What to Weigh About Accelerated B.A. J.D. Programs

If you are a college student with your heart set on law school, a 3+3 program can save you money and time. These accelerated programs, offered by select universities, allow high-performing students to earn both B.A. and J.D. degrees in six years rather than seven.

Besides saving time and avoiding the stress of applying to multiple law schools, participants receive dedicated support to ease the transition into law school. Some programs even allow applicants to forgo taking the LSAT or GRE.

Accelerated J.D. programs typically offer an expedited path to students within the same university system. This is most common among state universities with an interest in training local lawyers, like the University of Georgia, the University of Iowa and the University of Kansas.

The University of Central Florida has a 3+3 program with two in-state law schools: Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee and Florida International University College of Law in Miami.

Several private universities offer this option as well, like DePaul University in Illinois and Willamette University in Oregon.

Even college students at schools that do not offer a 3+3 program can still take a shortcut to legal practice at one of the handful of law schools that offer accelerated two-year J.D. programs, including the Rick. J. Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine University in California and the University of Dayton School of Law in Ohio.

Two other law schools, Columbia Law School in New York and Harvard Law School in Massachusetts, offer direct admission programs that are open to applicants from any undergraduate institution. However, these are not accelerated programs and require applicants to defer admission in order to first gain work experience.