Academics
Academics
Graduation Requirements
To be eligible to receive the Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) degree from Drake University Law School, a candidate must have completed 90 semester hours for law credit within 84 months of entering law school (including a minimum of 69 semester hours in regularly scheduled class sessions); must have completed all required courses, including the advanced writing requirement and a designated professional skills course; must have achieved a cumulative grade point average of 2.00 on all law work attempted; and must have earned six residence credits.All graduates must earn a minimum of two credits through completion of a writing requirement, in addition to the first-year research, writing and appellate argument program. A number of courses have been certified to meet the advanced writing requirement. All graduates must complete one Professional Skills course from a listing of courses certified to satisfy this requirement.
Drake Law School requires that each student must successfully complete a course of study in residence of not fewer than 90 credit hours of instruction time, including a minimum of at least 69 credit hours of instruction time in regularly scheduled class sessions. The following courses are excluded from counting toward the 69 credit hour minimum of regularly scheduled class sessions:
1. Internships;
2. Independent Study, Law 298;
3. Interdisciplinary and Joint Degree Credit;
4. Drake Law Review and Agricultural Law Journal;
5.Moot court, mock trial competitions, and related competitions.
Although the above courses are excluded from the count of regularly scheduled class session minutes, these courses (1 – 5 above) do count toward the 90 credit hours necessary for graduation.
Both the 69-hour rule and the professional skills course requirement are prospective and apply to students who enroll in June or August 2006 and thereafter. Each student will be apprised of the new rule during the 1L Orientation and the rule will be included in each semester’s Registration Instructions. As part of the Graduation Audit, students will be required to demonstrate compliance with this rule. Click here to view a Graduation Checklist.
This is merely a summary of graduation requirements. For a complete and binding explanation of the requirements, please see the applicable Law School catalog.
