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.”

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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

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