The Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University will launch Fast Forward, a two-year JD program, starting in 2014.
The program offers the same opportunities for hands-on learning through co-op placements, clinical work and pro bono service and requires the same number of credits as the traditional three-year JD
The advantage is that students will reduce the length of time they’re enrolled in law school and they will be able to enter the workforce one year earlier.
“Fast Forward offers highly motivated students an attractive option for completing their education and getting a head start on their careers,” Dean Roger Dennis said.
In order to accommodate Fast Forward students, the law school will recruit a smaller cohort of students for the three-year program.
“We are not creating this program to increase enrollment, but to provide alternatives to strong students who have well-defined professional goals,” Dennis said.
Due to the intensity of completing a rigorous JD program in just two years, Fast Forward is best suited to students who have strong academic credentials, who have significant life experience after college or who have decided on a specific career path in legal practice.
The program will launch in May 2014, and students will complete their first semester over the course of that summer. Their second term will begin in the fall, when they will begin taking classes along with traditional three-year students.
Students in the Fast Forward program are eligible to take part in the Drexel Law Review, Moot Court, Mock Trial and all extracurricular activities of the law school, as well as the Co-op Program, the Clinical Program and Pro Bono Service.
Those enrolled in Fast Forward have the option of decelerating to the three-year schedule, if they find the program too intense.
Fast Forward students are eligible to receive all of the merit scholarship funds available to other students at the Earle Mack School of Law. And to compensate for the fact that Fast Forward students may be leaving the workforce several months early, the law school will offer an initial stipend applicable only to the first summer term.