Work Experience Question

[JohnReuwer]

I am in a weird situation. I have very little full time work experience because I was in law school for the past 3 years. However, I worked part-time through law school and full-time in the summers.

How do business schools look at this with regards to work experience? Do they simply conclude that I have almost no work experience or will they give me credit (so to speak) for being in law school and working for the past 3 years?

Is this something I should highlight or something I should de-emphasize and hope to sneak through? I have a 710 GMAT, a 3.3 GPA (undergrad) and I am not applying to any top-15 schools. (Rice and UTexas ... both part-time.)

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you very much!

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear John:

If you have not worked full-time after your bachelor's degree, and summer internships do not count, then you do not have any work experience according to the standards used when reporting class statistics. Of course, the admissions committees will know this is due to your enrollment in law school and your part-time work during school plus summer internships will help to show your work ethic and motivation. However, you must present a solid rationale for why the MBA after completing your JD. Why does this make sense for your career path and why a part-time MBA upon completion as opposed to doing a joint JD/MBA? What job will you be in during the part-time MBA? Those will be the questions that will first come to mind of the admissions committees.

Best of luck,
Lisa

[JohnReuwer]

Lisa,

Thank you very much for your response. I developed a passion for business (specifically finance) while in my last year of law school, so unfortunately I was unable to take advantage of any available JD/MBA joint programs.

As far as the part-time choice, I will be practicing law while attending school and I hope to leverage my legal expertise with the MBA with the intent of either furthering my career on the legal side in M&A or the business side through management consulting or PE.

Again, thank you very much for your time.