The J.D. / MPP Program is offered in conjunction with the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. The program allows Day Program students to complete both a Juris Doctor degree and a Masters of Public Policy in less than the usual five-year period that would regularly be necessary to obtain each degree separately.

The Juris Doctor degree is granted after completion of a minimum of 88 semester hours of both required and elective law school courses. To qualify for the MPP degree, students must complete 39 credit hours at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy. The MPP degree has a number of required courses: Policy Analysis I and II, Statistics and Data Analysis, Ethics and Policy Making (or an approved Ethics Course Option), Microeconomics I and II, Politics of the Policy Process, and Quantitative Evaluation Methods. Students must also complete a summer internship. Approximately 12 credits of the MPP degree may be used toward the 88 needed to complete the JD. It is the expectation that students will complete the first year of the MPP program before beginning the JD program.

Students must apply separately to both programs; admission to one program does not guarantee admission to the other. Law students who are interested in the JD/MPP dual degree should contact the Office of Academic Affairs at the School of Law for more information.