Prior to applying, BSE degree students must obtain permission from their Undergraduate Chair and the Engineering Academic Programs Office to complete the required senior year courses in their fifth and sixth years.
Submatriculants may file for graduation from the undergraduate program at the end of the term in which they will have satisfied all requirements for the BSE or BAS degree from Penn Engineering. (Note that students may participate with their original undergraduate class graduation ceremonies, regardless of when they actually complete all of the degree requirements.) All students in the program must have completed all the requirements for the undergraduate degree before they may receive their law degree.
Students must satisfy all of the requirements for the JD degree during their fourth, fifth, and sixth years. Following their matriculation in the Law School however, submatriculants may apply up to four (4) engineering or other 1 c.u. courses taken at the 500 level or above during the fifth and sixth years of the program, to double count for both degrees.
Submatriculants will be allowed to use Law courses to satisfy the unrestricted Free Electives (3 c.u.) and/or the Social Science and Humanities requirements where appropriate.
The Law School Admissions Committee will select students for admission as submatriculants. The rigorous selection process for the JD sub-matriculation program is designed to assure that each candidate is evaluated in terms of their academic promise and potential contribution to the intellectual life of the Law School community. Applicants to the program should have superior communicative and analytical skills.
The Admissions Committee considers factors in the applicant’s academic record, like course selection and grades, either a LSAT, GRE, or GMAT score, letters of recommendation, community service, extra-curricular activities, and the applicant’s examples of written expression.
Procedures for students interested in this opportunity are as follows:
Engineering-related: Meet with an advisor in the Research and Academic Services Office (RAS). Please be prepared to discuss your interest in this program, during which time an up-to-date Curriculum Planning Guide (CPG) should be completed and discussed. You must show how you will meet graduation requirements within the double-counting limitations described above. (For BSE degree students, this is also when permission must be sought to defer senior year requirements into the fifth and sixth years.)
Law-related: Review the application procedures for the JD. Submit the completed application with all requested materials by March 1.
For more information, applicants or prospective applicants to the Law School should contact contactadmissions@law.upenn.edu.