Law and Public Health - A Powerful Combination
Future Career Opportunities
Why Choose UIC and Chicago-Kent?
A Comprehensive Curriculum Bridges Law and Public Health
Admission Requirements
Financial Assistance
Tuition
- Address cutting-edge issues at the intersection of public health,
law and medicine
- Acquire legal tools to help solve pressing public health problems
- Learn how to impact public policymakers
- Explore and understand the empirical assumptions about public health
that drive legal decision-making
- Discover how emerging medical technologies and new health-care delivery
mechanisms are likely to be regulated
Future Career Opportunities
Lawyers who have a background in public health are more marketable in
the field of health law and policy than their counterparts without a health
background. And the dual degree expands the variety of career options.
Some graduates pursue traditional careers as attorneys at law firms or
companies specializing in health care law or related public health specializations
such as environmental control or health services delivery. Others work
as legal or health care policy advisors for hospitals, governments or
health care organizations. And still others pursue a more advocacy-oriented
role helping local citizens organize for policy changes to improve the
health of their communities.
Why Choose UIC and Chicago-Kent?
The coordinated JD/MPH program between Chicago-Kent College
of Law and the UIC School of Public Health is a unique collaborative
effort between two distinguished institutions. Graduates will receive
a
specialized education that can not be duplicated anywhere else.
The UIC School of Public Health is located on the campus of one of the
nation's largest health and medical centers just minutes west of
Chicago's downtown Loop. UIC is a vital part of the educational,
technological, and cultural fabric of the Chicago metropolitan area.
It is one of the nation's top 88 research universities and is the largest
institution of higher learning in the Chicago area. Chicago-Kent College
of Law is located at the Illinois Institute of Technology's downtown
campus in a state-of-the-art building in Chicago's West Loop. Its close
proximity to the UIC School of Public Health allows students to travel
conveniently between campuses by public transportation.
A Comprehensive Curriculum Bridges Law and Public
Health
To receive the Juris Doctor, students must complete 87 credit hours.
This includes the first year of required course-work, including two
semesters in the legal research and writing program. After completing
required courses students may pursue a deeper understanding of a
particular substantive, health-related area, including disability law,
elder
law, environmental and energy law, family law, food and drug law,
genetics and law, health law, medical malpractice, and reproductive
technologies law.
Students in the coordinated program will matriculate into the School
of
Public Health's Health Policy and Administration Division. To receive
the Master of Public Health, students must complete 33 to 38 semester
hours of course work, including 18 semester hours of school-wide
requirements, and at least 15 semester hours of electives, many of which
will likely be in areas of public health law and policy. Students must
also complete a field practicum experience and a capstone requirement.
These enable students to gain practical experience in whichever area of
health law or health policy is of interest to them.
Twelve hours of course-work (roughly one semester's worth of credit)
taken at the School of Public Health will count toward elective credit
at
Chicago-Kent, enabling students to complete both degrees in 3 1/2
years. With proper planning, participation in clinical experiences and/or
externships at Chicago-Kent also may satisfy the School of Public
Health's field practicum requirement, and participation in health-related
legal seminars at Chicago-Kent may satisfy the School's capstone
requirement.
Admission Requirements
To be considered for admissions students must:
- have earned a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution,
- have taken the LSAT exam,
- apply separately to each program, and
- satisfy other application requirements for each institution.
LSAT scores may be substituted for GRE scores as part of the application
to the School of Public Health. Students in the coordinated program have
the option of starting at either institution, but they can not take courses
at both schools during the same semester without special approval.
Students are assigned faculty advisors chosen from among the attorneys
on the faculty of the school of Public Health and from the faculty members
engaged in health-related issues at Chicago-Kent. Each student will be
assigned one advisor from each school.
Financial Assistance
UIC offers a variety of options for financial aid. Students accepted into
a graduate program may apply for fellowships, loans, scholarships, or
employment. Graduate students may also be appointed to teaching or research
assistantships. Assistants receive a monthly stipend and tuition waiver
while gaining practical experience in their professional field.
Chicago-Kent College of Law provides a range of scholarships to reward
academic performance at the law school and to help reduce financial need.
All students are automatically reviewed for available scholarships upon
acceptance to the law school. Scholarship support is available to first-year
law students with outstanding qualifications through renewable full- and
half-tuition scholarships as well as other rewards. Loans are also available,
so financial aid applications should be filled out as soon as possible
after January 1 for the year in which loans are being requested.
Tuition
While a student in the JD/MPH program is attending one school, he or she
will be considered on official leave of absence at the other school. Thus,
the student will pay tuition and be eligible for scholarship support at
only one school at a time. Students in the coordinated degree program
save an entire semester of tuition, as completing the MPH and JD programs
consecutively would take 4 years.
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