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907914
While I am not particularly interested in this (and am not sure how they got my email...) I thought I would share this and see - what do y’all think? It was advertised to me as “Prepare for medical school with...”
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deleted967981
AAMC sold your email.
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907914
I meant what do y’all think of the program? I don’t really care about privacy. Spam and spam.
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2017
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- 9
I'm a lawyer that went to a top law school but is well acquainted with Northwestern as a law school and aware of their MSL program. Looking at the curriculum, it looks quite useful from a practical standpoint if perhaps you're interested in hospital management or medical entrepreneurship one day. That being said, you won't be a licensed lawyer, so you will be legally prohibited from giving legal advice in (likely) every state. Ironically, getting the degree and knowing some law might put you in a position where you are prone to accidentally giving legal advice and consequently violating the law and opening yourself up to some nasty lawsuits. Another concern that I have is that the cost may be prohibitive. Most law schools, even elite ones, use LLM and MSL degrees as giant printing presses for their JD program and the general administration of the law school. If anything, I'd (1) get a medical degree and take law courses part-time as a practitioner, or (2) do a full JD/MD.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2007
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- 1,219
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- 1,104
I'm a lawyer. If I were you, I wouldn't spend your money and time on this program. You need to concentrate on becoming a physician and this is just an expensive diversion.
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2005
- Messages
- 28,485
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I know a few people who did this degree after practicing for decades. They were huge policy nerds who had jobs that required being able to understand the courts.
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deleted967981
Married to a lawyer, he heartily discourages anyone from going to law school. The ROI is not good, and the market it saturated.
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2017
- Messages
- 7
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This really needs a major caveat.
The caveat being that if you can go to a top law school becoming a lawyer can be a fantastic return on investment, much more so than medicine. At 24, I passed on a job offer to make $190,000/yr. with less debt than a medical student and no requirement to do low-paying residency for years. It would have scaled up to $340,000/yr. as an 8th year (with the possibility of an additional $100,000 bonus), and the average equity partner at my firm makes $2.5 million/yr. You can be set up at 24-25 for that kind of career trajectory, if you're looking to chase money and don't mind working surgery attending hours for the rest of your life. If you burn out, you can turn your elite credentials into a cushy M-F 8-5 office job at a F500 making $200,000 with promotion opportunities to go higher. Alas, there is more to life than money! It also helps to like what you wake up to do 5/7 days of the week!
I would counsel anyone considering law to shadow lawyers as intensively as possible, get a part-time gig as a paralegal during undergrad, and only attend the top 14 (or so) law schools on substantial scholarship. Law school isn't worth it if (1) you don't like the actual practice/environment of the law or (2) you aren't going to a school that will give you an opportunity to make a real return on your investment.
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- Mar 7, 2005
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I think that it is important to distinguish between a JD (law degree) and a master's degree in law which does not qualify one to sit for the bar exam or to work as a lawyer. It is useful, I've been told, for people who want to have a deeper understanding of the law as it relates to their own profession (e.g. medicine-- the people I knew who did something like this were interested in the tobacco settlement, reproductive health law and policy, child advocacy, FDA regulations).
