The School of Law and the College of Business and Public Administration offer a joint degree program of study allowing a student to earn both a J.D. and an M.B.A.

Admission Requirements 

Admission requirements of each component of the joint degree program will be the same as required to be admitted into each program separately.

Students are required to apply to both the School of Law and the Graduate School. Admission into the School of Law will be determined by the Admissions Committee of the law school. Admission recommendations for the College of Business and Public Administration will be made to the Graduate School by the Director of the M.B.A. Program.

Students who are already pursuing a J.D. degree and wish to add the M.B.A. degree must apply to the joint degree program no later than the third semester of the J.D. program.

Students pursuing the M.B.A. degree program are expected to have completed the M.B.A. Prerequisite Curriculum (undergraduate prerequisite courses) prior to admission.

Degree Requirements

If each degree were earned separately, a student would be required to complete 90 credit hours for the J.D. degree and 32 hours for the M.B.A. The joint degree program will enable a student to receive the two degrees upon completion of 81 J.D. credit hours and 26 M.B.A. credit hours. The School of Law thus accepts 9 credit hours of M.B.A. course work that will be applicable toward the J.D. degree, and the College of Business and Public Administration accepts 6 credit hours of J.D. courses toward the M.B.A. degree. Because each program will accept credits toward the other degree, the total credits required for each degree will be unchanged.

All degree requirements for the J.D. degree must be completed within 84 months of initial enrollment in the J.D. program. Normally, the joint degree program will be completed in only four years. With summer school classes, it may be possible to obtain both degrees even more quickly. Both degrees will be awarded simultaneously after all degree requirements are met in both programs. In addition to the required courses for all students earning the J.D. degree, students enrolled in the joint degree program must successfully complete the following School of Law courses: Business Associations I, Business Associations II, and at least two Commercial Law courses.

Each joint degree student must satisfy the Independent Study requirement of the M.B.A. program by completion of a substantial research/writing project on a business related legal topic or a law-related business topic. The Independent Study project must be supervised by a member of the Graduate Faculty from the College of Business and Public Administration. Any writing project that a joint degree student intends to use to satisfy the Upper Level Writing Requirement of the J.D. program must be supervised by a member of the law faculty.

Sample Curricular Plan (4 Years)

The first year of the joint degree program will consist of the required curriculum in the School of Law. The third semester of the joint degree program will usually consist of law school courses, with M.B.A. courses beginning in the fourth semester. To promote the integration of the two courses of study, courses after the third semester usually will be taken in each of the schools concurrently, rather than having the student located exclusively in one school or the other for an entire semester. Note: This timetable assumes that all undergraduate prerequisite courses have been completed prior to entering the joint program.

• Semester 1 (Fall only) - 16 hours of the required first year curriculum in the School of Law
• Semester 2 (Spring only) - 16 hours of the required first year curriculum in the School of Law
• Semester 3 - 15 hours of courses in the School of Law
• Semester 4 - 2 M.B.A. courses (6 credit hours), 6 credit hours of courses in the School of Law
• Semester 5 - 2 M.B.A. courses (6 credit hours), 6 credit hours of courses in the School of Law
• Semester 6 - 6 credit hours of courses in the School of Law, 2 M.B.A. courses (6 credit hours)
• Semester 7 - 7 credit hours of courses in the School of Law, Independent Study (2 credit hours), 1 M.B.A. course (3 credit hours)
• Semester 8 - 9 credit hours of courses in the School of Law, 1 M.B.A. course (3 credit hours)