J.D./M.P.P.
Juris Doctor/Master of Public Policy
J.D./M.P.P. degree candidates must satisfactorily complete all course requirements of both the J.D. and M.P.P. degrees. In addition to the J.D. and M.P.P. degrees, a Joint Program Certificate will be awarded upon satisfactory completion of the program. The J.D./M.P.P. program requires completion of 115 academic credits (76 credits in law and 39 credits in M.P.P. courses) with 9 credits of J.D. course work counted toward the M.P.P. and 9 credits of M.P.P. course work counted toward the J.D., as well as completion of the graduation requirements for both programs, including the Law Center Residency Requirement (see the Juris Doctor Program chapter of the Bulletin) and maintenance of a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.00/4.00 in their M.P.P. program and the required minimum cumulative grade point average for the J.D. program (see the Juris Doctor Program chapter of the Bulletin).
The required 115 J.D./M.P.P. credit hours are distributed as follows:
• 31 credits in the required first-year law program;
• 18 credits of M.P.P. required courses: Intermediate Microeconomics; Public Finance; Public Policy Process (or Comparative Policy Process); Public Management (or Comparative Public Management); Statistical Methods for Policy Analysis; Regression Methods for Policy Analysis; and 6 credits of M.P.P. elective courses
• 6 credits of M.P.P. required courses taken in the third or fourth year: Advanced Regression and Program Evaluation Methods; Ethics, Values, and Public Policy (or Ethics in a Globalized World); and 3 credits of M.P.P. elective courses
• 6 credits of M.P.P. required courses taken in the third or fourth year: a two-semester thesis or capstone project (either Thesis Workshop I & II or Policy Analysis Capstone I & II)
• 10 required J.D. credits:
- Administrative Law, Government Processes, or Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy;
- Constitutional Law II; and
- Legislation and Statutory Interpretation, Lawmaking: Introduction to Statutory and Regulatory Interpretation, Legislation, Legislative Process, or the Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic;
• 35 credits in additional J.D. courses, including Professional Responsibility and successful completion of the legal writing requirement, taken in the upperclass years.
A typical distribution of the 115 semester hours in the J.D./M.P.P. Program is as follows:
First year: 31 J.D. credits
Second year: 24 M.P.P. credits
Third Year: 21 J.D. credits, 9 M.P.P. credits
Fourth Year: 24 J.D. credits, 6 M.P.P. credits
