In order to be admitted to the JD/MA program, students must be apply and be accepted to both the Law School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

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Successful candidates receive both the Juris Doctor (JD) degree and a Master of Arts (MA) degree. With careful planning, the dual degree program can be completed in six semesters, rather than the eight semesters required to obtain each degree independently, because some courses can be credited toward both degrees.

The dual degree can significantly benefit a student, regardless of his or her career path. Students who intend to practice law will benefit from the careful, critical approach to textual analysis that is taught in graduate literature courses. Coursework taken in the program also will enhance the student’s writing skills, which are essential to law practice. Similarly, a student who decides to pursue a career outside law, such as teaching literature, will benefit from the rigorous specialized training in the analysis of legal texts and issues that a JD degree provides.

Program Requirements

Required Law School Courses

  • Must take at least two Law School courses during their second and third years of law school that are approved by the Joint Advisory Board as relevant to their dual program.
  • Four of the literature courses taken to satisfy MA requirements also may be applied to the JD degree, up to a maximum of 12 LAW credits total. Students apply these literature courses to the JD degree during their second and third years of law school (typically one course per semester).

Required Department of English Courses (6)

  • One in literary theory
  • One Directed Study
  • Of the six total, at least four must be graduate seminars (courses numbered 700 or higher)
  • To complete the MA in English, students must take two English courses beyond those needed to complete the JD degree.
  • There is no foreign language requirement for the English MA portion of this degree

Thesis Requirement

The core requirement of the joint JD/MA in English program is the thesis. Students must write a thesis that is a work of original scholarship and research and that substantially engages both legal and literary subjects, methods, texts, and/or analysis. This paper must:

  1. satisfy BU Law’s Upperclass Writing Requirement;
  2. be jointly supervised by a faculty member in the law school and in the Department of English;
  3. be registered and counted as a Department of English Directed Study course;
  4. be approved, in its final form, by a faculty member in BU Law and in the Department of English;
  5. not substantially duplicate written work submitted for other courses either in the Department of English or in BU Law.