MD/JD program in 4 years

[Soso694]

Like most people, I have a diverse pallet of passions. I want to be both a physician and a lawyer, with my primary occupation being a physician. I do not care about making money as an attorney, as my passion is more about public interest, I don't want to work for any firms, and I'd be a physician first - hence why I'm not selective about which law school I go to or its ranking. I just want to be granted the ability to sit for the bar so I can practice independently as a lawyer on my own time. The issue here is the extra cost of doing a 6 year MD/JD program, as I don't think the time and money is worth supporting this type of thing when my JD isn't even going to be used to its full extent.

SIU is the only program I've seen that offers a 4-year combined MD/JD program, which is perfect for me except it looks like I'd have to apply to the law school first, and *then* the medical school after my first year. This is a no go, because I put medicine first. It's kind of unfortunate since Illinois is my state and I'd have the advantage of getting two doctorates that I want under the same in-state tuition (+ being done with both in 4 years), but I'm hoping they can let me apply to the med school first anyway.

My question after all of this rambling is if you guys know any other MD/JD programs that can be done in 4 years? Or any alternative way of accomplishing this goal without paying double tuition? Thanks.

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[Soso694]

And also, I'm very aware that the quality of the SIU's JD program may not be as good if you can do it with an MD program in 4 years (hence why it's ranked so low), but again the quality isn't my main concern as I'm not looking for a prestigious job in law.

 

[Sardinia]

Sounds like a terrible idea. You can pick up a JD from Thomas M. Cooley law school at any point if you want the double D's on your resume. If I'm not mistaken, law school admissions were at an all time low in either 2013-2014 because the field is saturated with too many graduates who can't find a job in firms that are downsizing. If you have a palette of interests that's what your public library is for so you can browse through an entire catalogue of legalese. You can even Google boiler plate documentation to satisfy that jock itch.

 

[Sardinia]

With regards to the above: https://grox.net/misc/legal.forms/

 

[the argus]

Like most people, I have a diverse pallet of passions. I want to be both a physician and a lawyer, with my primary occupation being a physician. I do not care about making money as an attorney, as my passion is more about public interest, I don't want to work for any firms, and I'd be a physician first - hence why I'm not selective about which law school I go to or its ranking. I just want to be granted the ability to sit for the bar so I can practice independently as a lawyer on my own time. The issue here is the extra cost of doing a 6 year MD/JD program, as I don't think the time and money is worth supporting this type of thing when my JD isn't even going to be used to its full extent.

SIU is the only program I've seen that offers a 4-year combined MD/JD program, which is perfect for me except it looks like I'd have to apply to the law school first, and *then* the medical school after my first year. This is a no go, because I put medicine first. It's kind of unfortunate since Illinois is my state and I'd have the advantage of getting two doctorates that I want under the same in-state tuition (+ being done with both in 4 years), but I'm hoping they can let me apply to the med school first anyway.

My question after all of this rambling is if you guys know any other MD/JD programs that can be done in 4 years? Or any alternative way of accomplishing this goal without paying double tuition? Thanks.

Not sure where you're getting the idea that this is a 4 year program. From reading the website for ~1 minute, it's pretty clear that this is a 6 year program, which makes sense because there's no way they would condense 7 years of school into 4. From the website,



"The JD/MD program requires students to spend their first year at the School of Law in Carbondale, where they will complete 32 credit hours of prescribed first-year course work. Students then will enroll in the law school summer session and complete six credit hours of advanced course work. During the second academic year, students will continue in Carbondale as full-time law students, completing an additional 32 credit hours of course work with concentration in health law.

Enrollment in a second summer session will be required, during which time students will complete six credit hours of course work. This session may include legal research and clinical experience in state or federal agencies involved in the regulation of public health and the activities of the medical profession. Students will spend their third academic year enrolled as freshmen in the School of Medicine in Carbondale, where they will complete all requirements of the first year of the medical school curriculum. Students then will move to Springfield, where they will continue as full-time medical students, completing the sophomore and junior years of the curriculum.

During the senior year of medical school, students will be required to take a specially designed set of law, medicine, and health policy electives lasting 14 week, full-time. In completing degree requirements for both the M.D. and J.D. degrees, this 14-week elective sequence will serve to fulfill 14 credit hours of course work required for attainment of the J.D. degree and 14 weeks of elective course work required for attainment of the M.D. degree."

EDIT: above was from law school website. This is from medical school website,

"The dual degree program is designed to lead to the concurrent award of degrees in law and medicine at the completion of a unique six-year program involving academic and clinical study."

