JD/MPH Joint Degree Program

Earle Mack School of Law and School of Public Health

Overview • Program • Faculty • Admissions • Degree Requirements • Contact


Overview: The joint program in law and public health allows highly motivated students to study law and public health in an integrated manner.  They take courses at Drexel’s Earle Mack School of Law and School of Public Health and earn degrees from both.  In addition to acquiring basic skills in the two disciplines, students gain a unique perspective on the interrelation between them.


Program: Students take their first year of study at the Law School where they complete the standard first-year curriculum and complete a co-op placement over the summer.  They spend the second year completing the standard core courses at the School of Public Health.  During the upper-class years, they take courses at both schools, in addition to a public health community-based master’s project.  Depending on the pace of coursework that they select, students finish the two degrees in either four or four-and-a-half years.  Both degrees are awarded simultaneously.


Faculty: Faculty at both schools excel at both research and teaching.  The faculty of the Law School includes experts in health law, who teach in the school’s health law program.  The faculty of the School of Public Health includes top researchers in health disparities, social justice, and health policy.  The program director, Dr. Robert Field, holds appointments at both schools.


Admissions: Applicants to the JD/MPH Program must possess a baccalaureate degree.  They must meet admission criteria at both schools.  These include a satisfactory score on the LSAT (which is accepted by the School of Public Health in lieu of the GRE), a superior undergraduate grade point average, personal recommendations, and an essay describing their background and career interests.  Ordinarily, applications will be considered first by the Law School.  If the student is accepted, the application is then reviewed by the School of Public Health.  Applicants who are accepted to only one of the schools may attend that school alone. Please click here to access the application form for the JD/MPH program.

Students may apply either before they begin their studies or during their first year of law school.


Degree Requirements: Students take a total of 79 semester credits at the Law School, including all required courses, and 58 quarter credits at the School of Public Health, including all required courses.  Six quarter credits from the School of Public Health apply to the law degree.  Four semester credits from the Law School apply to the public health degree.  (One quarter credit is equivalent to two-thirds of a semester credit.)  At least two law electives must be courses in health law.  If a student discontinues his or her course of study at one of the schools, courses taken at that school will no longer be eligible for transfer to the remaining school.

Students concentrate their public health studies in the Department of Health Management and Policy (HMP).  They may choose to complete the health law concentration at the Law School, but it is not required.

A layout showing a sample progression through course and applied requirements is included at the bottom of this page.

The community-based master’s project (CBMP) involves a research or similar project conducted at a public health organization, such as a university, health clinic, hospital, government health department, or consulting firm.  The student is jointly supervised by a Department faculty member and an on-site preceptor.  The placement is selected in consultation with the student’s departmental faculty advisor and preceptor.

Contact: For more information, prospective students should contact:

Prof. Robert I. Field
robert.field@drexel.edu
215-571-4810