We have an expression for young people — or not so young people — who just love school so much that they stay in school for the bulk of their prime working years: lifelong students. Well, recently, Columbia University announced the start of a dual doctorate program that will give lifelong students something to, well, do. The Ivy League institution recently heralded the beginning of its new dual doctorate program in dental surgery and biomedical engineering. Because who doesn’t want to attend graduate school for 8 years to receive these not so obviously congruent degrees?

As Shea Vance reports for The Columbia Spectator in a piece entitled “Columbia becomes first U.S. university to offer dual doctorate in dental surgery and biomedical engineering,” “The University Senate passed a resolution last week introducing a new eight-year dual-degree program in which students will have the opportunity to earn doctorates in both dental surgery and biomedical engineering. The program, which will require four years spent in the College of Dental Medicine and four years in the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s biomedical engineering program, makes Columbia the first school in the country to offer a dual degree combining the fields, according to chemistry professor Joseph Ulichny…The proposal for the program, which was originally submitted in February, cites a shortage of dental scientists in the medical industry as motivation for the implementation of the degree.”

So to all you lifelong students out there, we found a potential new home for you: Columbia University, the first school in the land to offer a dual doctorate in dental surgery and biomedical engineering. You’ve got your next eight years planned out. Heck, it’s as long as a military commitment when you sign on the dotted line with Uncle Sam!