Hi prospective LLM students,

I would like to share my personal experience with studying at Tilburg University, concretely LLM International Business Law.

Dont worry, if you never heard of Tilburg before. I was myself unaware of it before I started searching for LLM programs. Long story short, I moved to Tilburg at the end of August 2011.
So far I am very satisfied with my studies. Subjects are very interesting and most of the professors do their best to provide students with up-to-date education. Administrative staff is also very supportive and friendly. However you should be aware that the rules should be always obeyed.

Exams are not particularly easy, but still manageable. The library is very nice place to study, but most of the resources it provides are electronical. If you are sporty type, you will definitely enjoy amazing sport center. Just for 100 euros you are free to go to gym, yoga, spinning, pilates, tai-chi, zumba, football, volleyball, tennis and many more throughout the whole year.

When it comes to city itself, it is not Rotterdam or Amsterdam, of course. But the students community is very tight and we are all enjoying our time here.

Accommodation is one of the biggest issues here. If you book a room through online system as an international student, you will pay more than normal market price. Therefore I suggest to look for the room on kamernet.nl or similar pages.

So far, so good.... good luck in your decision.

I always admire people that take a chance and apply for LLM programmes no one's ever heard of, so congratulations for that.

The issue I have with many of these new (or not so new) schools is that I would have to explain to a potential employer how good my LLM is and how good the law school I got it in is. My competition will probably have studied in more popular schools, so it's tough for any employer to "take a chance on the guy that came from the place no one's heard of" and say no to the other guys, the ones that came from schools he himself knows are good or very good.

Still, it's worth a shot, I guess.

Well, to be honest depends on your priorities.

Many so -called reputable universities have no incentives to work hard, consider feedback from students and enhance programs on annual basis. They already have THE REPUTATION, so there is no need to compete for prospective students. Tilburg is nr.1 in Law in Netherlands but it is not as known abroad. But the content of subjects is revised every year, therefore u get current ,, state of the art" education.
I decided for Tilburg because unlike other universities I applied for.... they worked very hard to provide me with al info needed and of course it was recommended to me by students. The thing is , if your only concern is ranking you might pay for a paper which says u obtained an LLM. If you wanna pay for real education , u should look at other factors......I believe in the long run, quality is what matters.....

ou and not to mention tution fees. In USA you pay up to $50,000 for LLM. In UK around 8000 pounds. I payed 1,700 euros, of course this tution fee is available only for EU students... but still it is incomparable tution fee difference for comparable education.....

I did not want to belittle your choice for Tilburg University's LLM, @kippa27. If Tilburg is the best law school in the Netherlands and relatively well-known across Europe, I assume you won't have any problems searching for a job in the Netherlands or in Europe. But once you move away from the continent and go somewhere else, employers may not know how good your LLM is. So even before you would have the chance of showing them how deep your knowledge of the field of practice really is, you would have to prove them that your qualifications are actually just as good or even better than the qualifications of someone who studied in more popular law schools (maybe Yale, Harvard, Oxbridge, Panthéon-Assas I).

So all I am saying is that it could (again, could) be a concern for people that plan to work overseas (like myself), because of having to convince employers of the quality of an LLM programme that is not as well-known as some others may be.

By the way, as far as your comments on what I am looking for in an LLM are concerned, you wrote a false syllogism there. So if I am looking for the top schools in the rankings, I am not concerned with quality? I have not researched everything about these schools? I have not talked to people who are already in the LLM I want to join? Come on. I am just as concerned with quality as you are.

And finally, tuition fees should not be an obstacle for anyone interested in pursuing an LLM degree. All you have to do is look for top schools with scholarships and financial aid (and there are many) and work on your résumé and your pre-LLM qualifications to earn that support through merit. You should be the candidate you fear would be up against you in the selection process.

But that is just my opinion. Again, I do not want to offend anyone.

I am sorry if my comment sounded offensive,certainly I didn't mean it like that. Of course I was not pointing out that you personally do not care about quality. I meant it like generally common phenomenon that people choose reputation without considering other factors. So definitely I would never dare to accuse you of such a thing....as I said it was more general overview from what I have experienced with some potential LLM students. They are simply more interested in saying ,, I study in Amsterdam or London" then saying "I study in a small city, you probably haven't been to", not taking other factors into account...

Of course Yale and Harvard are another level, but even here we have many experienced lawyers from Asia, particularly indonesia, as well as South American countries like Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia etc.

I was myself awarded a scholarship, so I agree that you have to work hard to have a chance for one.

If u plan to live and work in US, than you should naturally choose US law school.

What I was trying to say is that sometimes people should look further than the rankings....

Good luck in your admission process and hope you will finally enroll to your desired program.

kippa27

Hi, great to read something about tilburg, what do people find the city like? I have heard its quite grey and ugly... but others say its really nice so not sure!

this post is making me sad! I got admitted for the Sep 2014 LLM program but couldn't get the scholarship so after trying all other funding I have deferred it. I am a Non EU citizen. upsettttiiing! but I'm glad you had a great time there x

Tilburg is a great city for students and really conveniently located between Amsterdam and Brussels. It's very lively and there are many events organized throughout the year. In general, the south of the Netherlands is a little more relaxed and cozy than the other parts.

It also has the most bars per capita of any Dutch city, so there's that.

For a city this big I think there is quite a lot going on in Tilburg. There are a lot of international students along with the Dutch ones and the local students' association is quite active in organising social events. The sports centre is also a great place to spend time at. Visiting a bigger city in the Netherlands for a change is also always an option and with the appropriate discount plan it's not even that expensive.

How is the job situation there? are law graduates able to find relevant jobs after graduation or not? Does the university help in this department in any way?

It has always been rather hard to give a definite answer to this question. It depends on the programme and a number of other factors, but I think in general there are good prospects for alumni.
The university has a Career Center and an electronic Career Portal. I haven't used these services, so I can't share any firsthand experience about them, but the services that the Career Center offers are thoroughly explained on the university's website so you can check them yourself.