This guide is intended to help students plan out their J.D. by providing the general rules for registration, credit types, course modalities, and credit limits. Students can always speak with their academic advisor about graduation planning. Students can make an appointment with their academic advisor by finding the “Academic Advising Appointments” section on the MyMitchellHamline Student Portal under My Academics –> Academic Advising.
Program Course Schedule and Guidelines
For course schedule information specific to each JD program, please follow the appropriate link below:
- Blended Learning Program
- Full-Time Morning and Afternoon Program
- Full-Time Evening Program
- Part-Time Evening Program
Term credit limits
Each term has a limit to the maximum number of credits that can be taken. Some terms have an exception policy that allows students to petition to exceed the term credit limit. See the table below:
Term credit limit table
| Term | Max Credits | Exceptions |
| Fall/Spring | 15 | Extremely rare, see rule here. |
| Summer | 10 (12 for a full-time residency) | May petition to take up to 12 credits in a residency. 12 credits of courses is not permitted. |
| J-Term | 3 | None |
* Note that students must complete their JD no earlier than 24 months and no later than 84 months, per rule 1.06.D of the MHSL Catalog.
Tuition brackets
Fall and spring tuition is based on tuition brackets as outlined in the table below. Summer and J-Term do not have tuition brackets but is charged on a pay-per-credit basis. Students who have questions about tuition should reach out directly to financial aid ([email protected]). More information about tuition can be found on the Financial Aid website.
Fall/spring tuition bracket table
| Credits | Tuition Bracket | Notes |
| 12-15 | Full-time tuition | |
| 8-11 | Part-time tuition | |
| 1-7 | Pay per credit | Check with Financial Aid for additional info |
Course Modality and Credit Types
Credit limits and types
There are three credit types that students can accrue while earning their JD, some of which have a credit limit. Note that all credits accrued, regardless of the type, count toward the 86-credit requirement for the JD:
- In-person credits: no limit to the number that can be earned. These credits are earned primarily through on-campus or Blended courses.
- Distance-education credits: students are limited to earning 43 distance-education credits. Students who plan to sit for the NY bar exam cannot earn more than 15 distance-education credits. Canadian students also have stricter restrictions. Distance-education credits are accrued through remote courses that do not have any in-person time with professors.
- Out-of-classroom credits: students are limited to earning 22 out-of-classroom credits. These credits are accrued through experiential courses like externships, journals, independent work, competitions, and a few other ways.
Course modalities
Mitchell Hamline offers courses that are delivered in several modalities and which accrue different types of credits:
- In-person courses
-
- Meets on campus. During the summer and J-Term, in-person courses are condensed (generally a week).
- Accrues in-person credits.
- Signified by a number without letters in the section number. e.g., LAW-1005-1.
- Blended courses
-
- Primarily asynchronous courses for most of the semester with some required in-person time.
- Pre-registered Blended courses (semesters 1 – 4) have a required virtual prep week and in-person capstone week, with the exception being that the 1st-semester prep week is held on campus.
- Upper-level Blended courses have a required capstone week.
- Upper-level Blended courses can be distinguished by schedule (please see the Semesters 5 – 8 Capstone Schedule for a visual representation):
- Blended A: capstone week meetings are in the morning from 8:00 AM to 12:25 PM.
- Blended A1: capstone week meetings are in the morning from 10:00 AM to 11:55 AM.
- Blended B: capstone week meetings are in the afternoon from 1:30 PM to 5:55 PM.
- Blended B1: capstone week meetings are in the afternoon from 1:30 PM to 3:25 PM.
- Blended B2: capstone week meetings are in the afternoon from 3:30 PM to 5:25 PM.
- Because of the above upper-level Blended schedule, students are restricted from taking a Blended A and Blended A1 at the same time or a Blended B and a Blended B1/B2 at the same time.
- Sample possible combinations:
- Blended A, Blended B
- Blended A1, Blended B1, Blended B2
- Blended A, Blended B2
- Blended B1
- Accrues in-person credits.
- Signified by a “B” in the section number, e.g., LAW-3215-B1.
- Online (remote asynchronous) courses
-
- Course runs asynchronously.
- Accrues distance credits.
- Signified by an “O” in the section number, e.g., LAW-2010-O1.
- Remote synchronous courses
-
- Has weekly, remote meeting times. The course schedule will provide the meeting day(s) and time(s).
- Accrues distance credits.
- Signified by an “RS” in the section number, e.g., LAW-3046-RS1.
- Hyflex courses
-
- Two versions of the same class: one meets in person, the other meets remotely, but all students attend at the same time.
- On-campus version accrues in-person credits.
- Remote synchronous version accrues distance credits.
- Signified by an “HC” (on-campus) or an “HR” (remote) in the section number, e.g., LAW-3471-HC1 and LAW-3471-HR1.
- Blended remote synchronous courses
- Operates like a Blended course (asynchronous for most of the semester with a capstone at the end), but the capstone week is remote.
- Accrues distance credits
- Signified by a “BRS” in the section number, e.g., LAW-3047-BRS1.
Course modality, credit types, and credit cap summary table
| Course Modality | Credit Type | Credit Type Cap | Section Abbreviation |
| On-Campus | In Person | None | Number (e.g., 1, 2, 4) |
| Blended | In Person | None | B |
| Online (Remote Asynchronous) | Distance Learning | 43 (or 15 if sitting for the NY bar) | O |
| Remote Synchronous | Distance Learning | 43 (or 15 if sitting for the NY bar) | RS |
| Hyflex On-Campus | In Person | None | HC |
| Hyflex Remote | Distance Learning | 43 (or 15 if sitting for the NY bar) | HR |
| Blended Remote Synchronous | Distance Learning | 43 (or 15 if sitting for the NY bar) | BRS |
Experiential:
|
Out-of-Classroom | 22 | Various. Note that some externships might be labeled with an “HR” or “RS” modality (e.g., EXT 1005 RS1) . All externships, regardless of the modality, accrue out-of-classroom credits and not distance credits. In the case of externships, the section with the modality indicates only how the class meets. |