JD equivalent

wondering

Sept. 19, 2006

[Background: JD stands for Juris Doctor. It's the law degree you have to have if you wanna practise law in the US. Unlike in China where you can go to law school immediately after graduating from high school, in the US, law school only admit students who have had their undergraduate/college degree. So if you want to be a lawyer in the US, you need first spend 4 years in college, then go to law school for 3 years to get the JD degree. That sums to 7 years.]

Last Friday, I had a resume writing workshop where a career counselor in my school gave tips on how to write a US style resume. One thing impressed me was her strong comments on the expression "JD equivalent". She said don't use this language in your resume if you have a law degree like LL.B from countries other than US, because this will anger those American lawyers who receive your resume! In other words, Americans believe nothing from foreign countries can be comparable to their prestigious JD degree which costs them at least 7 years (undergraduate + JD itself) and $$$. Well, strictly speaking, LL.B is not exactly as same as JD, and it may not be perfectly appropriate if you say equivalent. But I couldn't see any reason for them to feel angry? This, in a sense, echoes what I heard from another class: "American consumers will decide the world market". They don't seem to recognise that there are other countries in the world. Many of them may think that US is the whole world and each state is a country. A finn ever said when he was in US, he was asked by a guy on the street "where are you from", he said "Finland". That guy said "oh, Finland, which state is it?"...

安迪

The American always consider themselves as GREAT Uncle Sam, so they belive nothing from other contries~

老火靓汤

Post by andy_yang;567392
The American always consider themselves as GREAT Uncle Sam, so they belive nothing from other contries~