M.J. Degree Requirements
The following requirements must be satisfied to graduate with a Master of Jurisprudence (M.J.) degree from IU McKinney School of Law. The LL.M./S.J.D./M.J. Student Handbook outlines these requirements in detail.
About the Program
To receive an M.J. degree, M.J. students must:
- Complete 30 credit hours (taken full or part-time)
- Maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.3 on a 4.0 scale
- Complete all curricular requirements
- Complete all of these degree requirements within 48 months of matriculation
Curricular Requirements
The following core courses are required to graduate:
- Legal Process for M.J. Students (Summer)
- One first-year J.D. course (Fall)
In order to prepare M.J. students for law school, the M.J. Program begins in the summer with a mandatory Legal Process course. In this foundational course, you will be trained how to read and brief cases, interpret statutes, apply precedent, synthesize rules, support a party’s position, and prepare for law school final exams. This course also includes a writing component which introduces basic principles of effective legal analysis and communication, including how to structure a legal analysis and how to communicate that analysis to a legal reader.
M.J. students will then take one first-year J.D. course in their first fall semester. Options include Contracts, Torts, Property, Criminal Law, or Constitutional Law.
