To increase access into the legal workforce, Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management and College of Law have collaborated to establish the first-of-its-kind joint online Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degree program.
The launch of this program is an expansion of the school’s already implemented residential joint degree program in law and business administration. Syracuse also offers a separate online American Bar Association-accredited law degree, called JDinteractive, and M.B.A. programs.
“We wanted to take advantage of that synergy and bring that joint program that we have had residentially for decades to students online,” said Nina Kohn, a David M. Levy Professor of Law and faculty director of online education at the university’s College of Law. “It was a no brainer to do that once we had these two fully online degree programs combined for the joint degree.”
The program is currently open to receiving applications. To be eligible for the program, students must first apply to the JDinteractive online law degree program. From there, they also must complete 34 credits of law school and be accepted into the Whitman School.
Amy McHale, assistant dean for master’s programs in Syracuse’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management, said there is uncertainty about the number of students who will apply but there is “high interest” in the program.
“It is not going to be for everyone,” she added. “But there are certainly a number of students whose career goals do rely on that intersection of two worlds.”
From 2015 to 2019, joint J.D. and M.B.A. residential students at Syracuse have had a 100% pass rate of the bar exam within one year of graduation, according to school officials.
