Ph.D. vs JD/MBA

I’m attending a conference at the University of Connecticut meant primarily for business school professors and deans (I’m an observer and the guest of someone who is a speaker) and I am extremely grateful to God/fate for being able to participate in this unique opportunity. If you lived in my mind for the past year, you would have seen 95% of the thoughts flying in my head related to either pursuing a Ph.D. in Business Ethics and Legal Studies (only offered at UPenn) or a JD/MBA, and would have also seen how I have been going back and forth between the two, thinking several times that I’ve finally made a decision while wondering what business school is really like.

Initially, I always thought I was going to get a Ph.D. or a JD/Ph.D., but when Georgetown stopped its J.D./Ph.D. program in Business Ethics, UPenn’s program in Business Ethics and Legal Studies was the only program that remained. One of the main reasons I think a Ph.D. program can be very appealing is because I find the life of a professor to be very appealing. I love teaching and I love research and I love being able to set my own agenda and leave myself room for innovation. Coupled with the fact that I was afraid of having to make significant adjustments in lifestyle due to my injuries, I thought the university environment would make the most sense for me.

But as I’ve learned to manage my life with these injuries and as I’ve begun to realize how terrible management and culture is in many of our business institutions, I have started to question how much difference I can make as a business school professor, especially one in business ethics. It’s reported that many students don’t have respect for their business school professors, sometimes because of their lack of industry experience, other times because of the poor teaching quality. And even if legitimacy weren’t a problem or somehow I earned the respect of my students, legitimacy among the Academy is yet another significant problem. Economists and business school professors have a really bad case of groupthink, departmentalization, and organizational stubbornness – something many of the business school professors and deans have started to realize, according to the conference, because of the recent market collapse. Add to that fact that most people in industry think many business school professors are too Ivory Tower, (my dad says few people in industry actually really listen to professors), it seems that business school professors may not have as much influence as one would hope.

Before the market collapse, I wasn’t sure how competitive of an applicant I would have been. My experience in philanthropy is rather strong, but I’m not sure how many on the admissions committee would see my potential as a “future business leader.” The “warm fuzzy qualities” of emphasizing people and organizational culture, with a strongly defined sense of ethical business philosophy, may not count that much to MBA admissions committees.

But in this conference, professors are claiming that top business schools worldwide are recognizing that business schools need to change and that they may have a social responsibility to change their curriculum. One person said that Business Week interviewed him and asked him, “whether finance professors should be held contributory negligent” for the current financial crisis (I think so, though I should say the general public should also be held contributory negligent as well). And in a conversation with Rakesh Khurana, a professor at Harvard Business School (who also happens to be my second reader’s Ph.D. classmate from Cornell), Professor Khurana reassured me that the business school is not just looking for investment bankers and consultants, but also people from philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, which is good news for me.

So what will I end up deciding? Well, I love teaching, I love publishing, and I want to have an impact. But I’ve realized, I have the option of doing all three in either and that in the end, I’ll probably have more of an impact with a JD/MBA and could always go back to academia afterwards. And so for now, that’s my final answer.