A recent post on Yale Law School’s (YLS) Admissions Blog, ’203,’ detailed one of the university’s unique offerings: a three-year JD-MBA program.
According to the post, the Accelerated Integrated JD-MBA (AI JD-MBA), offered by YLS and the Yale School of Management, is the third such three-year joint degree in the country and the first to not require summer courses. Without mandatory summer sessions, Yale’s AI JD-MBA students are free to take internships or other summer positions.
Harold Koh, who unveiled the program in the spring before leaving the deanship for the Obama administration, indicated that, “The program will prepare students for the increasingly complex intersection of business and law.”
While the standard JD-MBA is common – as indeed Yale has long had a four-year joint degree – the accelerated iteration, which began this semester, somewhat reduces student flexibility, specifically with regard to the number of electives a student can take. Yale will continue to offer the four-year joint degree as an option.
For tuition, AI JD-MBA students pay regular YLS tuition in the program’s first year, then a “special tuition” in the second and third years. This “special tuition” is greater than regular YLS tuition, but in total, the accelerated degree could be seen as a relative bargain.
