Vacation scheduling also creates difficulties. Winter break and "fly-out week" (when third year law students have no classes so that they may leave campus to conduct interviews) rarely coincide from graduate school to graduate school.

This means that students who are already pursuing rigorous programs have little to no vacation time.

John T. Tolsma, a proctor in Grays Hall who is in his final year of the JD/MBA program, says, "I've not had a spring break in three years."

Moreover, the schools often have different standards for awarding class credit, meaning that a student could take a class at KSG and be forced to petition for credit at HLS.

Tamara B. Butler '95, who is pursuing a concurrent degree between Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Graduate School of Education (GSE), says HBS warned her of the rigidity of their requirements.

According to Butler, the administration said "don't let [the Education School classes] impact MBA requirements."

Additionally, concurrent programs, through which students receive two degrees by working simultaneously with two schools and basically fulfilling the requirements for both, can create financial burdens for students.

Certain programs have different standards for financial aid.

Grossman notes that both KSG and HLS require an individual student contribution of $2,500 in the student's first year, so concurrent degree candidates endure a double burden.

There are also social ramifications of pursuing multiple degrees, students say.

Doak says, "You end up with two groups of friends who occasionally have very little to do with each other."

But in addition to the dichotomy of the social circles, joint degree candidates and concurrent degree candidates usually take at least one extra year to complete their requirements.

As Doak said of his classmates, "they are already out making a difference."

Last but not least, there are, of course, logistical issues involved in taking classes on multiple campuses.

Joint JD/MBA candidates, especially, noted this difficulty.