What to Expect Your First Week of Law School

Most law schools start with a 2-5 day orientation before classes begin. Expect: campus tours, introductions to the dean and key administrators, an overview of academic policies, a library tour, and often a mock class session. You'll also meet your section — the 70-100 students who will be in all your 1L classes together. Show up, be friendly, but don't stress about networking. Everyone is nervous.

Your first assignment will arrive before classes start — often 20-40 pages per class. That's per class, per session. With 4-5 classes meeting 2-3 times per week, expect 100-200 pages of dense legal reading per week. The cases will be confusing at first. You'll read a sentence three times and still not understand it. This is normal. Legal writing is a foreign language, and fluency comes with time, not talent.

It will happen in the first week. Your heart will race. You might stumble. And then it will be over, and you'll realize it wasn't as bad as you feared. The professor doesn't expect perfection — they expect engagement. If you read the case and can identify the parties, the issue, and the holding, you'll be fine. The bar is lower than you think for the first week.

1L orientation is one of the most social periods of law school. There will be bar reviews, section dinners, and study group formation. Engage at your own comfort level. The friends you make in the first few weeks often become your closest law school companions. But don't feel pressure to be best friends with everyone immediately — relationships develop naturally over the semester.

Get your books and login credentials early. You don't want tech issues on day one.

Brief your assigned cases before the first class. Even a rough brief puts you ahead of classmates who just highlighted.

Find your classrooms in advance. Law school buildings can be confusing.

Don't buy every recommended supplement. Wait until you know what you actually need. Your professor's teaching style will determine which supplements are helpful.

Take a deep breath. Everyone feels imposter syndrome. Yes, even the person who seems to have it all together.