Application

Apply and be admitted to each program. (Admission to one program will not affect admission to the other.)

• Apply to the Law School by March 1.
• Apply to the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy by February 15.

If you’re initially accepted to both schools, you can start your program at either, but you need to make the choice and tell both schools about it by May 15. Do that by contacting each school’s Associate Dean or Director of Admissions.

You can also decide to apply for a joint degree after you’ve become a law student. If you’re accepted into the other program, then contact the Law School’s Associate Dean of Administration and the other program’s Director of Admission by May 15.

Contact us

Plan of Study

• Start at either program – if you start at the Law School, you’ll take only law courses your first year.  If you start in the Policy Program, you’ll only take policy courses.
• You will take a combination of law and policy courses in your final two years.
• You must declare your intentions  regarding Law classes that you plan to count toward your policy degree and this must be done at the time of registration.
• You must register in the Policy cross-listed number (if the course is listed as either Law or Policy) when you intend to apply the credits and grade to the Policy degree.
• If the course is not cross-listed, for instance the PUBP 600 option, then we need to manually code your registration as Grad A&S in the Law course.
• Regardless of where you are taking classes, you’ll always retain the rights of a student at each school.

Degree Requirements

• Earn 75 law credits.
  • You may not apply non-law credit hours to your law degree.
  • 65 of your credits for graduation must be in William & Mary Law School courses graded by a letter grade (i.e., A, B, C).
• Complete the first- and second-year Law School course requirements.
• Satisfy the Law School Major Paper Requirement.
• Earn a minimum cumulative law GPA of 2.0.
• Comply with all M.P.P. requirements:
  • 36 Policy hours
  • All other degree requirements
  • Earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0.

Tuition and Fees

• Pay tuition and fees at the Law School rate for three years.
• Pay tuition and fees at the Graduate Arts & Sciences rate for one year – typically the year when predominantly taking M.P.P. courses.

Financial Assistance

• If you’re eligible, you can be considered for available scholarship funds at either school. 
• J.D./M.P.P. students may be eligible for a Bolin Fellowship.
• If you’re eligible, you can receive up to three years of Law School-administered aid. 
• If you receive Law School scholarship funds or aid, they are not available during the year you’re paying tuition to the other program.
• Educational loan applications are processed by the Office of Student Financial Aid for the College of William & Mary.