J.D. programs usually start in Fall (August) and most LL.M. students look to start at the same time each year. Fall is filled with onboarding, orientations, welcome events, and other activities. Many 1Ls are new to the area, there are new 2L transfers at some schools, and LL.M.s can more easily integrate into the fabric of the law school community.

Some schools have (usually smaller) January intakes for LL.M. and exchange students. This can be through joint programs with schools outside the U.S., a 3-semester program that starts off-cycle, or just the ability to recruit for two admissions cycles. After successfully launching a January class in 2021, I’m very excited to be working on an even larger January class for 2022!

1. Similar Experiences: When you think about your January intake, is the experience substantially similar to the August intake? Is the class size big enough for students to feel like they’re part of a cohort or is the group small that they feel like they’re just extra students you’ve added late or early. This will likely depend on how big your August class was. Are they joining a program with students from around the world or is the January window one that caters to a specific country or region?
2. Rationale for January Starts: Do the students have a clear reason for starting in January or will they feel like they’re just off-cycle for everything? For example, at my current job, our 3-Semester foreign tax attorneys get to start with J.D. and tax-adjacent coursework to qualify for certain state bar exams and maintain their on-cycle graduation (May) to best align with the job market for Tax LL.M. students.
3. Onboarding 101: What’s the onboarding plan for your January group. With the holiday season from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, fall final exams, and much-needed vacation time, can you commit to providing that same service you offered Fall students over the past summer? For example, I’m offering my Pre-LL.M. Program at no cost to every January LL.M. starter at UF Law so that they’re getting ~10 weeks of extra preparation as they prepare to join us.
4. Find Your Ambassador All-Stars: I’m fortunate to work with amazing LL.M.s and J.D.s who go above and beyond to build a welcoming community. My favorite thing about my current job is that this group doesn’t need me around to interact with one another! Your January group will need added support and having a group of LL.M. and J.D. students they can virtually meet beforehand will make their adjustment and assimilation into your larger community easier. Fall LL.M. starters already made friends with their 1L classmates and starting off-cycle means you’re parachuting into a section and/or upper-level electives. Having a core group of J.D. students you can lean on for help is really crucial.
5. Think About Advantages: January starts do not just have to be about challenges. Think about advantages! January starters flip their semesters which means they have a summer between Semester 1 and Semester 2. What is your plan with your January starters for the summer? Will they take courses, serve as RAs, secure internships/externships, work in another jurisdiction, or do something else? December graduation may lead to a smaller competition pool for hiring, especially for in-demand practice areas that prefer not to wait until July/August for new hires. They’ll form bonds with two cohorts of LL.M. students (i.e., the class that started in their first August and the class that started in the second August). There may be opportunities for extracurricular activities for the Fall semester after a Spring semester of courses and experiences.

If you’re considering adding a January start window, it’s important to think through the value-add to students as much as the opportunity for a second intake each cycle. If you already have a January window, do your January starters share any feedback about things that they wish were different? Do they compare their experience with the Fall classes before and after them in a positive, negative, or neutral light?

I’ll start my Pre-LL.M. with our January class the first week of November and am really excited to get to work with them!