What are the benefits of the joint degree? Students end up focusing on one or the other and then entering careers that utilize one skill set or the other. Students either go into business careers or law careers. They don't go into joint careers. Having an MBA doesn't help much as a junior associate at a firm and having a JD doesn't help much for entry-level business positions. Law firms don't hire people because they have MBAs, and my guess is that businesses don't hire people for non-legal positions because they have JDs
But, how advantageous is a JD/MBA and acquiring both skill sets for someone with an architecture background at the Masters level? Are these 4 year joint programs worth the extra money, time and stress for someone who aspires to work in the private sector?
I've known architects who took a law degree -- as a general rule, those people tend to join law firms where they practice construction law.
I've known architects who took MBAs -- as a general rule, those people tend to either go into real estate development or leave the profession altogether for a career in business, unrelated to either real estate or constructon.
I've never known an architect who took both an MBA and a law degree, but I suppose such animals could exist. However, there were two non-architects in my business school class who had, or were pursuing, a law degree. They both migrated to become in-house counsel at Fortune 500 companies.
A funny thing seems to happen when graduate architects obtain advanced degrees in either the law or business -- they discover that they have tremendous career flexibility and a world of economic opportunity opens up to them that makes a career in architecture seem rather tame. Unless you really, really love architecture, when you have an MBA or JD it's really hard to resist the Sirens' call of economic opportunity outside the profession.
However, be very sure you will be happy doing that other kind of work. Often, the personality type that chooses to study architecture is a fish-out-of-water in a hard-driving legal or business environment. In that environment, the standard for performance almost always has a $ as the underlying criteria.
I can't imagine any but the very largest of design firms being able to absorb an architect with both an MBA and JD degree, but it is an intriguing concept. Such a role almost certainly would be dedicated totally to contracts and risk-management activities.
Law/MBA's also tend to go the urban planning route as well. There's a firm I know of with it's own division dealing with real estate law, but all of the lawyers in that division are architecture aficionados OR began their undergraduate degrees in some kind of design field..architecture/urban design/planning.
May 12, 10 5:10 pm ·
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JD/MBA
What are the benefits of the joint degree? Students end up focusing on one or the other and then entering careers that utilize one skill set or the other. Students either go into business careers or law careers. They don't go into joint careers. Having an MBA doesn't help much as a junior associate at a firm and having a JD doesn't help much for entry-level business positions. Law firms don't hire people because they have MBAs, and my guess is that businesses don't hire people for non-legal positions because they have JDs
But, how advantageous is a JD/MBA and acquiring both skill sets for someone with an architecture background at the Masters level? Are these 4 year joint programs worth the extra money, time and stress for someone who aspires to work in the private sector?
I've known architects who took a law degree -- as a general rule, those people tend to join law firms where they practice construction law.
I've known architects who took MBAs -- as a general rule, those people tend to either go into real estate development or leave the profession altogether for a career in business, unrelated to either real estate or constructon.
I've never known an architect who took both an MBA and a law degree, but I suppose such animals could exist. However, there were two non-architects in my business school class who had, or were pursuing, a law degree. They both migrated to become in-house counsel at Fortune 500 companies.
A funny thing seems to happen when graduate architects obtain advanced degrees in either the law or business -- they discover that they have tremendous career flexibility and a world of economic opportunity opens up to them that makes a career in architecture seem rather tame. Unless you really, really love architecture, when you have an MBA or JD it's really hard to resist the Sirens' call of economic opportunity outside the profession.
However, be very sure you will be happy doing that other kind of work. Often, the personality type that chooses to study architecture is a fish-out-of-water in a hard-driving legal or business environment. In that environment, the standard for performance almost always has a $ as the underlying criteria.
I can't imagine any but the very largest of design firms being able to absorb an architect with both an MBA and JD degree, but it is an intriguing concept. Such a role almost certainly would be dedicated totally to contracts and risk-management activities.
when I first saw the title of this thread I thought it read 3D/MBA.
Law/MBA's also tend to go the urban planning route as well. There's a firm I know of with it's own division dealing with real estate law, but all of the lawyers in that division are architecture aficionados OR began their undergraduate degrees in some kind of design field..architecture/urban design/planning.
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