Is January our favorite month?

Hot take: January is our favorite month here at HLS. The 1Ls return for the January Experiential Term, where each first-year student takes one of nine courses focused on skill-based learning. From negotiation strategy to cross-examination techniques to media advocacy, these courses provide our 1Ls with opportunities to get a sense of what it’s like to practice as an attorney in a variety of settings.  You can learn more about the 1L January Term experience in this article from last year. Better yet, read this blog post about J-Term from one of our Admissions Fellows, Riley Vann ’22. I highly recommend Riley’s blog if you want a first-hand account of the 1L year at HLS. Plus, she is just awesome.

As for the J.D. Admissions team, January 2020 proved to be a bustling and exciting month. Our offices are right next to the Ames Courtroom in Austin Hall, where the 1L Introduction to Trial Advocacy course meets in the mornings, and the upper-level Trial Advocacy Workshop meets in the afternoons. That means students are passing by all throughout the day, which gives us an opportunity to say hello to familiar faces.

Our favorite visitor, though, walked into the office on four legs. Another one of our Admissions Fellows had class downstairs in Austin Hall, so we watched his dog while he was in Corporations each morning. Copper is the best, and provided such a source of joy in between interviews and file reading.

And on the admissions side, there’s the joy of speaking with admitted students from our December round, and connecting them to opportunities here on campus. The fun of snuggling up and reading applications while the snow falls outside. And of course, the excitement of getting to meet future HLS students through our interviews. If you can believe it, we interviewed almost 500 applicants this month. Phew! We are going to focus on preparing for our February 10 acceptance round for the next couple weeks. Look for the next batch of interview invitations around Valentine’s Day.

Hope you enjoyed your January as much as we did! If you haven’t applied yet – there’s still time. Our application does not close until February 28. Submit by our February 3 priority deadline if you’d like a decision by April 1.