Joint JD/MBA
All the Ontario schools offer “joint” programs, the most popular being the JD/MBA combination. Admission requirements depend on the school: most will require you to write the GMAT exam, which is a breeze after the LSAT (especially for those proficient in Mathematics). Western is the only school I know of that offers an undergraduate business degree HBA/JD option straight out of high school. Osgoode’s JD/MBA program is particularly popular, and yours truly will soon graduate with this degree.
Here, I’d say school choice matters a bit more, since school reputation seems to matter more in business. The big four schools in the Golden Horseshoe: Rothman (Toronto), Schulich (York), Ivey (Western) and Queens have a distinct advantage here, although with reputation comes additional cost, as always. Other joint programs offered include Masters of Arts Degrees and also Environmental Sciences (MES).
Many students recoil at the prospect of an additional year of time, expenses, and opportunity costs, but I'm a big fan, so hear me out. Here's a well-kept secret that could make a huge difference:
The perks of being a joint student
As a joint program student, you qualify as a Graduate Student. It’s odd, but straight JDs are considered undergraduates. As a graduate student, you qualify for a myriad of benefits not offered to JDs. A simple example would be free printing credits.
But that’s almost immaterial–what is more striking is that we qualify for Graduate Student grants, including the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, a $10,000-$15,000 grant. It’s surprisingly easy to get; I know people who have gotten it twice. I’ll share some of my personal opinions here: law schools are notoriously stingy in their allocation of bursary money–it’s almost entirely based on “need.” Law schools will frisk you more thoroughly than an irate IRS investigator.
Chances are, if you’ve worked for a few years and built a small nest egg like I did, you'll get next to zippo in terms of bursaries from the law schools. Now, I’d argue that this incentives irresponsible financial behavior and advantages young students who have debt at the moment, but will soon be commanding high salaries at the age of 26. But I digress.
At Schulich, however, there are countless bursaries and scholarships available to apply for–not only does Schulich have more money to allocate, but it also has a very high proportion of international students, who don’t qualify for funding of any sort as per OTFSS rules. So while Osgoode has provided me with nearly no funding, my MBA has already paid for itself in scholarships and bursaries, and by the end will probably cover a full year of JD tuition. Not to mention an additional prestigious, marketable degree. Continue reading about the JD/MBA as experienced Nicholas Banerd.
