re-take the exam. Tragic!

And don’t chalk this error up to an ’80s issue that wouldn’t happen today. Last year, they pulled a repeat by “losing some essay answers that were typed on laptops, due to a software crash.” How to remedy the problem? They gave a “grade approximation.” Out of the 47 student’s essays that vanished, the Board of Law Examiners failed six of the students based on an approximation of grades and the other 32 students either passed or failed based on the rest of the exam.

The moral of the story is that just when you think there’s nothing to fear but fear itself, think again. However, on the flip side, one of the students successfully appealed despite being told that there wasn’t an appeal process and won his first case. So you see, even fear can be overcome by the determination to NOT have to retake that dreaded test again.

Popularity: 5% [?]