By: Deborah Johnson Wood
The Thomas M. Cooley Law School and Western Michigan University have teamed up for a new approach to getting grad students into lucrative jobs sooner and for less money. The plan, a joint law degree and Masters in Business Administration program, enables students to graduate three months sooner than if they pursued the degrees separately.
According to one study, Michigan’s Transition to a Knowledge Based Economy, West Michgan needs more adults with college degrees to increase the region's economic prosperity and per capita income—and it can’t happen fast enough.
“Having a Juris Doctor degree and a Masters in Business Administration, and getting them with 12 fewer credits required, gives students a leg up if they want to go into corporate law or corporate finance,” says Charles Cercone, Cooley’s associate dean of faculty.
“It gets them into the marketplace sooner and gives them the ability to move beyond law, where they can offer an employer a variety of skills like accounting concepts, marketing concepts, or finance concepts that are missing, by and large, from a law degree.”
Students in the program will take the MBA classes at any WMU location that offers them, and the law classes from any of Cooley’s locations. Because Cooley is an independent law school and not associated with a larger university that offers joint programs between departments, this agreement provides opportunities law students wouldn’t have otherwise, and at a substantial cost savings.
“Students will save thousands of dollars, almost a semester’s worth of classes,” Cercone adds. “We think this is going to be a tremendous benefit to our students.”
The two schools finalized the agreement on Tuesday with a public signing at Cooley Law’s Grand Rapids location.
Source: Charles Cercone, Thomas M. Cooley Law School; Nick Wasmiller, Seyferth Spaulding Tennyson, Inc.
Related Articles
West Michigan must get younger, smarter, more urban-minded to compete, study says
Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.