Master of Arts in History and Law/Juris Doctor

The joint M.A./J.D. program allows students to earn the standard professional degree required to practice law, simultaneously with advanced study of history. It is designed to allow students to complete the two degrees in less time (with fewer courses and credit hours) than if they did the two degree programs separately.
Legal practice requires fluency in information retrieval, research, analysis, and writing. Moreover, understanding of historical circumstances in which legal precedent has evolved is central to many fields of law. For these reasons, studying history at the graduate level can be a significant enhancement to legal career skills and prospects. Other prospective students may be interested in eventually pursuing a Ph.D. in history, with the intention of an academic career in law and a particular interest in legal history, making an M.A. taken simultaneously with a J.D. a logical starting point. Additionally, some prospective students may simply be interested in continuing study of a subject about which they are passionate, while preparing for professional life.

The M.A./J.D. program usually requires five years of full-time study.

Submit a personal statement, which should be a short (roughly two pages) explanation of the student's academic interests, why the student hopes to pursue these at CUA, and, for PhD applicants, an indication of possible areas of doctoral research
Arrange for an official transcript of undergraduate grades (and graduate grades, if any) to be sent to the Office of Graduate Admissions. It is not necessary for an applicant to have been a History major at the undergraduate level, but ordinarily the Department would expect an applicant to demonstrate significant preparation in History.
Take the general portion of the Graduate Record Examinationthe Department does not require the History examinationand arrange to have the scores sent to the Office of Graduate Admissions.
Arrange for the forwarding of at least three letters of recommendationpreferably by professors from the applicant's previous academic programattesting to the applicant's ability to perform graduate-level work.
Send a sample of writing, which should be a research paper on an academic subject (preferably History). The writing sample for a PhD applicant should be either a seminar paper incorporating original, primary-source-based research, or else an MA thesis. The writing sample should generally be on the lines of 1525 pages, double spaced.
International candidates are asked to have their secondary school or high school guidance counselor complete the Secondary School Report.
Arrange to have your secondary school, high school, or college send the required educational documents directly to The Catholic University of America.
All students from countries and areas where English is not the common, spoken language (even if the student already is a resident of the United States) must have a practical understanding of spoken and written English to benefit from instruction, study, and examinations. Course work at The Catholic University of America requires university-level English language proficiency and skills.
Minimally accepted TOEFL scores, when applying for graduate programs, are 550-paper, 213-computer, and 80 Internet. Students taking the TOEFL should have at least 20 out of 30 in each of the TOEFL subcategories. The minimally accepted graduate IELTS score is 6.5. Individual IELTS test module scores are also reviewed in addition to the overall IELTS score.