With the weight the phrases “medical school” and “law school” carry, it comes as no surprise that when Austin Sim requested the implementation of a dual medicine and law degree program at the University, heads turned.
Sim, the only student currently enrolled in the University’s new J.D.-M.D. program, was eager to pursue coursework in both fields. While he says his primary ambition is to practice medicine, he would also like to become involved in the nation’s legislative process.
“A lot of [physicians] have great ideas for policy they never get put into practice,” Sim said to The Daily Progress.
By successfully petitioning the University to implement a dual degree program, Sim helped add the University to the short list of American universities which offer this type of program, including Yale and the University of Chicago.
The University’s J.D.-M.D. dual degree is crafted into a six-year program, with the first three years spent in medical school, followed by two years of law school and a final year of both law and medical school. Sim jokes that law students think he is “crazy,” but remains thankful the program does not require him to take medical and law classes simultaneously.
“It would be very difficult to be doing both things at the exact same time because the rhythm of the institutions is so different,” said Richard J. Bonnie, the supervisor of the J.D.-M.D. program at the Law School.
Instead, medical and law courses are staggered, so students only have to focus on one field at any given time.
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