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JDforRE

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MBA and JD?

Post by JDforRE » Fri Jul 21, 2017 1:50 pm

I have already been accepted, and will be attending, a regional law school paid for with the GI Bill. I would like to use my J.D. to obtain my real estate broker's license (bar members can apply and waive all other requirements in my state) and eventually run my own brokerage/ real estate investing company. My school offers a joint MBA/J.D. in 4 years. I have read other posts here saying people should not obtain a MBA with their JD, as it doesn't allow for a specialization in either, but a generic understanding in both areas, which may decrease the chances at a lucrative big law career. In other words, my understanding is that I would only be able to take the core J.D. courses and the core MBA courses, without the electives offered if I was to pursue only one or the other. The law school I am going to does offer specific real estate courses (as do most I assume) that I am interested in taking, but I don't know if I would have the open schedule to take these courses if I were to pursue the MBA. Would the MBA be potentially helpful in the world of real estate, or would my time be better spent pursuing specific real estate law courses? Any advice is appreciated.

TL;DR: Wants to do real estate. Definitely going for a J.D., is it worth my time for an MBA. Cost is paid for regardless.

acr

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Re: MBA and JD?

Post by acr » Fri Jul 21, 2017 2:04 pm

JDforRE wrote:I have already been accepted, and will be attending, a regional law school paid for with the GI Bill. I would like to use my J.D. to obtain my real estate broker's license (bar members can apply and waive all other requirements in my state) and eventually run my own brokerage/ real estate investing company. My school offers a joint MBA/J.D. in 4 years. I have read other posts here saying people should not obtain a MBA with their JD, as it doesn't allow for a specialization in either, but a generic understanding in both areas, which may decrease the chances at a lucrative big law career. In other words, my understanding is that I would only be able to take the core J.D. courses and the core MBA courses, without the electives offered if I was to pursue only one or the other. The law school I am going to does offer specific real estate courses (as do most I assume) that I am interested in taking, but I don't know if I would have the open schedule to take these courses if I were to pursue the MBA. Would the MBA be potentially helpful in the world of real estate, or would my time be better spent pursuing specific real estate law courses? Any advice is appreciated.

TL;DR: Wants to do real estate. Definitely going for a J.D., is it worth my time for an MBA. Cost is paid for regardless.
I'm not sure where you got your information, because the vast majority sounds incorrect.

I have never heard the argument about "lack of specialization" leading to decreased big law opportunities. There will be plenty of opportunities to take "specialized" classes in both programs as a JD/MBA. I mean, it's four years, so you can pack a lot of classes into that time frame. Even if you can't go as "deep" into one area as you would like, I doubt a big law firm would care that an applicant didn't take a few more useless law classes.

However, I have heard of big law firms declining to hire JD/MBA's if they feel like the candidate would rather be in business than law, but I'm not sure there's a general consensus on this.

Standard advice is to not do a JD/MBA simply for the hell of it unless you're attending a really strong program. And that doesn't seem like it's the case in your situation since you're attending a regional school.

I would spend some more time thinking about the value the MBA will add to your career. On one hand, the cost is covered, so if you're eventually gonna need an MBA, might as well get it now. But on the other hand, the MBA might not be valuable for you, and wasting the extra year might not be justified. I would speak to more people about the exact value that the MBA will have for your overall career and a career in real estate.

JDforRE

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Re: MBA and JD?

Post by JDforRE » Fri Jul 21, 2017 2:21 pm

acr wrote:
I'm not sure where you got your information, because the vast majority sounds incorrect.

I have never heard the argument about "lack of specialization" leading to decreased big law opportunities. There will be plenty of opportunities to take "specialized" classes in both programs as a JD/MBA. I mean, it's four years, so you can pack a lot of classes into that time frame. Even if you can't go as "deep" into one area as you would like, I doubt a big law firm would care that an applicant didn't take a few more useless law classes.

However, I have heard of big law firms declining to hire JD/MBA's if they feel like the candidate would rather be in business than law, but I'm not sure there's a general consensus on this.

Standard advice is to not do a JD/MBA simply for the hell of it unless you're attending a really strong program. And that doesn't seem like it's the case in your situation since you're attending a regional school.

I would spend some more time thinking about the value the MBA will add to your career. On one hand, the cost is covered, so if you're eventually gonna need an MBA, might as well get it now. But on the other hand, the MBA might not be valuable for you, and wasting the extra year might not be justified. I would speak to more people about the exact value that the MBA will have for your overall career and a career in real estate.
I appreciate the feedback.

I figured as much, I don't know if the thread was on TLS or somewhere else, can't find it now.

I guess my main concern was wasting my time on the extra courses required by the MBA if only 5-6 of them would be directly relavent to my field. Of course I am sure the rest will be somewhat relavant if I end up managing my own business... I am unsure on the MBA side of things if the three letters after the name make much of a difference in the real estate world.

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34iplaw

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Re: MBA and JD?

Post by 34iplaw » Fri Jul 21, 2017 3:28 pm

Real estate world is a pretty encompassing thing, and I suspect the value of 'MBA' varies greatly on the type of real estate one does.

It probably matters more as one is involved with larger and more complicated assets or as one gets farther away from the actual bricks and mortar.

JDforRE

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Re: MBA and JD?

Post by JDforRE » Mon Jul 24, 2017 3:19 pm

34iplaw wrote:Real estate world is a pretty encompassing thing, and I suspect the value of 'MBA' varies greatly on the type of real estate one does.

It probably matters more as one is involved with larger and more complicated assets or as one gets farther away from the actual bricks and mortar.
Thanks for the response. This is pretty close to what I was thinking. Just looking for other peoples' opinions

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