JD Student Frequently Asked Questions

• Where can I find the schedule of classes?
  • Please visit the USC Schedule of Classes to view courses.
    
    
• What do I need to take in order to graduate?
  • You must take and successfully complete 88 total units.
    • Students must complete a minimum of 88 units in courses approved for credit towards the Juris Doctor degree no earlier than 24 months and, except in extraordinary circumstances, no later than 84 months after a student has commenced law study at the law school or a law school from which the school has accepted transfer credit.
    • Beyond the law school’s first-year curriculum, students must complete at least 58 units in upper-division courses approved for credit towards the JD (students who complete any of the optional first-year courses will need fewer units). As part of the required 88 units, complete six (6) full-time semesters; pass LAW 532, Constitutional Law: Rights; fulfill the Upper Division Writing Requirement (UDWR), and complete six experiential units. The Class of 2024 and all subsequent classes must also pass LAW 789: Race, Racism and the Law.
    • In general, only graduate-level law courses (those numbered 500 and above) are approved for JD credit. Students may submit an academic petition to the Office of Academic Services to receive JD credit for the following:
      • Courses taken at another ABA approved law school through a summer study abroad program. The law school will accept a maximum of 5 such units towards the JD. Please see section 5.3 of this Handbook; and
      • Graduate-level courses taken at another USC school. Please see section 5.4 of this Handbook.
    • Students who fail to request permission from the Office of Academic Services prior to enrolling in these types of courses will not receive JD credit for the coursework.
  • You must fulfill the Upper-Division Writing Requirement.
    • ABA Standard 303 requires all students to complete at least one rigorous writing project after the first year. The Law School has adopted the following criteria to comply with the requirement:
      • Before graduation, each student must prepare an original paper or legal brief under the supervision of a member of the law school faculty. The paper must reflect research, analysis, and writing sufficient in scope and quality in the opinion of the supervising faculty member to earn at least two units of numerically graded credit.
      • If the writing requirement is fulfilled by completing one assignment, the writing must be at least 20 pages long.
      • If the writing requirement is fulfilled by completing more than one assignment, two of those assignments must be writings of at least ten pages each.
      • If an assignment has more than one author, the student using the assignment to satisfy the writing requirement must have personally authored at least a total of 20 pages.
      • The subject matter of each assignment must require original in-depth legal or other disciplinary analysis (e.g., in economics or philosophy) on a significant subject and cannot be a “survey” of existing law.
      • The faculty supervisor must review at least one draft (i.e., more than just an outline) of the student’s work (whether it be a draft of the one 20+ page assignment or a draft of each of the two 10+ page assignments) before the final version is submitted for a grade, and must provide specific comments on the substance, structure, and style of the writing. The faculty supervisor’s comments must be either in writing or conveyed in a one-on-one meeting with the student.
      • The faculty supervisor must confirm that the student has taken the comments into account in preparing a revised final version of the assignment.
    • Courses taken outside the law school do not satisfy the writing requirement. Students enrolled in a study abroad program may not use papers written for credit at the foreign institution to satisfy the requirement.
      
      
  • You must take and complete the First-year Curriculum
    • All students must complete the first-year curriculum with a final grade of 2.0 (D) or above in all required courses as well as a cumulative GPA in these courses of 2.90 or above. A student who receives a failing grade in a first-year course must re-take the course and complete it with a passing grade. Students who do not meet these requirements are subject to the academic disqualification process, which is detailed in Section 6.13. Click here to view the First-Year course descriptions.
  • You must complete 6 units of experiential coursework.
    • All students must complete one or more experiential course(s) totaling at least six units. An experiential course must be a law clinic or practicum, an externship/field placement, or a simulation course. Simulation courses provide substantial experience not involving an actual client, that: (1) is reasonably similar to the experience of a lawyer advising or representing a client or engaging in other lawyering tasks in a set of facts and circumstances devised or adopted by a faculty member; and (2) includes direct supervision of the student's performance by the faculty member, opportunities for performance, feedback from a faculty member, self-evaluation, and a classroom instructional component (ABA Standard 303).
    • The upper-division curriculum includes a variety of opportunities for experiential legal education: (1) clinical and practicum courses; (2) a simulation course; and (3) externships/field placements. Considered as a whole, USC's experiential offerings provide the foundation of knowledge and skill necessary to begin the practice of law. For details on the clinics and practicums offered at USC Gould, visit our clinics and practicums page.
      
      
  • What bar classes should I take?
    • Many students assume that their course selection in law school will have little effect on their ability to pass the bar exam. For many students, this assumption is simply wrong. Particularly for the California and New York bar exams, students will be much better prepared if they have taken most or all of the upper division bar-related courses: Business Organizations, Community Property, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, First Amendment, Gifts, Wills & Trusts (“GWATS”), Partnerships & LLCs, Remedies, Sales, and Secured Transactions. If students are planning to take a bar exam in a different jurisdiction, they should find out which topics will be tested on that exam before planning their upper-division curriculum. Students can find the information on each state bar’s website. See ncbex.org
      
      
  • Do you suggest any formula for picking classes?
    • There are no precise rules or proven methods for selecting second- and third-year courses. To a large extent, students’ choices will reflect their self-assessment after the first year--their strengths and weaknesses, developing intellectual interests, tentative career plans, and other considerations based on their personal situation. Thus, the combination of courses most desirable for one student will not necessarily be the same as for another student, and students should be wary of the notion that there is a specific, recommended curriculum that should be followed. Nevertheless, there are several ways of thinking about course choices that, in combination, will help each student choose the best array of courses. Students should feel free to talk to faculty members, the Vice Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, or the Associate Dean for Academic Services if they want further information or informal counseling.
      
