A career in security policy - advice needed

[Schmedlap]

This is not advice for a career - as I would be the worst person to ask - but just some input on your perception of law school and a few other items.

I think my main worry about doing a JD is that I’m not sure I have the required passion for studying the law that I think you need.

I'm doing it while on vacation from the Army, just to force myself to do something productive. I'm not trying to steer you in either direction, but just wanted to disavow you of the notion that you need to be passionate about it. I and many of my peers are doing this because it seems like useful knowledge. Some are going into corporate America. Some want to be politicians. I am going back to the Army. Law school is not at the top of my priority list. There were a couple of days when I rolled out of bed late, realized that I did not have time to go to the gym before class... and opted to skip class and go to the gym. I'm still on the Dean's List. My study habits are better than when I was barely passing my classes as an undergrad, but not much better.

A more serious student could get a lot out of a joint degree program like JMM suggested. Just be aware that some are heavy on law and light on the MA. Choose wisely. There are some good ones, but it appalls me to see the curricula for some JD/MBA programs. Many are just a JD program plus a handful of core business classes (not even all of the core courses required for the MBA, let alone any electives). I can only assume that they are designed to create lawyers with some baseline of business knowledge, rather than vice versa.

As a non-US person I’d also be a bit worried about taking out $120,000+ of loan to pay for a legal education – I’m not sure whether you can get full scholarships as an international student, or how stellar you would need to be.

It depends upon where you live. If you want to go to school in DC (done it) then you might rack up $120K in loans because the cost of living is high and the schools are overpriced. A school in a smaller city - or in the suburbs of a large city - can lower that substantially. I am working on a graduate degree and a law degree. I am not doing a joint program - it is two separate programs. When I finish, I will be very surprised if I have accumulated more than $100K in loans. Cut that in half if I had only pursued law school. Also, lots of law students make surprisingly good money in the summer between their 2nd and 3rd year, which significantly offsets the cost of attendance (not something that I plan on doing).

At the minute my main interest lies in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, but I’m very aware of the changing demands on security policy, so I don’t want to lose sight of big-picture and end up so specialised that what I know is irrelevant in 20 years.

Very wise. Ten years ago, the rage was "stability and support operations" - fancy term for "peacekeeping." Deployments to Kosovo rarely even make the news anymore. So much for that.

(I’m already 25)

That's kind of like someone looking for advice on their undergrad education saying, "I'm already 19." Seriously, don't give that another thought. I finished my Bachelors degree one month before my 25th birthday and didn't apply to grad school until I was 28 or law school until I was 30. I'm sure many others here had timelines that stretched much farther to the right. But look at us now!