Best field for a JD to pursue?

[xxx2012]

I am in my third year of law school to get my JD (Juris Doctor) but am finding out that law (shocking) sucks. I want to look into medical fields but am not sure which field would be best with my current degree.

It is worth mentioning also that my undergrad was from a DETC school (although my JD is regional and ABA) and my overall GPA in both is around 2.5 with business major (so I don't have a lot of science credits)

I know there are a lot of different types of medical degrees out there and was hoping to get opinions and suggestions. Thanks guys.

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[kinokoboy]

Ob/gyn

 

[DrMidlife]

Go volunteer in a hospital or clinic to find out what the different jobs are, and to find out what you can put up with.

Distance Ed: yes it's a problem, for anything competitive like MD/DO/PA.

2.5 in Distance Ed: big problem.

Best of luck to you.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Sounds like you're not really into the medical field but just want to try something new. Unfortunately, the medical field is highly competitive and has a system in place to weed out people that are not serious. Since you're not even close to knowing what you want to do, I suggest you look into the different fields (nursing, respiratory therapy, clinical nutrition, medicine, physician assistant, perfusionist, etc.) through YouTube or Google. When you narrow down what you might like down to 2 or 3 options, you should try to volunteer and shadow in that field. Go from there. Note that any of these fields will like take 3+ years BEFORE you can start schooling due to your non-science/low-GPA background.

Good luck.

 

[deleted382095]

I am in my third year of law school to get my JD (Juris Doctor) but am finding out that law (shocking) sucks. I want to look into medical fields but am not sure which field would be best with my current degree.

It is worth mentioning also that my undergrad was from a DETC school (although my JD is regional and ABA) and my overall GPA in both is around 2.5 with business major (so I don't have a lot of science credits)

I know there are a lot of different types of medical degrees out there and was hoping to get opinions and suggestions. Thanks guys.

In order for you to repair your GPA you will need to do a post-bacc program and take pre-req classes for med schools. Then, you may be able to apply to DO schools. However, most of DO schools are private and cost close to 250K by the time you graduate.

Did you have to take out any student loans for your law degree? You should double check to see if you could take out anymore loans just in case.

 

[DrMidlife]

However, most of DO schools...cost close to 250K by the time you graduate.

Also true of most MD schools.

Did you have to take out any student loans for your law degree? You should double check to see if you could take out anymore loans just in case.

There isn't any limit on what can be borrowed for med school. Stafford has a limit but it's not the only federal loan for med school - there's also GradPlus, which has no limit.

The loan problem this person likely has is private loans for that semi-accredited online degree. Those can limit in-school deferral for grad school to 4 years - 3 are used up by law school.

 

[xxx2012]

I didn't take out loans for the DETC undergrad but did for the ABA JD (around $100k)

If Medschool doesn't recognize my DETC degree, then will the old GPA go away? Will I still have to mention it as my GPA if they don't recognize the degree?

 

[realmeaning]

To answer your original question, I'm not really sure. The law is as diverse as medicine-- comparing a BigLaw attorney to a worker's comp lawyer or in-house NGO legal counsel is like apples and oranges. What law field were you considering going into? I'd say BigLaw // surgery-- the gunners, excitement, prestige.

I think you should approach this as 'what medicine subspecialty appeals to me as a person' versus 'me as a lawyer.' There are tons of posts on SDN and websites about that. Good luck.

 

[DrMidlife]

I didn't take out loans for the DETC undergrad but did for the ABA JD (around $100k)

If those are private loans, that's likely a major problem in pursuing a medical degree.

If Medschool doesn't recognize my DETC degree, then will the old GPA go away? Will I still have to mention it as my GPA if they don't recognize the degree?

The degree is recognized as undergraduate education. But again, recognition of accreditation isn't the major problem: the major problem is performance. Successful med school applicants have cumulative undergrad GPAs averaging 3.6+. Between you and medical school are another 3-4 years of undergrad education, not because you did distance ed, but because you did it poorly, and because you've taken none of the required science.

You have to submit transcripts for all college coursework when you apply to med school.

Based on your other posts you are not familiar with the basics of medical education and healthcare. Thus you are way ahead of yourself with these questions. For example, an undergrad premed degree is not medical training. Again, if you want to work in healthcare, get into a hospital as a volunteer, so that you can start learning about the different medical jobs and start having conversations with people who got those jobs about how they got those jobs.

Best of luck to you.

 

[TriagePreMed]

I didn't take out loans for the DETC undergrad but did for the ABA JD (around $100k)

If Medschool doesn't recognize my DETC degree, then will the old GPA go away? Will I still have to mention it as my GPA if they don't recognize the degree?

Is the DETC an accredited college? If it's not, in the Osteopathic applications the GPA doesn't count. You'd have to re-do your undergraduate degree completely. If your degree is accredited, it will count and your performance was so low that you'll need at least 3 years of strong undergraduate work to remedy your problems. On top of that you need research, clinical volunteering, non-clinical volunteering, leadership, etc.THEN you MIGHT be given the chance to BEGIN your medical education.

 

[pkwraith]

I am in my third year of law school to get my JD (Juris Doctor) but am finding out that law (shocking) sucks. I want to look into medical fields but am not sure which field would be best with my current degree.

JD has little to do with practicing medicine. No specific medical specialty will look at you any better or worse. There is no best/worst/anything field for a JD. It's not like you will be defending yourself in malpractice court with a JD and zero experience. It's not like hard science degree qualifying for patent law.

Throw the JD out of the equation, and look at which specialties you are interested in. The JD simply doesn't enter into any formula. It's two letters you can put by your name.

 

[Law2Doc]

I am in my third year of law school to get my JD (Juris Doctor) but am finding out that law (shocking) sucks. I want to look into medical fields but am not sure which field would be best with my current degree.

It is worth mentioning also that my undergrad was from a DETC school (although my JD is regional and ABA) and my overall GPA in both is around 2.5 with business major (so I don't have a lot of science credits)

I know there are a lot of different types of medical degrees out there and was hoping to get opinions and suggestions. Thanks guys.

A few big problems here.
1. You don't go into medicine because "law sucks". No profession wants someone because they are running away from law. It's fine to find something you like better or is a better fit but if your motivation is to get out of a particular situation for some negative reason rather than into a particular situation for a positive reason, you can pretty much forget it. So go shadow, volunteer, and see what doctors/PAs, etc do and see if you get excited about this, rather than take the "law sucks, anything would be better" approach.

2. Distance education isn't well regarded by many schools. This will barrow your options if med school is your target.

3. Your GPA is poor. As suggested above, you are going to have to take years of courses to temper this to the point other professional schools will not screen you out.

4. Your best option of using your JD in some format along with a medical degree is going to be in academia, but that generally is going to require you to be a top student. Your track record thus far doesn't really suggest that.

5. Jumping right from a professional school without having worked is always suspicious for "degree collecting". This can be overcome with good story. But Programs prefer nontrads who actually tried something different in life and bring work experience to the table, not someone trying to stay a student as long as possible.

In general, a law degree can be a nice hook on top of good credentials. But you need to spend some years building that groundwork. And you need to make the change only because you are drawn to a specific set of experiences, not because you think law sucks..