2023-2024 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog
Legal Education Admission Program (LEAP), Legal Studies
Students who are accepted into the Grand Valley School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Legal Studies and Michigan State College of Law (MSU COL) 3+3 program called LEAP complete a minimum of 91 credits comprising the required undergraduate courses in their first three years of study at Grand Valley. This includes all university-level requirements as well as the requirements for the legal studies major. Upon admission to the law school, legal studies students complete their undergraduate electives with law school courses. Up to 29 credits of MSU COL work in which the student has earned a 2.0 or above will be accepted. The B.S. or B.A. will be awarded upon satisfactory completion of the number of credits and requirements necessary for the undergraduate program.
LEAP is open only to those students who matriculate as first-year students at Grand Valley. Students may apply any time prior to their senior year for consideration under the program. A joint committee that is comprised of faculty from both institutions will admit students to the LEAP program on the basis of undergraduate record, ACT or SAT scores and other information deemed relevant. In order to be eligible for consideration for final admission to MSU COL, students enrolled in the 3+3 program must have earned a cumulative Grand Valley grade point average, not less than the median of the students admitted to MSU COL for the previous year, achieve an LSAT score not less than the median of the students admitted to MSU COL for the previous year (if taken multiple times, the highest of multiple scores will be relied on), and satisfy any other current MSU COL admission requirements.
Suggested Order of Coursework
Year One
- A writing skills course
- One or two humanities/arts general education courses
- One or two science general education courses
- Electives (or foreign language)
- ACC 212 - Principles of Financial Accounting (3 credits)
- LS 101 - Law in our Lives (3 credits)
- LS 226 - Civil Litigation I (3 credits)
Year Two
- Three or four legal studies courses (such as LS 324, LS 428, and LS 320)
- CJ 300 and STA 215 (B.S. degree)
- IS 150
- One or two general education courses
- Electives or foreign language
- Additional writing skills if needed
Year Three
- Two or three legal studies courses at 400-level (such as LS 320 and LS 322)
- Completion of general education courses
- LS 490 - Legal Studies Internship (1 to 6 credits)
- LS 495 - Legal Thought (Capstone) (3 credits)