Philadelphia – Building on its interprofessional programs, Penn Dental Medicine has expanded its dual-degree options to include a joint DMD/JD degree with Penn Law. The program was officially established in November and interested DMD students can begin applying to the 6- to 6-½-year program starting in January 2013.
Accepted students will complete the first and second years at Penn Dental Medicine and the third year at Penn Law. Years four and five will be at Penn Dental with a six-week refresher course prior to reentering dental school and will include one or two law courses each semester. Year six and an additional semester if required will be at Penn Law.
“The number of dual degrees available to our students at Penn Dental exceeds by far that of our peer institutions and presents our students with a unique opportunity to enhance their dental education and assume future leadership roles in the dental profession,” says Dr. Uri Hangorsky, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Penn Dental Medicine.
“We’re delighted to be offering this latest joint degree in partnership with Penn Dental Medicine,” said Penn Law Dean Michael A. Fitts. “In an increasingly interconnected world, our approach to legal education focuses on providing unsurpassed opportunities for cross-disciplinary training. Over the past decade the Law School has fully integrated its academic program with offerings across the University, whether in business, medicine, education, social policy and practice, or the arts and sciences.”
This new DMD/JD degree brings the total number dual-degree programs at Penn Dental Medicine to six. The other programs include a Master of Bioethics and Master of Public Health with Penn’s School of Medicine; a Master of Science in Bioengineering with the School of Engineering and Applied Science; a Master of Education with the Graduate School of Education; and a Master of Business Administration with Wharton. There are a limited number of spaces each year available for Penn Dental Medicine students to enter the dual-degree programs.
Interested DMD students apply to the dual-degree programs during their first year of dental school. A competitive application process, students must first apply through the School’s Office of Academic Affairs, and if recommended for a program by the Penn Dental Medicine Dual-Degree Admissions Committee, they then must apply to the respective program, each with its own admissions criteria.
