Marquette University, St. Norbert College team up to help students earn their law degree

St. Norbert College and Marquette University Law School have established a “3-plus-3” academic program that would enable qualifying St. Norbert undergraduates to enroll at Marquette Law School after completing three years of education (99 credits) at St. Norbert.

Upon finishing their three years of law education, those students would emerge with both a St. Norbert bachelor’s degree and a Marquette law degree in just six total years—eliminating a full year from the traditional path.

Here’s how it will work. St. Norbert students in the 3-plus-3 program will be able to apply to Marquette’s law school during their junior year. Those who are admitted would then move directly into the law program. Once they successfully complete all requirements during their first year of law school at Marquette, those credits will be transferred back to St. Norbert to achieve a baccalaureate degree.

Those students will then have two additional years of law school at Marquette before receiving their juris doctor degree from Marquette Law, all in six total years. There are a number of top liberal arts colleges that have these kinds of 3-plus-3 arrangements with partnering law schools, but this will be the first such program in Wisconsin.

“We are delighted and honored to able to work with Marquette Law School on this innovative partnership,” said St. Norbert president Thomas Kunkel. “Our schools have many shared values and much common history – including lots of ‘dual’ graduates. We are delighted to be able to offer law-bound students an opportunity to get their degrees from both schools and still save on a full year of college tuition. It’s exactly the kind of value-added opportunity families are asking for.”

“Marquette University Law School is pleased to partner with St. Norbert College on a program that will be beneficial to both institutions. More importantly, it will assist students who wish to pursue a legal education, providing the economic benefit of shortening their time in higher education and the career-related benefit of enabling them to enter the workplace one year earlier,” said Joseph D. Kearney, dean of Marquette University Law School. “We have welcomed many St. Norbert graduates to the law school over the years, and we look forward to a closer partnership through this program.”