Although it was never the path I had planned, I’m always pleasantly surprised to learn about how more and more people seem to be interested in pursuing a JD/MPH. After talking with some South Asian students interested in this evolving intersection over the past two years, I thought now would be a great time to start writing about the experience as well, since it’s not something we hear about that often and since I finished another year of the program!
For reference: I did one year of law school, one year of public health, and now I am in my third year taking both law and public health courses. After this semester, I will have one more year of law school left. I’m the first official student going through the joint program at my school, so it hasn’t been the smoothest ride. But I absolutely love it!
For this post, I wanted to focus on one of the first questions I get asked by (and also ask to) prospective students–which is what made me interested in pursuing this combination of degrees in the first place?
The Back & Forth Undergraduate Dilemma
From a very young age, I have always been passionate about healthcare and truly believed I would become a physician. Something I was really interested in was mental health and psychiatry–so naturally, I started off as pre-med. However, during my second year, I changed to pre-law. Then during my junior year, I realized I wasn’t satisfied with one or the other–or a “traditional, straightforward path.”
After interning in DC that summer, I left my bubble and became exposed to the endless opportunities and options that actually exist in healthcare beyond treating patients. I met people with law degrees who were not traditional firm attorneys, and who loved the work they did with nonprofits, companies or organizations dedicated to health or human/civil rights. I learned about the stories of other American families–stories about fleeing from home countries, seeking asylum or being refugees, and living life after resettlement. I met so many incredible people who opened up about their own struggles as minorities, patients, and humans living here in the U.S. and around the world.
The Realization of Wanting to Do a Mix of Everything
As someone who had been struggling with mental health conditions and navigating the insurance/healthcare system that past year, my eyes opened up to the much broader realities of how public health, medicine and human rights come together to impact individuals’ behaviors and well-being in various ways.
I decided I wanted to continue learning about and addressing these multifaceted concerns. Thinking about where I was in my undergraduate career as a pre-law student, I realized that the “more typical” attorney life was not for me. However, I knew that I personally wouldn’t be satisfied with only a medical education and treating patients as a physician.
And this is where my desire to apply for joint JD and MD/DO programs made its entrance into my life.
My research mentor once told me that I have the heart and soul of a doctor, but the logic of a lawyer. Although a joke at first, I seriously started thinking about this and my role as a change maker. He talked about some of his colleagues who were either attorneys or physicians–but how very few pursued both to create changes at the intersection of health and human rights.
In one of my courses, I was encouraged to look at how to address gaps within the legal and medical fields by implementing holistic approaches through interdisciplinary reforms. This involved my vision of protecting human rights at the community level through a legal education, while ensuring that those policies are implemented at the individual level through a healthcare education (which is actually switched for law & public health).
I spent the last year of college (and months afterwards) finishing up my pre-med requirements, studying for and taking the MCAT & LSAT, and applying to individual and joint programs.
Starting Law School & Applying for the MPH Program
After this long and exhausting “gap year,” it was time to decide where I wanted to attend school. The university I’m currently at does not have a JD/MD program, but they offered an AMAZING scholarship and it is a highly ranked law school. So in the end, I decided to at least start law school and see where it took me! And being flexible about this is what has led me to where I am today!
In case you were unsure: you do NOT have to decide if you want to pursue two degrees before starting!
Some schools have great health law programs, so depending on your career goals, there may never be a need to get a second degree. My school doesn’t offer too many health law courses, so I knew it wouldn’t have been enough in my case. During my first year of law school, I started looking into the MPH program that is situated in our School of Social Work. Since the joint JD/MD was not an option at my school, I felt like an MPH degree would still supplement my legal education in a different, but very meaningful way (which I’ll talk about in the next post!). So during my first semester of law school, I met with people from both programs to see if it was a good fit, and my second semester I applied and got into our MPH program!
Is a clinical degree still on the table? Maybe (probably not, I’m tired😂)!
But as of now, this intersection of law and health has given me an education 5-year-old (or 20-year-old) Juhi would have never considered! It’s definitely not what I expected, but I’m so glad my journey has led me to this point because there are so many opportunities that exist (which I’ll talk about in two posts from now)! And I’m excited to hear more about your own journey and what brought you here today😊
