Philosophy M.A. and then Law School?

[you'll_never_get_to_heaven]

I'm curious if anyone active on this board has taken this path, as I've noticed that quite a few graduates of the top terminal M.A. programs have entered law school and I'm curious about doing this myself.

[BabyFarmer]

Not me personally but that's a p common path for people in my program.

[PolPhil]

Just finished an MA and am currently applying to both PhD programs and law schools, with the hopes of doing both at the same time.

[epistemicjustice]

A fair bit of Canadians do this but we have the benefit of relatively generous funding for MAs. I'm considering it and I know of at least 2 people (probably more, haven't had the time to really poll them about it) in my incoming cohort who plan on going to law school after. I imagine the acceleration of funding being pulled and opportunities being lost due to the pandemic has added to this as more and more people are deterred from pursing a PhD. 

[SmugSnugInARug]

I don’t know if any of the schools are up your alley philosophically, but some schools have joint Phil. MA/Law degree programs (including Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA, Boston College, Duke, and Duquesne and i’m sure plenty more).

[maxhgns]

I know several people who've done this, and it seems to have worked out fine. Remember, however, that the law market is also saturated. It's not as bad as the TT market is for philosophy, but still! It's worth bearing in mind as you choose courses and internships.

[DDgroun]

On 7/30/2020 at 9:13 PM, maxhgns said:

I know several people who've done this, and it seems to have worked out fine. Remember, however, that the law market is also saturated. It's not as bad as the TT market is for philosophy, but still! It's worth bearing in mind as you choose courses and internships.

I know several peoples too, yes it works, but it's really hard.

[you'll_never_get_to_heaven]

On 8/10/2020 at 10:39 PM, DDgroun said:

I know several peoples too, yes it works, but it's really hard.

 

Yup! I'm so happy to be in an M.A. and not a doctoral program, so at the end of the day I am not so screwed if I decide not to pursue anything further. 

[Marcus_Aurelius]

On 8/13/2020 at 9:01 PM, you'll_never_get_to_heaven said:

 

Yup! I'm so happy to be in an M.A. and not a doctoral program, so at the end of the day I am not so screwed if I decide not to pursue anything further. 

To be fair, people in PhD programs sometimes stop at an MA.

[law student]

My username is a little outdated now, but I did my M.A. in philosophy then went to a top-10 law school on a scholarship and now a practicing attorney. Happy to answer any questions about the path. 

I would just add - law as a day to day job is nothing like an academic pursuit. I spend my days in excel spreadsheets and dealing with really small problems that are taken too seriously and the stress is constant. Happy to discuss more, but as far as the law world, I have probably a top 1% legal job and it is still insufferable and awful.