The Department of Computer Science is one of the longest established computer science departments in the world and is consistently ranked as a top-5 graduate program. The department offers graduate work leading to a master's or doctoral degree, with an interdisciplinary master's degree program in bioinformatics. In addition, the department offers an online professional master's degree to reach students who are working full-time and unable to come to campus. The legal field's interrelation with other academic disciplines has increasingly characterized legal scholarship and teaching in recent decades. Capitalizing on the University's depth of resources, the College of Law collaborates with University graduate departments to offer multiple joint degree programs. While students must apply for admission to both programs and receive pre-approval from each department, those departments will recognize a number of credits from the corresponding program to allow students to earn both degrees in a shorter period of time.Specific graduate hours of credit for each degree are required: 32 hours for the M.C.S. as prescribed above and 90 for the Juris Doctor. However, some credits used in each program may apply to the other, allowing students to earn both degrees in a shorter time.