TL;DR - is there hope for someone on the bottom 50% of her class to get into a reputable LLM program?

So here's a little something about me.

I used to be a consistent honor student from grade school until college. I even graduated with Latin Honors from the undisputed top university in our country.

However, when I got into law school, things started to go downhill for me. Ironically, I was no longer as disciplined as I was in my earlier years. I would even end up unintentionally (or intentionally?) maximizing my absences ("free cuts" as we call it, the number of times you are allowed to be absent in any subject). I still got decent grades -- low, but enough to maintain the required academic standing. A thing about my law school: as one of the top law schools in our country, with consistently one of the highest passing rates and with the most number of bar topnotchers, mortality rate is pretty high. For example, about 20% of freshmen don't make it to sophomore year. Even seniors on their last year can get kicked out. Even with my far from brilliant academic performance in the law school (read: I was never part of the honor roll), I still managed to finish the course on time. Even if I flunked two subjects in the process.

Despite the fact that I'm in the bottom 50% of our class, having graduated from my law school still opened doors for me when I was applying for a job. I still got job offers from reputable law firms.

But I highly suspect that getting an LLM abroad (say, UK, Australia, Canada, or the US) would be an entirely different ball game. Especially since I'm coming from a developing country in Asia. And inasmuch as I'd love to get a scholarship, it might take a miracle for me to get one. (Though I'm not one to give up on prayers. Wishing is free, after all).

Given my aforementioned background, is there still any chance that I'd get accepted to an LLM in a reputable school in the above-mentioned countries? I badly want to make up for my lackluster performance in law school. Some self-vindication of sorts. I fell short of my expectations. I did poorly. And I badly want to make up for it.

Thoughts?? Comments?? Would really appreciate it. Thank you!

[Edited by RR88 on Oct 05, 2016]

Friend,

I was in the lower 50%. I was admitted into Georgetown, Michigan, Columbia, Berkeley and UPenn and received a scholarship in a couple of them. My advice to you: Try!

A good letter of motivation, resume, recommandations weigh in my opinion much more than mere grades.

If you have meh grades but still manage to have a good resume, good schools, good professional experience, a lot of motivation (I always insist on the motivation and how people reading your application need to feel your motivation) etc, you definitely have your chances.