JD/MPH Degree

[kyrae04]

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I graduated about a week ago from Ohio State University with a major in Biology (B.S.) and cumulative GPA of about a 2.9 (above a 3.0 according to SOPHAS). I am currently undecided on what step to take next, and have become interested in the JD/MPH degree option.

I recently found a job working on a project (undecided which project as of yet) with a fairly well-known person in the field of public health, so I will have a little bit of experience and (hopefully) a great letter of recommendation coming from him.

I am not quite sure what I want to do yet in terms of a career, but I am currently considering both Health Law and Public Health Law.

I am wondering a few things:
1. Do I have a chance in He** getting into a decent law school with absolutely no prereq's and a low GPA? How do I go about preparing for the LSAT?!
2. Is the dual degree worth much?
3. What kind of careers are possible with the dual degree?
4. I am looking at schools out of state. Can anyone explain to me how I could go about being considered a resident of whatever school's state I choose? Do I need to have proof of residence via a mailing address, bill, or what?
5. Any advice, comments, etc.? I am just discovering all this and the vast internet is not quite specific enough for me. Plus, people with experience are the ones I would love to hear from most.

Thank you in advance!

 

[hughesn2]

I don't know much about Juris Doctor degree, but if you wrote the GPA correctly I am doubtful you will be able to find even a single school to accept you into their program unless you have well above average LSAT scores. For the people you are talking to we would have NO clue at all on how to study for the LSATs. You are talking to a group of science minded people who have either taken the MCAT or GRE and there is no correlation to the actual data between those test and the LSAT. But at the same time, it will be just as challenging as the MCAT is.

Just saying that there are people I know who got declined by almost all law schools they applied to even with a 3.40 GPA.
And if you plan on going down a JD/MPH degree get ready to be paying big time for that until you are 40. That degree will cost you probably $50K more than it would just for law school. I don't want to say give up, BUT getting accepted into a law school with a sub 3.0 GPA is gonna be near impossible.
And what do you mean by "no prerequisites"?? Do you seriously mean that you are trying to apply to a JD program with absolutely no law or business credits?? Am I understanding this correctly?

In my opinion, I don't know why an admissions committee would take your application seriously.

 

[MphGh]

First of all you can definitely get into law school, it just depends on what kind of law school. If you want to get into the top law schools (T14's), you will have to score above a 168. You would be considered a splitter, if you have good work experience, then you should look at Northwestern. There are plenty of other schools outside the t14's like Texas, USC, UCLA that are good as well. BUT, the LSAT is very difficult!, you will have to put in about 6 months of studying and scoring in the range before you even consider taking the test. If your serious about it start studying now and take the October test. Also, as far a dual degree, I don't think it's worth it. Either you want to do law or go into an MPH program, law is very expensive, with lack of job prospects upon graduation. But it can be done if you can get a scholarship. Apply Early, and visit toplawschools.com. Do some serious research before going into law.

 

[hughesn2]

You seriously believe that someone with a B.S. in BIOLOGY is going to get into Northwestern's Law School??? You do know he said a 2.9 GPA not a 3.9 GPA? Northwestern's Law School median GPA is over a 3.7 and those are people with a degree relevant to what they will learn in law school.

I am confused as to how you went from getting a degree in Biology to wanting to practice law???
This would be like a 3.1 General Business graduate applying to an MD or DO school. I don't know how realistic this site is http://law-school.findthebest.com/ on Median GPA but the top 100 law schools on their ranking have a median GPA of 3.40. Then there is a list of the 22 schools offering a JD/MPH program. So take a look there.
And even though Wayne State may be low on that list I know people here in Michigan who have a degree from James Madison at Michigan State, which is a residential college fit solely for those pursuing a law degree or political sciences, get rejected from Wayne State even with a 3.40 GPA and above average LSAT scores. The other issue will be the LSAT itself. You will have to be putting in an immense amount of time on it because just like applying to med school you need a substantially higher MCAT score if you are applying with a sub par GPA.

You just better enter the application knowing that your only real chance at getting accepted is if you apply as soon as the applications are available. You won't be finding any JD programs with an accredited CEPH MPH program. Also remember that most of the law schools who even have a median GPA less than a 3.30 still have an acceptance rate less than 50%. In my personal opinion you are going to need one amazing statement letter and find some letters of recommendations that will prove to an admissions committee that you really want to practice law. Sometimes constructive criticism is not what you want to hear, but unfortunately for a case like this you should understand that this will be very hard.

For #1) Personally I believe you do have no chance in he!! to get accepted to a top 10 JD/MPH program (Virginia, Georgetown, Cal-Berkley, George Washington, OSU, Maryland, UNC, Arizona, Gainesville, Houston according to FindTheBest.com). The issue you now would have is not just getting accepted into a single JD program but rather a JD/MPH program and there aren't many to select from. There is a slight chance at a couple of the bottom ones among the 22 I can see on that site: Widener (Deleware or Pennsylvania) since that is the only JD/MPH program that has a median GPA under a 3.30 and an acceptance rate of over 50%.

Better start working on your statement letter because for someone coming from a Biology degree with a below 3.0 GPA they are gonna need that big time to see if you are a qualified candidate. In my opinion, the joint programs will accept you based on the JD part FIRST and then for the MPH part. It is not like they are going to take a look at your biology background first and decline the Deans List political science, economics, or philosophy. They may not state that they require a specific cognate of a undergrad major, but they will take the political science majors with above a 3.3 GPA over the biology major student with a 2.9 GPA.

