In my January piece in the International Jurist, I highlighted the five largest categories of foreign-educated LL.M. students I’ve worked with and spoken to over the last 12 years. You can check out the full article, “Balancing your purpose and the law school’s purpose for an LL.M.,” through this link.

Category #4 , the one I label as the “Calculated Risk,” is the one that I believe requires the most additional due diligence. I also believe it is the one where students have the most reason to second-guess whether the J.D. would have been the better path if things do not work as planned.

People who have followed me for a while may have heard me say or seen me write that “an LL.M. degree is a better choice than a J.D. degree when a student’s goals and backgrounds align more with an LL.M. degree than a J.D. degree.” Not exactly profound, but something important for LL.M. prospects to deeply consider. And for every prospective student to know before applications (or at least deposits).

Whether that’s Category #1, #3, or #5 (or to a lesser extent, Category #2), the good news is that there are plenty of LL.M. students and graduates who are happy with their choices each year. I speak to some every week in Chicago, my own LEALS students at other schools in the U.S., LL.M. alumni I used to work with, and people who have reached out to me from my blog. And in my own writing, I focus on the areas where I think the LL.M. degree is actually a better choice than the J.D. degree for a foreign lawyer (the two most prominent examples from my own career are (i) elite Tax LL.M.s over most J.D. degrees and (ii) experienced mid-level associates at large multinational firms with U.S. headquarters or large presences).

What do the students and alumni who make the LL.M. work hardest for them tend to have in common? Generally, they (1) understood the purpose of LL.M. programs before applying and how their pre-LL.M. credentials and backgrounds would be seen; (2) researched schools, costs, and programs, including speaking with current students and recent graduates before making a decision; and (3) timed their LL.M. degrees to maximize the goals they were looking to achieve.

So what are the categories where I think LL.M. students will face the largest uphill battle? I tend to think of these three categories below as the most challenging and the ones most at risk for expectation mismatches. That said, people in each of these categories achieve success each year, so I am not saying that if you’re in one of these categories you have no options and you are destined to be unsuccessful. Rather, students in these categories who achieve success might do so despite these challenges. Which in some ways is even more impressive! And many, at least from my observations, have a booster or plus factor that colleagues who are not successful may lack.

Category #1: The LL.M. as a One-Year J.D. Degree: I’ve seen a couple people describe the LL.M. as a J.D. equivalent. Whether in terms of regulation, perception, or reality, I really don’t agree with that assessment. The idea tends to be that the person already studied law abroad and the LL.M. is the “one-year conversion course” for foreign lawyers to have a J.D. here. The more you try to look at the LL.M. as a J.D. (or even as a “Diet” J.D.), the more opportunities you’ll have to be disappointed. The J.D. is three years (or two years for an Advanced J.D., which still has its own challenges) while the LL.M. is generally one year. The J.D. is regulated by the ABA for the vast majority of schools while the LL.M. is acquiesced to. The J.D. offers consumer protection information to help you make well-informed decisions. The LL.M., for obvious reasons if you read the ABA website information, lacks those same resources.

Prospective Category #1 Students: Here is where you want to focus your research on how the LL.M. students at the schools you are most interested in perceive the J.D. v. LL.M. distinction in terms of opportunities. For example, do LL.M. students feel like they’re still getting into the classes they want, participate in meaningful extracurricular activities, have opportunities to access the larger alumni network regardless of degree, etc.? Do they feel like even though the degree programs are different, they’re all part of the same larger school? If so, your calculus may be a bit different than if you get the sense that LL.M. students are always a last-second thought or consideration (if that) at the school or if the LL.M. program is basically a separate school within a school designed to bring in tuition revenue for other uses.

Category #2: The LL.M. + Good Job in the U.S. Bundle: Years ago, an LL.M. student at a prestigious law school who reached out to me shared (I’m paraphrasing): I paid a lot of money for my LL.M. so I should have a great job in the U.S. after. The reality is that U.S. law schools do not guarantee jobs, to J.D. or LL.M. students. Ultimately, students secure jobs based on a combination of their pre-law school credentials and network being attractive to employers, the law school they attend and the reputation it has making it easier or more difficult, and their own interviewing abilities and other soft skills (and maybe a little luck). Look at the ABA Employment Outcomes for some of the “weakest” J.D. programs and you’ll see a relatively large number of J.D. graduates without jobs 10 months after graduation, more than you’d probably expect. Add in people with short-term jobs, jobs that don’t require being a lawyer, and law school funded jobs, and you’ll see that the law degree and the job do not go hand in hand.

Prospective Category #2 Students: Here is where you want someone to take an honest look at your pre-LL.M. credentials, which school you’re going to, how LL.M. hiring is done, and what type of jobs you are hoping for after graduation. Get into a deep discussion with them about what would make someone hire you over a J.D. graduate, especially if you would also require sponsorship. This is even more important, in my opinion, if you are coming straight after your LL.B. or without much work experience in legal practice.

Category #3: The Exception to the Rule: As I’ve noted above (and wrote an article about) there are exceptions to every rule. Each year there are people who are successful against long odds. And the same is true in the LL.M. world. I sometimes see students from far less prestigious law schools secure great jobs during the LL.M. year and students who went to prestigious schools sometimes struggle to secure any job after the LL.M. degree. For Category #3, it’s just a matter of getting in front of the right person, having the right person believe in them, or people seeing that they’re really great. Once you have an opportunity to be seen, someone is going to take a chance on you and you’ll be able to show them what a great choice they made.

Prospective Category #3 Students: This one is a little harder for me to caution against, because it ultimately comes down to your own personal risk tolerance and knowing yourself. If you have fantastic networking skills, are the type of person that people want to fight for to be successful, etc., who am I to tell you not to go for it? If it ultimately works out, I am not going to be mad. I literally wrote an article on ignoring the odds (and my advice) and still being successful! I just caution that not everyone is going to be the exception to the rule. And that you evaluate the risks and come to the decision before enrollment.

Conclusion: I want every person in an LL.M. program to go in fully informed and reach the decision that the LL.M. is the better choice than the J.D. (or studying in the U.S. at all) for their personal situation. To the extent that schools focus on the many prospective LL.M. students in the other categories and people for whom the LL.M. makes the most sense, I think they’ll generally find students with better matched expectations, which should make for a better overall experience. And for students in these three categories, they ultimately are able to assess their own risk tolerance. Give them the information they need to make an informed decision (e.g., the differences between the J.D. and LL.M., how hiring works, etc.) and let them make the choices that suit them.