4.17.05 The Program of Study
A. The Seminary offers its M.T.S. program on both a full and part-time basis during the day, with occasional evening classes and regular summer school offerings in June. The Law School offers the JD degree on both a full-time day or part-time day or evening basis. Several elective courses at the law school are only available during the evening.
B. With permission of both advisors, a student may, on occasion, take both law and seminary courses during the same semester, providing all “basic requirements” for both programs have been fulfilled. Simultaneous enrollment in the Seminary and the Law School usually is permitted if all prerequisites have been completed.
1. This means that the student must have completed at least 40 quarter hours of credit of the M.T.S. program and (2) the 29 semester credit hours of the full-time first year Law School curriculum plus Constitutional Law II and Civil Procedure: Jurisdiction (a year and a half if enrolled as a full-time law student and two years as a part-time student) before the student may begin to take classes concurrently at both the Seminary and the Law School.
2. However, the full-time student may never take concurrently more than 16 semester-credit hours (or its equivalent in quarter hours) in both programs in the same semester. The part-time law student, after completing the “basic requirements”, may take courses concurrently in both schools, but is prohibited from taking concurrently more than 11 semester-credit hours (or its equivalent in quarter hours) in both programs at any given time. During summer sessions, the joint degree candidate may not take more than eight semester-credit hours concurrently as a full-time student or six semester-credit hours as a part-time degree student, without the express written permission of the Dean of the Law School or their Delegate and the Academic Dean of the Seminary. (Limitations imposed here are based on academic pedagogy and ABA accreditation standards.)
3. A student who has completed the “basic requirements” of the M.T.S and has completed the part-time first year law program may take appropriate summer session courses in the M.T.S. program, the law program, or both with permission from the Dean of the Law School or their delegate.
C. Joint degree students registered only in one school should communicate periodically with the other school. Each school's Registrar automatically will continue to mail registration materials to the joint degree candidate until it is determined that the candidate no longer wishes to receive them. It is the joint degree student's responsibility to notify both the Law School Office of Records and Registration and the Registrar for Trinity Lutheran Seminary of changes in either their permanent or local mailing address.
D. The joint degree student may complete both course requirements together, or complete one ahead of the other. Because each school grants academic credit for some courses successfully completed in the other school:
1. To be eligible to receive the J.D. degree, the joint degree student must successfully complete 40 quarter credit hours in the M.T.S. program, of which 12 (8 semester) quarter hours are courses approved as joint degree credit, and all other J.D. degree requirements.
2. To be eligible to receive the M.T.S. degree, the joint degree student must successfully complete 40 semester credit hours in the law program, of which 16 (24 quarter) semester hours are courses approved as joint degree credit, and all other M.T.S. degree requirements.
The joint degree student must notify the registrar of each school at the appropriate time to receive the degree awarded by each. Degrees are presented at the respective commencements of the two schools.