 

[MphGh]

Ok first of all you know nothing about law school and how admissions work. I would know because I spent all of last year preparing to go to law school until I decided against it and am now headed into health policy. And yes he has a chance to get into 15 and top 20 law school if he can kill the LSAT. He would need to score above 168. Above a 170 and your pretty much in northwestern, gtown, Cornell, USC, Washington university St. Louis....You do realize law schools love STEM graduates right? In order to work in IP law you have to have a STEM degree. And yes his gpa is low. He would have to put together a very good application, he didn't major in basket weaving or communication, he majored in a difficult subject, and law schools will give you a slight break. OP is out at anywhere in the top 8. But a good shot at the schools I listed above. He's has a great shot in the top 20. And most law schools do have MPH program if OP chooses to do a dual degree.
It will be tough but not impossible if you can kill the lsats. Law schools only care about lsats and gpa. Just kill the lsats and you have a shot. Northwestern, gtown, and cornell, and even Texas are known for taking low gpas, and with high scores. Dont forget Vanderbilt. Like I said I did a ton of research for this and know how it works. OP is helped with a stem degree. And DO not apply to any third tier schools especially Wayne state or widener. Good luck.

 

[hughesn2]

Well a 2.9 GPA in even Biology is still considered sub par at any level. I was a Human Physiology major taking what was considered the most challenging major at Michigan State outside of any of the engineering programs and I deem my 3.17 GPA extremely below average since I was taking my last 3 semesters of classes that were all class ranked base. Yeah I was taking classes with students who got accepted to top tier MD programs but these other programs could care less about that. If DO and PA schools cared so much about how hard someone's undergrad major was then I would be getting accepted while the people at MSU who took one total credit of 400+ level courses like a Kinesiology degree holder would not be getting accepted. Those programs are just as competitive as law school now and even they could care less if you have 29 credits of 400+ level courses where the class average is a 2.25 and taught by a guy with two PhDs and only cares about his paycheck vs. someone with a 3 credit senior seminar class as their lone 400+ level course and everybody gets a 3.5 grade or higher for just showing up. I have talked with admissions committees from PA, MD, and DO schools and they do say the MCAT (for med schools) is just as important as cGPA to an extent. Yet, they do say that they rarely to never weigh the majors of the candidates if they are in the same field. My 400+ level undergrad biochem and physiology classes that the MSU DO and MD school admits is much tougher than what they teach the med students is to the same level for admissions committee as the 200 level introduction to physio or biochem course.

From the people that I know who have gotten rejected from law school they are all 3.40 GPA students. Maybe they weren't math or science major students, but I don't understand how law schools could actually accept a student who has below a 3.0 GPA and has absolutely no pre-reqs pertaining to law on their undergrad courses. Maybe it could help that there are less and less college grads applying to law school due to the high risk, lower reward at getting a job after law school. I know someone whose daughter graduated at the top of her class in law school. It was a top tier school (I think #10 to 15 ranked), she was lucky to get a job but 2 out of the 5 people in her class had no job as an attorney two years after graduating and then said that 1 our of 3 actually had a job as a full time attorney.

My opinion is based on the people that have applied to law school and that they get rejected from top tier schools with honors in undergrad. I guess law schools must be lowering their standards if they believe a 2.9 GPA Biology student is more fit for the law profession than a 3.6 political science major. I don't care how much of a joke major they are between them because the person with a political science degree is entering law school with an upper hand of already understanding the legal system. My opinion is that I have no clue how an admissions committee could really think of a 2.9 biology student as a competitive law school candidate. Okay, maybe if this kid has an undergrad degree from an Ivy league school or one of the top 20 universities in the whole nation. OSU is a great school, but still a 2.9 in my mind should not be what a law school is willing to accept.

I love how when people say stuff like "Well then just kill the LSATs or MCAT and you will be good." I guess I never thought about doing so amazing on my entrance exam to graduate school. It so much easier said than DONE.

 

[MphGh]

Again, I still think you do not understand how law school works. Right now law schools are fighting for anyone who can score above a 170 as less students are entering the field. It's not about whether or not a political science major is more qualified than a person with a bio degree (which is not the case) because in all honesty you don't need to know anything about the "law" to get into law school. What it is about is whether the OP can put together a good application. The LSAT unlike the mcat is very learnable, you just have to practice and take as many practice tests as possible. It takes time and hard work. There are a ton of splitters that get into law school, top ones at that. Especially the schools that I listed. Also you do realize that a median gpa is not the average, which means there are tons of people with lower gpas who get in.
Just because you have friends who couldn't get Into law school, is not a good representation of law school admissions. If the OP decides on law school and scores above 170, I can guarantee you that he will snag atleast one t14. And great shot at top 20 with scholly.
And yes he can kill the lsat, it's a learnable test, it just takes a lot of practice. You need about a year to prepare for law school. Which is enough time to master the test.

Law school is not med school, you don't need pre reqs to apply, you can major in basketball or basket weaving and get into harvard. They only care about gpa and lsat. But sometimes students will have lower gpas due to tougher majors such as STEM graduates, or some issue while in school like death in the family etc.....law schools look more favorably to those majors because they know it's tougher, and showing that you scored a 170+ will put you in even better situation and scholarship. There's only two rules to law school. Get into a top 14 school or go to a local law school where u want to work for free.

 

[Stories]

Please don't resort to personal insults. Keep it cordial.

 

[KPZ]

Hi,

I recognize this is an old thread, but I thought maybe someone would see this and be able to weigh in. I am interested in learning more about what someone can do with a JD/MPH and a lot of the schools list job titles as "attorney" or something equally generic and not helpful.

Where would a JD/MPH typically work? What are some job titles? What is the general perception of job satisfaction measures such as work/life balance, etc.? Ballpark salary range? Other thoughts on the matter?

Thank you!