Congratulations on all your LL.M. or J.D. acceptances and scholarship awards! If you followed the Head Start Series advice, you are now looking at a tough decision! Which law school to attend.

Some general thoughts on the decision-making process.

1. Determine what is most important to you. For most of the people I speak with, the answer is some combination of (i) employment outcomes and (ii) total cost. However, some people are looking at the prestige of a school most, while others may be looking at a specific certificate/concentration. There’s no “right” answer, just what you value most. Think through what it is you are looking for and then plan accordingly.
2. Ask Questions! Once you deposit, you may lose some of the leverage that you have as an admitted student. This is the time to get answers to your questions. For example, what courses are you able to enroll in/not enroll in for the upcoming semester? Are you able to secure a clinic spot or externship? What resources does the school have? Schools want admitted students to attend. Whether a J.D. or LL.M. student, the types of questions may change (e.g., 1L schedules are usually set), but you want to ensure that your questions are answered before you pay the deposit.
3. Speak with People. You are about to make a life-impacting decision. From a cost, time, and intensity standpoint. Your law degree will stay with you for the rest of your life. Think about the research you do before buying a cell phone. A laptop. A car! While you may not be able to visit campuses while deciding, you can speak with alumni, current students, faculty, practitioners in your desired market, and others about the program you’re attending. How are current students enjoying their experience? What was the job search like for recent graduates? Do practitioners from your target market know about the school and hire students from that school?
4. A Caveat About Rankings. I know people who went to lower-ranked schools who secured great jobs and enjoyed their experiences. I know people from higher-ranked schools who struggled in the job search and didn’t have great experiences. As I’ve highlighted on Beyond Non-JD, a lot goes into the job search and overall experience, including your background, your goals, your interviewing skills, your network, your expectations, etc. Choosing a school just for the ranking or for the scholarship may work out. It may not. The idea here is to do all the things you can to maximize your outcomes, both on the things you control and the things you don’t.

Some general thoughts on the preparation process.

1. As an international student, I suggest doing a little bit more pre-degree work than some may suggest for domestic students. The reason is that for LL.M. students, the timeline is condensed and many employers look at hiring through a J.D. lens. For J.D. students, you’ll need to begin thinking about the OPT/H1-B process because that’ll play an important role in the expected ROI for a J.D. over an LL.M. degree.
2. See what support is already offered by your school for incoming students. That may be reading lists, a course (e.g., my Pre-LL.M. program or Harvard’s 0L program), or some activities that help the new J.D. or LL.M. classes. Because the LL.M. timeline is so condensed (see above), you may want to begin things like building application documents, researching hiring cycles, and other areas more.
3. Begin building your alumni network at your school. Your program and school may have an important impact on your job search, but alumni will be helpful for most, if not all, students. Whether that’s an informational interview, advice about a specific job market, passing along your resume to someone looking to hire, or other things. The goal is to build actual connections early on that lead to great opportunities because people want to help you. For some students who struggle, they view these connections in more transactional ways. If this type of networking is new to you, I suggest seeing if you can chat with your school’s career office in the summer about networking and informational interviewing to ensure that you’re building a good foundation for your outreach and engagement.
4. Ensure that your experience is set to match the expectations from your decision-making process. Based on your discussions from when you were choosing schools, you should not be encountering surprises when you sign up for courses, are evaluating extracurricular activities, and other things related to the overall experience. Especially for LL.M. studies, programs will vary in terms of their offerings, opportunities, and support for students and you may have made your decision based on these differences.