In this JD/MSAL Joint Degree Program, students must spend their first year in the School of Law. Once the student has completed the required first year courses in the School of Law, they may then take courses in both the JD and MSAL programs. Because the School of Law operates on a semester system and the rest of the university operates on a quarter system, joint program participants must carefully coordinate their schedules with the Associate Dean for Students in the School of Law and the Program Coordinator for MSAL in the College of Arts and Sciences. The length of time required to complete the joint degree program is between 3 and 4 years for full-time students. Students in the joint program are required to complete 90 semester credits for the JD degree and 45 quarter credits for the MSAL degree. In the joint degree program, students can satisfy the requirements for each degree by using a specified number of crossover credits to be chosen from a list of approved courses in each school. This allows the student, whether full-time or part-time, to complete the two degrees in a shorter period of time than if the student sought to obtain the JD and MSAL degrees independently. Of the 90 semester credits required for the JD degree, 10 semester credits can be satisfied by 15 quarter credits chosen from a list of specified courses from the MSAL program.