 

[Soso694]

Not sure where you're getting the idea that this is a 4 year program. From reading the website for ~1 minute, it's pretty clear that this is a 6 year program, which makes sense because there's no way they would condense 7 years of school into 4. From the website,
"

Thanks for that. I've read conflicting sources, primarily from this website: https://www.premedhq.com/2013/01/list-of-mdjd-programs.html which stated it was a 4 year program. The MD/JD website didn't specifically say how many years so I went with that.

 

[Apollo1]

It is difficult enough to practice in only one of these career fields OP, and the odds are you wouldn't be nearly as effective in practicing both simultaneously. Newly minted grads of law school are not practice-ready, and with the obvious residency requirement it's easy to see that you could end up more dangerous than beneficial.

 

[candbgirl]

Totally not sure about the MD/JD program but unless you live south of I80 SIU probably won't be interested in you as a MD student. They have a very specific focus for their students.


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[JustAPhD]

Perhaps @Law2Doc can offer some insight. IIRC I believe he usually argues against getting the JD, but I don't want to put words in his mouth so I'll let him explain.

 

[the argus]

And FWIW, the (admittedly few) people I've met that did a MD/JD program all planned on eventually practicing law, not medicine. Depending on the type of law you practice, there is potentially a benefit to also having medical training. I can't think of an instance in any medical specialty where having a law degree would be of any substantial benefit. Maybe if you plan on doing more administrative type work, but even then a MBA or MPH would likely be of more use.

 

[Catalystik]

Totally not sure about the MD/JD program but unless you live south of I80 SIU probably won't be interested in you as a MD student. They have a very specific focus for their students.

As the combined medicine and law (MD/JD) program at SIU considers non-Illinois residents (per the website), unlike its MD-only program, I'd intuit that they won't be fussy about what part of Illinois one resides in for combined-degree consideration.

 

[Soso694]

Perhaps @Law2Doc can offer some insight. IIRC I believe he usually argues against getting the JD, but I don't want to put words in his mouth so I'll let him explain.

I'd definitely love to hear his insight. Especially why he made the switch from law to medicine (referring to his name).

 

[Horse Apiece]

I won't tell anyone about your plan to also fight crime on your off nights as a blind vigilante if you won't 😉 .

 

[Soso694]

I won't tell anyone about your plan to also fight crime on your off nights as a blind vigilante if you won't 😉 .

Shhhhh....keep that a secret. I don't want the other SDNers to find out.

 

[Law2Doc]

There is no value to a dual degree MD/JD. No job will pay you more for having both degrees. No job will require you to use both degrees. You can do medmal without an MD, you can be a professional witness without a JD. Nobody in any industry actively seeks this combo. Law jobs may not hire you because they'll assume you'll leave for greener pastures in medicine. The medicine component requires a residency and few people invest that many years without practicing. The law degree without practice experience behind it doesn't mean much. In short there's no good reason for this dual degree, other than some notion of trying to keep open choices. Pick one. If you pick wrong you can always go back as career changer, which then justifies the two degrees because you are leveraging the career/experience not the letters.

 

[Setto]

If you pick wrong you can always go back as career changer, which then justifies the two degrees because you are leveraging the career/experience not the letters.

Isn't coursework in Law considered undergrad? I know it is in Canada which means they consider your grades when applying to med. Factoring in the curve, it's a hard change to make.

 

[Law2Doc]

Isn't coursework in Law considered undergrad? I know it is in Canada which means they consider your grades when applying to med. Factoring in the curve, it's a hard change to make.

Nope. Canada is not in step with the US on this. Law is a graduate professional degree and doesn't factor into your "undergrad plus postbac" GPA. Doing well in law school is pretty meaningless for med schools. Doing poorly can hurt though. (And it's irrelevant in the setting of a dual degree as you're already admitted to a med school, so I'm assuming you mean in the setting of career changers).

 

[Setto]

Nope. Canada is not in step with the US on this. Law is a graduate professional degree and doesn't factor into your "undergrad plus postbac" GPA. Doing well in law school is pretty meaningless for med schools. Doing poorly can hurt though. (And it's irrelevant in the setting of a dual degree as you're already admitted to a med school, so I'm assuming you mean in the setting of career changers).

Yeah that's what I was referring to.

Interesting! In Canada, MD and JD are both considered undergrad even though you need an undergrad to get in. I know of at least one med school that considers JD course work to be undergraduate, much to the chagrin of career changers.

I, on the other hand, went Doc 2 Law. However, I never actually finished med school - dropped out when I realized it wasn't for me. But this is all pretty much meaningless to you considering how different the practice and market of both medicine and law are in Canada vs the US.