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Profile Evaluation - Lawyer

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redpassion Just gettin' started!
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Profile Evaluation - Lawyer Post Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:09 am
This is my profile:

Male, 26 years, Indian

GMAT: 710

I have a combined humanities and law degree from India's top law school, the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.

Work experience: 4 years

I have worked as an in-house attorney with Infosys Technologies (India's second-largest IT services firm) and with Cisco Systems

How does this profile measure up? I guess it isn't up to scratch for Harvard or Stanford, but will it pass muster at other top 10 places? I am not looking only at the brand name of the b-school, but also the "value for money" aspect.

As regards a ROI, most traditional ROI calculators will say I will get a quick ROI, mainly because my current salary doesn't amount to much in dollar terms (therefore, my lost wages for 2 years aren't as bad as giving up, say, a NYC law firm job). But is this all I need to look into?

Then there is the whole question of how B-school admissions officers look at an app like mine.

Any guidance is gratefully accepted :-)

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Bryant@VeritasPrep MBA Admissions Consultant
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Post Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:49 am
Don't underestimate your value to top b-schools. B-schools are all about diversity and there are very few practicing attorneys who apply since a law degree is generally viewed as a terminal degree. Much more common for MBAs to eventually go back to get their law degree than the other way around. You will add tremendous value to your classmates in b-school as a lawyer and will be viewed likely as a top candidate especially considering your GMAT score and the fact that you are an Indian applicant who is not a computer programmer. I think you are definitely top 10 material and would say you have a good chance at any school of your choice with a well packaged application.

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LawGirl30 Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:52 pm
Bryant, do you think that the age of a person with a JD degree AND work experience will work against them when applying to top 10 programs?

I posted this question (and several others) in a detailed profile eval but have not gotten any feedback yet so I began searching for old posts by other lawyers since this is the thing that is worrying me the most.

I worked in corporate/M&A with a sliver of real estate from Sept 2006-Sept 2010. I had started to realize by 2009 that I wanted to back to grad school to get the MBA based on my desire to work in urban development/real estate and advice that I received from JDs turned MBAs who made the same move. I faced numerous barriers to entry in the real estate market given the current economy AND the fact that the JD was not enough. In Oct 2010, I quit my job and took off 7 months for personal reasons (Mom had just went through surgery and 2 hospitalizations, and needed to go through 6 rounds of chemo through the end of Summer 2011). I've now been working at a law school which has been much more laid back and which has allowed me to mentor minority students (a passion of mine) and which has been rewarding (but is not ultimately what I want to do) since May 2011 knowing full well when I started that I would sit for the GMAT and apply. I plan to apply first round this fall. GMAT is a 720 but I'm toying with the idea of retaking to break 750 even since I did not put that much effort into the GMAT the first time and back when I had been preparing the first time I was scoring in the 770-780 range in practice CAT exams. College GPA (3.86, summa, Phi Beta Kappa, top 40 university) is far better than law school (3.21, but it's a top 10 ivy).

In short, I'll be applying at the age of 30 with 6 years of work experience at the point of matriculation (compared to the 8 someone working out of college would have) plus about 2-2.5 years of FT summer/school year externships from college and law school.

Target schools are HBS, Columbia, MIT, and Wharton.

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Bryant@VeritasPrep MBA Admissions Consultant
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Post Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:32 pm
you should be a strong candidate at all but HBS. Harvard tends to have a bit of an age bias against older candidates. This is not to say you can't get in there, it will just be more of a long shot. Having said that, your profile is not typical, which can help differentiate you from "typical" candicates from historical feeder industries but who do not have the JD. Because you have done M&A, you could stand out in a crowd of lawyer applicants. Because you have a JD, you could stand out among bankers and finance types. I would make sure to speak persuasively about what you bring to the table that would be of value to classmates. Don't fret--lots of applicants over 30 get in top schools and because law school takes 3 years, you are really only 27 in applicant years.

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Bryant Michaels
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