J.D. & MPPA

A dual-degree candidate must satisfy the requirements for both the J.D. and the MPPA degrees together with the requirements listed here for the dual-degree program. The College of Law will award a maximum of nine semester hours of credit toward the J.D. degree for successful completion of approved graduate level courses (500 or 600 level) offered in the Department of Political Science. The MPPA Program will award a maximum of nine semester hours of credit toward the J.D. degree for successful completion of approved courses offered in the College of Law. All courses for which such cross-credit is awarded must be approved by the J.D./MPPA coordinators in the College of Law and the Department of Political Science. All candidates for the dual-degree must successfully complete Administrative Law (Law 821). An internship is strongly recommended for students in the dual-degree program, as it is for all MPPA candidates, but an internship is not required.

During the first two years in the dual-degree program, students will spend one academic year completing the required first year of the College of Law curriculum and one academic year taking courses solely in the MPPA Program. During those first two years, a student may not take MPPA courses in the year in which he or she is concentrating in law, nor law courses in the year in which he or she is concentrating in the MPPA program, without the approval of J.D./MPPA coordinators in both the College of Law and the Department of Political Science. In the third and fourth years, students are strongly encouraged to take both law and political science courses each semester. During the first year in the J.D. program, students register through the College of Law. During the first year in the MPPA program, students register as graduate students. After the first two years, any term in which students take law courses or a mixture of law and graduate courses, they are classified and registered as law students. If taking only graduate courses, they are classified and registered as graduate students.

Dual-degree students who withdraw from the dual-degree program before completion of the requirements for both degrees will not receive credit toward either the J.D. or the MPPA degree for courses taken in the other program, except as such courses qualify for credit toward those degrees independently of the dual-degree program.

For more information on the JD-MPPA Program, see the UT Graduate Catalog.