Undergraduate students at Eastern Kentucky University are now eligible for an early-enrollment program at Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University.
The Chase 3+3 Accelerated Law Program combines a final year of undergraduate study with a first year of law school.
“The partnership with Chase offers a wonderful opportunity for focused and motivated students to achieve their career goals in an accelerated program,” said Dr. Sara Zeigler, dean of EKU’s College of Letters, Arts, & Social Sciences. “Combined with our award-winning mock trial program, our innovative Legal Studies minor and our excellent liberal arts offerings, it makes EKU an outstanding choice for students pursuing a career in law. We are pleased to work with our colleagues at Chase to offer an efficient, affordable and high-quality program.”
NKU Interim President Gerard St. Amand said the 3+3 program “is designed to enable talented students seeking a law degree to streamline the time and financial burden of completing their undergraduate and law school programs, a wonderful means of easing the financial challenge for top talent to enter the legal profession. We are pleased to add EKU to our group of university partners.”
The Chase 3+3 program – named for three years of undergraduate studies and three years of law school – allows eligible students to reduce their education costs by applying their first year of courses at Chase to both a bachelor’s degree at their undergraduate college and a law degree. Expansion of the Chase program to EKU offers an additional pathway for highly motivated students to enter Chase.
“The 3+3 program allows students to pursue new levels of academic achievement with a seamless transition to the many experiences that make Chase graduates great lawyers,” Lawrence Rosenthal, Chase co-acting dean, said. “By completing undergraduate and law degrees one year sooner than is traditional, they can accelerate their career goals with the outstanding classroom instruction and exceptional experiential-learning programs available at Chase.”
Undergraduate students who wish to apply to the Chase 3+3 Accelerated Law Program must have enough credits toward a baccalaureate degree by the end of their junior year to allow first-year courses at Chase to be counted as electives for completion of an undergraduate degree and toward a law degree. Students receive bachelor’s degrees from their undergraduate colleges after successfully completing their first year at Chase.
For NKU and EKU, the program links two Kentucky public universities located approximately 100 miles apart.
“Throughout our history, countless attorneys throughout Kentucky and beyond have found an undergraduate degree at Eastern to be terrific preparation for law school and successful careers,” EKU President Michael Benson said. “This exciting, new partnership with Chase helps ensure that this proud tradition will continue for generations to come.”
For more information about EKU’s pre-law program, visit preprofessional.eku.edu/pre-law. For more information about the Chase law school, visit nku.edu/chaselaw.