Skip to Main Content

The University of Tennessee

Enter the name of your College, Department, or Unit Here

Frequently Used Tools:



Academics » Dual J.D. - MPA Program


Dual J.D. - MPA Degree

The College of Law and the Department of Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts offer a coordinated Dual Degree Program leading to the conferral of both the Doctor of Jurisprudence and Master of Public Administration degrees. In this Dual Degree Program, a student may earn the M.P.A. and J.D. degrees in about four years rather than the five years that otherwise would be required for the two degrees. Students pursuing the Dual Degree Program should plan to be enrolled in course work or an internship for one summer term in addition to taking normal course loads for four academic years.
Admission Requirements

Applicants for the J.D./M.P.A. Dual Degree Program must make separate application to and be independently accepted by the College of Law for the J.D. degree and the Department of Political Science and the Graduate School for the M.P.A. degree.

Applicants for the Dual Degree Program must also be accepted by the Dual Degree Committee. All applicants must submit a Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score. An applicant's LSAT score may be substituted for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score, which is normally required for admission to the M.P.A. program. Application may be made prior to or after matriculation in either the J.D. or the M.P.A. program, but application to the Dual Degree Program must be made prior to entry into the last 29 semester hours required for the J.D. degree and prior to entry into the last 15 hours required for the M.P.A. degree.

Curriculum

A dual degree candidate must satisfy the requirements for both the J.D. and the M.P.A. 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 M.P.A. 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./M.P.A. 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 M.P.A. 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 M.P.A. Program. During those first two years, a student may not take M.P.A. 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 M.P.A. program, without the approval of J.D./M.P.A. 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.

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 M.P.A. degree for courses taken in the other program, except as such courses qualify for credit toward those degrees independently of the Dual Degree Program.

Awarding of Grades

For grade recording purposes in the College of Law and the Department of Political Science, grades awarded in courses in the other unit will be converted to either Satisfactory or No Credit and will not be computed in determining a student's grade point average or class standing. The College of Law will award a grade of Satisfactory for an approved M.P.A. course in which the student earns a grade of B or higher and a grade of No Credit for any lower grade. The Political Science Department will award a grade of Satisfactory for an approved law course in which the student earns a grade of 2.3 or higher and a grade of No Credit for any lower grade.