Dates, Deadlines, How to Apply

Dates and Deadlines

LLM Applicants

Candidates for admission must hold the Juris Doctor (JD) from a United States law school or the LLB or equivalent first basic law degree from a non-US law school approved by Tulane’s Committee on Graduate Admission. Applicants whose native language is not English, or whose first law degrees (JD or LLB or equivalent) are from schools at which English was not the language of instruction, are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

The graduate degree programs begin in the fall semester only. Occasionally, space permitting, there may be an opportunity for US candidates to begin the LLM program in the spring semester. All international candidates must begin enrollment with the summer orientation course approximately three weeks prior to the start of the fall semester. 

Applications for admission should be submitted between September 1 and June 1 for enrollment the following July and August. Early applications are particularly important for international candidates because of the time required to process visas and immigration forms. Early applications receive the most optimal consideration for available scholarship funds. Beginning in November, complete applications are reviewed, but not necessarily in the order in which they were received.

Most admission decisions are made and announced between December 1 and April 1, but files are reviewed and additional decisions made until the class is filled. Decisions may be deferred on some applications until late spring. Some applicants may be placed on a waiting list and offered a place in the class if one becomes available during the summer prior to the first day of class.

SJD Applicants

An applicant for the SJD program must hold an LL.M. degree or its equivalent either from Tulane University or other accredited American universities or foreign universities which the Graduate Affairs Committee (the faculty admissions committee) has ascertained have good standing among the higher education community in the home country. Candidates must have received their Master of Laws (LL.M.) or the equivalent degrees with distinction. A Tulane LL.M. graduate will need to have a 3.5 average or better to graduate with distinction.

Admission to the SJD candidacy requires the endorsement of the Graduate Affairs Committee. The Committee will examine, along with the student’s performance at the LL.M. or the equivalent qualifying degree level the strength of the candidate’s proposal to determine whether the individual has the capacity for advanced legal research and for outstanding scholarship.

Strong interest in and support of the proposal and the candidacy of the applicant by a Tulane Law School faculty member who is willing to serve as a supervisor will be an important factor in the Committee’s decision. Applicants are, therefore, strongly encouraged to make every effort to find a supervisor, but they are discouraged from circulating mass letters to the faculty of the Law School.

All SJD application requirements should be met no later than March 15 for enrollment the following August.

How to Apply

Details about the application process for our degree programs can be found by following the links below:

While you must apply electronically, PDF copies of our application form questions are available upon request; please e-mail us at admissions@tulane.edu or call 504-865-5930.

LLM Credential Assembly Service (LLM CAS)

The LLM Credential Assembly Service (LLM CAS) simplifies the application process for all applicants to participating LLM programs. If the applicant opts to subscribe to this service, he or she requests official academic documents and letters of recommendation just once for submission to the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), which then compiles the documents and submits them to the participating law schools to which the applicant applies.

The service includes both a Document Assembly Service (available both to graduates of US law schools and graduates of law schools outside of the US) and an International Transcript Authentication and Evaluation Service (for graduates of law schools outside of the US).

For complete information about the LLM CAS, including information about fees, see the LSAC website at http://llm.lsac.org. 

Qualifications For Admissions to the Bar /
Character & Fitness

In addition to a bar examination, there are character, fitness, and other qualifications for admission to the bar in every U.S. jurisdiction. Applicants are encouraged to determine the requirements for any jurisdiction in which they intend to seek admission by contacting the jurisdiction. Addresses for all relevant agencies are available through the National Conference of Bar Examiners.