M.B.A.-J.D.

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The Darden School offers a combined program with the University of Virginia School of Law, in which the student may obtain the M.B.A. degree and the J.D. degree in four years instead of the five that would be required if each were taken separately. The program is designed to accommodate the interests of three types of students: (1) those who contemplate careers in public service and want to acquire the skills and attributes of the manager; (2) those who contemplate managerial careers and want to acquire the skills and capacities of lawyers; and (3) those who want to prepare for careers in specific areas of the law, such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganization, legal aspects of marketing, or other specific fields.

The M.B.A.-J.D. program is particularly demanding, and unless the student is clearly able to see the applicability of both degrees to future career plans, he or she should not assume that the chance to squeeze one year from a normal five-year sequence is in itself a persuasive rationale for this undertaking.

Administration of the Program The program is administered by one member of the law faculty and one member of the business administration faculty, as designated by the respective deans. The responsibilities of these faculty members extend to admission to the joint program, coordination of curricula for the students involved, resolution of problems that may arise, reconciliation of course and examination conflicts, and promotion of joint offerings by the two schools where that seems feasible. For convenience of reference, these faculty members are the faculty advisors for the program.

Students who have been admitted independently to both schools and who wish to undertake the joint program should notify the registrar of both schools and apply to faculty advisors for permission to do so. Admission requires approval of both the Law faculty advisor and the Darden faculty advisor. No student will be admitted after beginning the second year of the Law School. Entrance into the M.B.A.-J.D. program will not be guaranteed by virtue of acceptance at both schools, but will be judged according to criteria, which is the responsibility of the faculty advisors.

Curriculum

The program takes four years to complete. In brief, it consists of the complete first year program of each school, followed by two years of courses taken from the curricula of the two schools and, in appropriate cases, from other graduate offerings at the University. A student who has been admitted to the program will ordinarily be allowed to elect whether to start in the Law School or in the Darden School. The student will then spend the second year in the program as a regular first year student in the other school.

Thereafter, the student will be required to earn 20 credits per year in the Law School and 10.5 credits the third year and 12 the fourth year in the Darden School. The M.B.A.-J.D. candidate is obligated to take, as part of these credits, all of the required curriculum in both graduate business administration and law. The remaining credits will be elective credits and can be chosen from the respective law and business curricula after consultation with the program committee.

At the successful conclusion of the four years, the student will be awarded both an M.B.A. and a J.D. degree.

Financial Aid

Financial aid will be available during the first two years by application to the school at which the student is a resident. During the third and fourth years, the Darden School will provide for the third year with the Law School providing aid in the final year.