Guys. I am planning to take The LLM in Finance, Banking next year!

Need your Help.
which one do you think is good for me?
1. LLM in Business (Bucerius Law School)
2. Institute for Law and Finance (Universitat Frankfurt)
3. LLM in Business (Leiden)
4. London School of Economics.

several months ago I have received conditional Acceptance Letter from Leiden. But my job cannot made me free this year.
So I hope I coul get the chance next year.


Thanks a lot pal

Depends where you come from. If you are from Germany (like me), don't go to Frankfurt or Hamburg (Bucerius). Not because they are bad Unis (quite the opposite!), but you should study abroad for your LLM. If I had to make a choice -independent from my nationality- I would say:

1. Frankfurt (because of banking)
2. LSE
3. Leiden
4. Bucerius (very posh Uni with likewise posh people)

BUT: With a TOEFL score of 89 in the iBT it should be very very difficult to get in any of these. Especially LSE! Maybe you should try to improve your score to at least 100.

Tigger, would u please elaborate a little bit more on the ranking u provided? i've heard a lot of good thing for ILF! Does it worth it?

Well, as I haven't studied there I do not dare to give really reliable information. What I can say is that the ILF (like the University of Frankfurt) has a very good reputation in Germany and as the centre of European banking (European Central Bank, Frankfurt stock exchange), I cannot imagine that an LLM from the ILF would be a bad choice. However, I think that it is very expensive...
LSE is -of course- always a good choice.
Leiden I don't really know but a very old University as far as I know.
Bucerius is the only private and thus, quite small Law School in Germany. A couple of my acquaintances study law there. Surely, good quality, but most of them have a very strong attitude. They consider themselves being elite. Again I cannot say, if there is any justification for that. All I know is that really clever people do not consider it necessay to show-off with CVs. However, Hamburg is a very nice city!

TiGGer, thx for ur contribution. as i had offers both from ILF (with scholarship toward working 4 hours a week) and KCL together with UCL, my dilemma was whether to choose either of them. At the end of the day i accepted the ILF offer however it sometime happens that i want to re-check and answer this question that comes often on the top of my head:" did i choose the right one? This situation gets more complicated once i received an offer from Boston university (LLM Banking and Financial Law, although they are open to defer my enrollment for next year).
By the way, i received an offer from Leiden Master of International and European Law, but my first choice is concentration on international financial law.

Come to the ILF and you wont regret!

Just finished it and the program is indeed challenging. It provides you with great job opportunities and also allow you to build an incredible networking. But you need to have at least 100 (not for the program, but for yourself... you need to enjoy it!). Ielts is way more difficult than Toefl.

The second option would be LSE, great name but the program is a bit boring I would say... Just a few courses for a lot of money. The others rank way below. Hamburg is well known for its undergraduate program, but it does not have a great level in graduate studies. The ILF, on the other hand, just focus on it.

The ILF is great and often provide its students with generous scholarships. It has great sponsors...

Thats all

Cheers

ML

Hello Mr. Lawyer and again many thx for ur past and current contributions. I set my mind toward ILF and currently working hard to finalize my current MA int'l commercial law program's thesis enabling me to present it before the academic jury by the end of this month (graduation from current program is a condition of the offer)

but two more questions:
i read from some threats (which u were part of that dialogue) that some of the current ILF student is heading toward BU to take another LLM in banking and finance! i can not understand the rational behind it!
How much does for someone costs to take a German course in Frankfurt. Is there any free of charge course held in the university itself and do i have time to make it considering workload of the program itself?

Im going to send a message, please kindly address it!
Regards,

Ehsan

Thanks tigger, ehxxan & Mr. Lawyer.

I'm from Indonesia & looking for LLM in Finance, corporate & banking in Europe.
I'm planning to take LLM in Germany, Ned or UK Next Year.
I saw the rank, said that Bucerius is the Top Law School in Germany. But is it true that Bucerius good in undergraduate degree?
do you have information for good LLM in Finance, Corporate, banking in Germany, NED or UK?
I read that bucerius requirements is IELTS 7 or TOEFL 100. while ILF (frankfurt) IELTS 6,5 or TOEFL 100.

I wonder, if you have to take the options between IELTS 7 or TOEFL 100. which do you choose? because I never took the IELTS. my TOEFL is iBT 100.
some said: if you get TOEFL 90, you could get 7,5 in IELTS.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate your help.

MJ

As regards Bucerius: It is a relatively new University (think founded in 2001). The first graduates have just left University and did very well in the German First State Exam (the decisive exams which are necessary to graduate from Law School are not provided by the Universities in Germany but the Ministry of Justice, which enables a more or less equal standard among German law students and a real comparability of the results). The reason for this is that the Law School chooses its candidates by a special procedure. That's why the students may consider themselves being elite. However, they pay a lot of money for that. I think around 40,000 EUR for three years. In contrast to that the other (around 50 or so) state Unis are almost for free, which does, however, not mean that the educational standard is necessarily lower. It depends much more on your personal ambition there.
Another thing to mention is that Germany is by far not as crazy about rankings than apparently the US or UK. Because the final exams are provided by the state and not the Uni, it does not matter where you have studied as long as you are good and get excellent marks. Thus, I would not overestimate the rankings. For German employers (and the big law firms) it is almost completely irrelevant where you graduated from as long as you have the magic "9 points plus" mark (which is obtained by around 10-15% of the graduates!).
However, Bucerius is certainly not bad, but I would definetely go for ILF as it is much more specialised in Banking and you will study much closer to the actual business! Apart from that Frankfurt is in the heart of Germany so if you want to travel around it may be more convenient to study there than at Bucerius (Hamburg...far North).

i suppose it depends what one wants - clearly, the ILF might be more specialised but the MLB is a top programme all in. students are a diverse mix (including a number of finance and banking people) and the skills you get are applicable for many later roles. the input from the whu is great - top notch business school with great professors, including the ones who teach finance courses. i can only recommend it - two well regarded school, excellent contacts into both worlds and a fabulous city to be in!!