Choosing between JD or PhD?

[Scalia]

I was wondering anyone has any advice or has chosen between these career paths and has some insight that they feel would be beneficial, I would love to hear it. Although most of you won't believe this is true, I honestly could see myself doing either of these degrees.I guess the main reason that I am interested in going to graduate school is that I can't really think of anything that I would want to do more than teach at the collegiate level. I'm also interested in research, but my main objective is to be an educator. Therefor, teaching at pretty much any four year institution would be satisfactory. However, I'm not 100% convinced that I have enough passion to complete a PhD despite my desire to teach. However, I can see myself being a lawyer simply because I think that I would be really good at it and I'm the weird individual that might like the type of work performed by attorneys. However, I think that I could get burnt out and tired of doc review at a large firm.

In conclusion, I'm considering a career in law because I think that I could be good at it and I could financially support a family and live in a location that's desirable. On the downside I know that the hours can be long and the work dull. However, the lifestyle of a professor seems to be attractive and seems like a good life to live.

Any thoughts?

[Keller65]

There are some PhD/JD programs.

[Scalia]

There are some PhD/JD programs.

I've considered a joint degree, but everyone that I've talked to that has either a PhD. or JD has emphasized that you will probably only use one of the degrees in your career so the extra time spent completing the other isn't worth the opportunity costs. Also, the only market I think that it's an advantage to have both degrees is legal academia and it is extremely difficult it is to break into that field.

Edited April 23, 2010 by Scalia

[catchermiscount]

Based on what you've written, the JD seems like the smarter bet. Being passionate about the business is just about a necessary condition for success, and that passion is generally more about research and less about teaching. Indeed, getting a job at "any four year institution" is contingent upon performing well in your five years of graduate training, and your advisors will likely not be evaluating you on your capacity to teach. Backing up a step, getting into graduate school generally requires a thoughtful, persuasive statement of purpose, and good SoPs tend to be about preferred research questions rather than teaching goals.

If, after thinking hard about these facts, you are still interested in the business, then maybe you're more passionate about it than you think. Skim some recent issues of the top all-field journals and see if you'd be interested in writing something like that. Or, look up the CVs of faculty at institutions you would one day like to work for and read their work. You might like what you read more than you'd expect! Good luck.

[Tan]

(1) I know a few people who either have or are pursuing JD/PhD joint degrees, so it's doable. But it's more useful to pursue some sort of academia/social activism career than it is if you'd want to work in a law firm, I imagine.

(2) This is really the sort of decision that you can't get satisfactory advice for: It's two different lifestyles, priorities, work environments, goals... Hard to do a pro/con list here, it's just qualitatively hard to compare. If you are really undecided, your best bet is to take a few years off, try to get a job related to something you'd want to do in the legal realm and see whether it's interesting to you or whether you'd be happier in academia.

[socme123]

I made the mistake of going with JD over PhD, not because of the stability et al., but because I thought I'd like it.

WRONG. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER.

Now, after accumulating nearly 100K in debt, I'm preparing to apply for PhD programs. I am so full of regret for the years and dollars I wasted pursuing a profession that makes me want to kill myself every day. Don't make the same mistake I did.

If you want to teach political science, pursue a poli sci PhD. Happy lawyers are rare.

[Scalia]

I made the mistake of going with JD over PhD, not because of the stability et al., but because I thought I'd like it.

WRONG. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER.

Now, after accumulating nearly 100K in debt, I'm preparing to apply for PhD programs. I am so full of regret for the years and dollars I wasted pursuing a profession that makes me want to kill myself every day. Don't make the same mistake I did.

If you want to teach political science, pursue a poli sci PhD. Happy lawyers are rare.

Thanks for the reply. I'm still wrestling with the decision and I really don't know what I'll do. I'm interested in teaching at a college, and doing research seems like a requirement that goes along with that. Unfortunately, how I will be evaluated as a professional is by the quality of my research.

Any other insight will be greatly appreciated.

[LeftCoast]

My situation is a bit different but close enough that I feel I have something to add. After working for many years after completing a BS in Political Science I returned for an MBA a few years ago (accumulating the debt etc..that you would going to law school) and am now going to be starting a PhD in PS in the fall. I am not saying that the MBA is useless (some of my coursework actually helped me to define the course of study I plan to pursue in graduate school) but was a very expensive lesson.

What I am trying to say is that you should think about what is going to make you happy in the long run and pursue that course. I have worked in jobs I hated etc..for many years and am finally,in my late 30's, doing what I should have done 10-15 years ago.

[readeatsleep]

scalia - if you want to teach, get the PHD you would only be able to teach with your JD if its from harvard, yale, chicago, or another ultra-prestigious law school. if you are worried about research, it is totally fine to focus on teaching. not all political scientists are research junkies, and there are plenty of schools that are looking for teachers, not researchers.

good luck!

[GopherGrad]

It's hard to advise. There are plenty of people that like lawyering, although you probably won't see many of them here.

The thing with studying law is that it seems relatively few law students are well attuned to what practice will be like. You really need to spend some time understanding the range of jobs you might get depending upon your placement and performance in school and ask yourself which of them are good fits for you.

Life for a lot of new lawyers is repetetive and boring, especially at the large firms. You tend to sacrifice pay and security for interesting work and responsibility.

I think you should apply to both types of programs and see if one result or the other gives you a better shot at realizing the dream career in that branch.