Beginning in the fall 2014 semester, Georgia State’s College of Law will be offering an accelerated law degree program to students that would give them the opportunity to pay for their first year of law school at an undergraduate rate.
This is made possible through a new law degree program under the collaborative effort of the Honors College and the College of Law.
The Honors College will identify outstanding law undergraduates and give them the opportunity to receive their bachelor’s degree and J.D. in six years instead of the standard seven.
The six main goals of this plan is for students to earn, access, study, connect, build and save.
“This program will help us keep some of the brightest students at Georgia State to pursue law degrees,” Steven J. Kaminshine, Dean and Professor of law, said in the 2014 news release. “Through this collaboration with the Honors College, we have a great opportunity to attract students with high academic profiles and help them successfully transition into our law curriculum.”
To be eligible for the program, students must join the Honors College and have at least 24 to 30 credit hours.
“The way the program is structured, a student pursuing an accelerated degree would have more credits because of the AP, or advanced placement, courses,” Cheryl Jester-George, Senior Director of Admissions, said.
The student in the accelerated program would also obtain advisement through the Honors College and Georgia State’s College of Law.
“Once they become a part of the law school, we have a faculty of advisers who have a registrar, and individuals like that will be advising them on courses while they are in law school,”Jester-George said. “Any type of undergraduate course work advisement will be done through the Honors College.”
Labrae McMillian, a Graduate Law student at Georgia State, said she sees the benefits of getting a law degree through the accelerated program.
“I think it’s a great idea. I didn’t go straight to law school because I took a few years off. So, if I could have done my undergrad and my J.D. in six years versus seven years, I would have done it,” McMillian said. “The quicker the better.”
The accelerated program’s timeline for undergraduate and J.D. graduation completion calls for all of the student’s undergraduate courses to be completed by the end of junior year. The student would also need to take the LSAT test and complete the College of Law’s application by January of their junior year.
The student would then complete their first year of J.D. during their fourth year of college and graduate with their J.D. two years later.
