Having a J.D. degree is like having an MD (Doctor of Medicine) degree for physicians. It’s a graduate degree earned after completing all law school requirements. There are over 230 universities in America that offer an Online JD, which was first offered in the early 1900s to standardize law education. In other countries, the degree required for the practice of law goes by another name: a Doctor of Law degree (LLD) in England, for instance. However, there are other routes one can take within the field of law even here in the U.S. The J.D. degree doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to become a lawyer. We will discuss this in more detail later, but you can rest assured that the degree will provide you with the knowledge needed to tackle complex problems.
In most cases, students are required to complete 83 hours of courses to earn the J.D. degree from the American Bar Association, requiring three years to complete (or six full semesters). Depending on the school, additional units may be required for graduation. When a person earns an Online JD., they typically go on to become attorneys. They can become attorneys once they pass the bar exam for the jurisdiction in which they wish to practice. Many graduates, however, do not become licensed and use their degrees in other professions instead. Education, finance, politics, counseling, and regulatory compliance are among the professions in which a J.D. degree is useful.
The option of earning this designation at the same time as earning another degree may be offered at some schools. Joint degrees in a J.D. program allow for obtaining both degrees at the same time. In a joint degree, you can earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), or Master of Public Health (MPH). Joint degrees allow students to graduate in less time because credit hours can be transferred between both degrees. They also allow students to enter their profession of choice upon graduation as they possess skills and knowledge across multiple fields.