Admitted students

Congratulations, new graduate students!

Congratulations! You have been admitted to our Graduate Legal Studies program. Our staff will help you transition to law school, and our students, alumni and faculty will answer your questions, share their experiences, and provide more information about the Law School and Bloomington. Get started by watching a short video featuring recent graduates to learn more about living in Bloomington and studying at the Law School. Finally, visit this section often; it provides key information to help you get started.

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You're admitted!

What are the required steps?

Domestic students, those with US citizenship or permanent residency, do not need to complete items 4, 5 and 6.

1. Reply

When you receive our offer of admission, we ask that you respond to our offer by letting us know your preferred start date. This response is NOT a commitment to attend; it simply lets us move forward with your admission processing.

We offer several start date options to meet your specific time and educational needs. Before your official letter of admission and visa documents (Form I-20 or Form DS-2019) can be issued, we require your reply regarding your enrollment date preference. Please review the options below and reply within two weeks of receipt of your offer of admission email. Again, this is not a commitment to enroll but rather a choice of preferred start date should you choose to enroll.

Spring Start (arrive in Indiana before January 10, 2025)

Spring semester orientation, required of all new students, will be held on January 10. Classes will start January 13.
Fall 2025 Intensive Intro (typically held the third and fourth weeks of July. Availability to be determined.)
By enrolling in our two-week intensive Introduction to American Law course (2 credit hours), you have the opportunity to complete one of your required law courses early. Arriving by the end of July also gives you time to get settled and accustomed to the law school, university and Bloomington communities. Space in this course is limited. The course will take place during the last two weeks of July.
Fall Semester (mid-August 2025; exact dates to be determined)
This is our traditional fall start date. This standard fall semester start requires international students to arrive in early August in order to complete mandatory Law School orientation, which will occur mid-August 2025. If you do not require additional English training or simply cannot arrive before the fall term, this is your best option.

Once you have provided your desired start date, we will proceed with the following:

Scholarship and fellowship award decisions will be finalized for qualified applicants.
An official letter of admission will be prepared and sent to you via email.
If you require documentation for a student visa, your file will be forwarded to the Indiana University Office of International Services (OIS) for processing of a Form I-20 or Form DS-2019.
Information specific to your selected start date will be sent to you via email.
A reminder to reserve your place in our program will be sent to you via email.

To send us your preferred start date, please reply to our admission email or click here lgradadm@indiana.edu. Be sure to include your full name as it appears on your application, your email address, and your preferred start date.

2. Reserve your place in our program by replying to the email containing your letter of admission

Space in our program is limited. Replying to the offer of admission email and informing us of your preferred start date is only the first step in reserving your place in our program. By the commitment deadline listed on your admission letter, you should write to confirm your intent to enroll in our program. Please note that we do not require an enrollment deposit. As a legal professional or scholar, we trust that you will not make commitments to multiple universities.

3. Create your Indiana University computing accounts

Set up your Indiana University computing accounts as soon as possible. You will need to use your 10-digit University ID number, last name, and date of birth to log in to the Account Management Service, where you create your computing accounts. Remember, the last name is your family name and the birth date should be typed in month/day/year order.

In order to set up your computing accounts, go to the university's portal at one.iu.edu. Follow the instructions under the heading “Create my first IU computing accounts.” You will select a username and will need to provide a passphrase. If the first passphrase you suggest does not meet security requirements, you will be asked to suggest another passphrase until you suggest one that meets all of the requirements.

Creating your first university accounts will eventually allow for the creation of your Indiana University email account (please allow up to two weeks after admission for the creation of your email account to become possible). Once created, you must be sure to regularly check this email account. This will become the only email account to which we send communications.

4. Submit financial, passport, and required student visa information

Our office works closely with the Indiana University Office of International Services (OIS) to ensure that you receive your visa document (Form I-20 or Form DS-2019) as quickly as possible. You will receive an email from OIS that will include your University ID number (UID) and an access PIN that will allow you to use an International Services website called Atlas. This website helps international students with processes related to visas, SEVIS and staying in status. You need both the UID and PIN to access iStart Atlas.

In order to prepare your visa document, OIS must have your financial documentation, passport copy, and additional information on file. Therefore, it is essential that you log into Atlas to provide this documentation (https://atlas.iu.edu). If you have any questions about your iStart account please contact OIS at newtoiu@indiana.edu.

5. Set up your visa interview appointment

When your visa document is prepared, OIS will ship it, along with your welcome packet from the University, to you via courier (usually DHL or FedEx) or via email delivery if approved in your area. Once you receive the document, you will be able to schedule your visa interview appointment using the SEVIS number on your form. Please do not make your visa interview appointment until after you have received your visa document. You will need to take the visa document and other materials with you to your appointment. On the U.S. Department of State website you can find both the list of documents that are required or recommended to take with you to the visa interview appointment and the visa wait times.

6. Complete your pre-arrival checklist in Atlas

As you are preparing to come to Bloomington and start law school, you must use Atlas to communicate needed information to OIS and to complete the required pre-arrival checklist. The checklist shows you exactly what you need to do to prepare to move to Bloomington and to start school.

You should also register for your university orientation session through Atlas. All new LLM, MCL, SJD, PHD and exchange students who are in the United States on a student visa are required to complete the online university orientation session.

After you arrive in Bloomington and start law school, you will be able to use Atlas to view and update information on file; to submit requests for travel signatures, reduced course load authorization, and program extensions. All of these services are directly related to your status with SEVIS.

7. Find housing

You must decide whether to live in university housing on campus or to rent an apartment or room off campus. This is a personal decision that you as an individual must make. Some students prefer to live on campus because they like the convenience of living on campus, while other students prefer to live off campus because they want to have roommates or be within easy walking distance of both downtown Bloomington and the Law School.

From a practical standpoint, the biggest difference between on-campus and off-campus housing involves the rental contracts: agreements for on-campus housing run from the beginning of the academic year to the end of the academic year, mid-August to early May, while most agreements for off-campus housing run for a full year, August to August. If your rental contract runs for longer than you will be in Bloomington, you will still need to pay rent until the contract expires, which makes living off campus more difficult for some students.

To help you make an informed decision about which option is best for you, please check the information about housing options on the Living in the US section of the Office of International Services website.

8. Prepare to bring necessary academic records

As part of an Indiana University requirement, you must arrive in Bloomington with two sets of sealed, original academic transcripts from all universities attended as well as sealed degree certificates from all universities from which you graduated. If your university's language of instruction was not English, the original language AND English language translation of all documents are both required. All documents must bear the stamp or seal of the issuing institution. Even if you submitted these items to LSAC or to the Maurer School of Law via mail, you should also arrive with two sets of the above-mentioned items in-hand. One set of original official documents will go to and stay with the Law School, per American Bar Association policy.

9. Keep us informed of any changes to your plans

If you give your intent to enroll in more than one program at the same time, each school will see this as being very unprofessional and will look at this negatively. If you have confirmed that you will attend our program, and your plans change, you should notify us before making a commitment to another program.

10. Enjoy the rewards! You will be:

attending one of America's leading law programs!
studying on one of America's most beautiful campuses!
living in Bloomington, consistently one of America's top ranked college towns!
instructed by amazing, internationally recognized faculty
supported by a Graduate Legal Studies office with unsurpassed dedication!