      
  • What are other factors I should consider when picking classes?
    • Intellectual Interest: Students are encouraged to choose courses that look interesting, without limiting themselves to courses that are directly related to their current plans or idea of a traditional curriculum. If students believe a course will be intellectually interesting, will expose them to a new area of the law, or will provide needed variety, they have reason to enroll. Courses taken because of enthusiasm for the subject matter are often the richest academic experiences of law school. They present opportunities for students to participate in the work of some of the best legal scholars they will encounter. In their growth as a law student, it is important for students not to limit themselves only to things they believe they "ought" to do.
    • The Instructor: Another approach to course selection is to choose courses taught by professors the student admires, without regard to subject matter. For each student there are professors who create intellectual excitement, and whose approach to analysis and teaching strikes a responsive note. Students may benefit as much from exposure to a specific professor's analytic skills and approach to legal issues as from specific course content.
    • Skills and Writing: In addition to learning “the law,” law students need to learn practical lawyering skills. Employers increasingly expect students to have gained these skills in law school and are less inclined to provide on- the-job training. Students with an interest in litigation are encouraged to take Pretrial Advocacy and Trial Advocacy, and Litigation clinics, such as the Post-Conviction Justice Project, Immigration Clinic, International Human Rights Clinic, and Mediation Clinic. Those interested in transactional lawyering should consider courses such as Advanced Contracts, Contract Negotiation and Drafting, the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic, the Mediation Clinic, and the Small Business Clinic. All lawyers need to be excellent writers. Students are strongly encouraged to avail themselves of the many opportunities for supervised writing, including clinics, journals, moot court, Advanced Legal Writing, Judicial Opinion Writing, and seminars requiring substantial writing.
    • Course Sequences: Some courses are foundational and are prerequisites to more advanced courses. For example, Business Organizations is a prerequisite to Securities Regulation, and other advanced business law courses. Intellectual Property is a prerequisite to Trademark Law in Practice. Entertainment Law is a prerequisite to other courses related to entertainment law, Taxation is a prerequisite to advanced tax courses, and Real Estate Transactions is foundational for other real estate offerings. Students interested in these legal fields are strongly encouraged to take the prerequisites in the fall semester of their second year. Additionally, students are encouraged to take Constitutional Law: Rights during their second year.
    • Specialization: Students might also think about course selection as a way of building expertise in an area of particular interest. Students interested in business law are encouraged to pursue the Business Law certificate, and those interested in careers in the entertainment industry are encouraged to pursue the Media and Entertainment Law certificate. Nevertheless, students should beware of over-specialization. It is often hard to predict the specialty in which one will eventually practice. More importantly, a broad legal education is often useful in analyzing even the most particular legal problems and in understanding the multi-faceted legal needs of sophisticated clients.
      
      
  • How does course registration work?
    • Upper-division student registration is conducted via the USC Online Registration System. Detailed enrollment instructions are provided on the law school's Registration Materials website. Contact the Office of Academic Services with questions or difficulty with registration.
    • Registration for 2Ls and 3Ls occurs over a four-day period with third-year students registering on the first two days and second-year students registering on the last two days. The registration schedule is published on the Academic Calendar, which is posted on the MyLaw Portal and on the USC Gould website under “Academics.”
    • Upper-Division students are randomly placed in one of eight registration groups (lettered A-H), with the exception of the students enrolled in the Legal Writing Fellows program. The Legal Writing Fellows are placed in a ninth group (Group I). A student's registration group membership will not change during law school. Registration groups are not related to the first-year section assignments.
    • Each registration group will register at a different time. Registration times for each group will appear with the online registration materials. Students may enroll in courses throughout their registration window.
    • In the spring semester, the registration priority reverses for both 2Ls and 3Ls. The group that registered last in the fall will register first in the spring. Third-year students will register on the first two days of registration, and second-year students will register on the last two days of registration.
    • During both fall and spring semesters, Legal Writing Fellows (Group I) get priority in registration because of their involvement in first-year students’ Legal Writing classes.
      
      
  • Can I enroll in courses that have time or exam date conflicts?
    • You cannot enroll in courses that overlap with each other or does not allow for travel time between courses.
      
      
  • I changed my mind about taking certain classes. How can I drop a class?
    • Provided the add/drop or withdraw deadline has not passed, you may do so via WebReg.
      
      
  • Is there any limit on how many CR/D/F classes I can take?
    • After completing the first-year curriculum, a student may elect to take a total of up to eight (8) units on the optional CR/D/F basis from among courses otherwise graded numerically and for which the CR/D/F option has been authorized by the instructor. No more than four (4) such optional CR/D/F units may be taken in one semester. Courses offered exclusively on a CR/D/F basis do not count against the four- and eight-unit limits on optional CR/D/F grading. Required courses may not be taken as CR/D/F.
      
      
  • What’s the difference between the same class that might be offered for 2, 3 or 4 units?
    • Typically, the difference between these variable unit classes is the amount and type of work that is required to successfully complete the course.
      
      
  • I am interested in one or more of the specializations. How do specializations work?
    • Students in the as Graduate International Program should refer to the section under Graduate Certificates for more details. Students in the JD Program should refer to the section on Law Concentrations.

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