Colleges > C.T. Bauer College of Business /UH Law Center > Doctor of Jurisprudence, JD/MBA
The Bauer College of Business and the Law Center at the University of Houston offer a concurrent degree program that enables students to prepare for careers in which law and business overlap and understanding both fields is a necessity. Examples of such areas include public service, investment banking, commercial banking, accounting, tax law, international trade, industrial relations, energy law, corporate law, real estate law, the entertainment industry, and specialized areas of management consulting. By pursuing both the Doctor of Jurisprudence and the Master of Business Administration degrees concurrently, students can complete both degrees in a shorter time period than if they were to pursue the two independently. The MBA/JD joint program requires a total of 105 credit hours.
Candidates for the MBA/JD joint program must apply and be admitted separately to each of the programs involved; admission to one has no official bearing upon admission to the other. Students must be admitted to both programs within a year, and need to plan ahead to time the LSAT and GMAT or GRE exams to meet the application deadlines. Students may be admitted to the MBA program for Fall or Spring terms, but all law students must begin the first-year law sequence in the Fall term. (Note: Part-time students would complete the first-year law sequence in four terms, including summer, instead of two terms.)
Upon completion of curriculum requirements for both degrees, 18 credit hours from the law curriculum will apply towards the MBA degree (as elective credit) and 15 credit hours of graduate business course work will apply towards the JD degree, allowing the full-time student to complete both degrees in three and a half to four years (five or six years for part-time students).
MBA students who are petitioning for MBA/JD status must not have completed more than 24 credit hours of their required graduate business curriculum at the time of their enrollment in the law program.
Candidates for the MBA/JD joint program must follow the separate application procedures of the Bauer College of Business graduate program and the UH Law Center. Upon acceptance to both schools, the applicant must petition the program coordinators for admission to the joint program. Each school has a designated coordinator for the MBA/JD program to provide academic advising for joint program students; the MBA/JD petition form is available from either advisor.
If a student starts the MBA/JD in the fall, the first year of the joint program must be spent in one program or the other. The student makes the decision whether to do the first year in law or in business. At the time the student petitions for admission to the joint program, he/she will notify the MBA/JD coordinators of his/her program selection. A student who starts in the spring would complete one term of business courses, and then enroll for the first-year law sequence in the subsequent fall and spring terms. Students are advised that their final year of study should consist primarily of law coursework in preparation for the bar exam.
It is recommended that full-time students pursue the joint program in either one of two sequences:
| Year 1: Law (1st-year sequence) |
Year 1: MBA (Full-time or PMBA - 24 credits) |
| Year 2: MBA (18 credits) + Law |
Year 2: Law (1st-year sequence) |
| Year 3: Law + MBA (9 credits) |
Year 3: Law + MBA (6 credits) |
| Year 4: Law + MBA (3 credits) |
Year 4: Law and no MBA credits |
The Law Center will accept a maximum of 15 credit hours, taken in the Bauer College of Business (graduate level), towards the 90 credit hours needed for the JD degree. Credit may not be given for course work taken before a student’s regular matriculation as a first-year student in the law program. Should the student fail to complete the MBA degree, he/she would be allowed to apply a maximum of 12 credit hours of business courses toward the law degree.
The Bauer College of Business will accept a maximum of 9 credit hours of law electives for MBA elective credit, should the student fail to complete the JD degree. This acceptance is contingent on the courses satisfying MBA guidelines; the courses would need to be petitioned.
MBA/JD candidates will be charged business tuition and fees for their 30-semester credit hours of business courses, and law tuition and fees for their 75 credit hours of law courses. Note: once admitted, Law students are charged certain fees every term until they graduate.
For detailed information about the JD program, contact the UH Law Center Admissions Office at (713) 743-2280, or visit www.law.uh.edu.
Please visit the Bauer College website for more information about the Bauer MBA program: www.bauer.uh.edu/mba, or call (713) 743-0700.