Hi everyone,

after being rejected by both Cambridge and Oxford I now have to decide which of my offers I want to accept. I would appreciate any insight into the 3 mentioned universities and their LLM programs.

I am hoping to focus particularly on public international law during my LLM. Currently I am tending towards LSE because it seems to have the best reputation both in my country (Germany) and internationaly and I also like the subjects they offer.
However I understand that the UCL has a better reputation in the UK itself? Also I read that a lot of students at the LSE are unhappy?

I appreciate every advice thank you a lot!

In my view, it goes:

1. LSE
2. UCL, KCL

But I have seen also:

1. UCL
2. LSE
3. KCL

Or even a well known ranking that has:

1. UCL
2. KCL
3. LSE

I personally have my doubts about the last two, especially the third, but all 3 are excellent law schools and the best in London and the UK outside Oxbridge. You wouldn’t go wrong with any of them.

Other opinions? Thanks

I highly recommend that you make your decision based on an analysis of the respective module lists for your specialism as to what the specific contents of the courses at each university are and who will be teaching you.

Relying on general statements such as rankings, including the widely distributed ones, is not very smart because (i) they do not always distinguish between LLB and LLM programmes, (ii) the criteria upon which these rankings are based are mostly irrelevant to your individual learning success and (iii) the strength of a specific LLM-programme at any university is highly dependent on the particular professors who happen to teach the modules you take.

To expand on this: When you pick a law firm at which you will start your career in any particular field, e.g. public international law, you would be very wise to make your decision based upon the reputation of only the specific team that you will be working with. If you seek to start your career in the field of public international law, it would be completely nuts to pick your law firm based on their reputation for M&A since you won’t be working on M&A deals. Consequently, any ranking could only be relevant to your decision if such ranking is made specifically with regards to public international law as “general rankings“ may be influenced by the law firm’s proficiency in M&A deals. The same logic applies when you try to figure out which LLM programme suits your particular demands the most.

Touching on the other questions from the first post: To my knowledge there is no tangible difference in the reputation of these three universities in most (but not all) countries as far as their LLM programmes are concerned, i.e., you may pick any of the three and your chances to succeed in an application process after obtaining your LLM would likely be the same. The only UK universities which would be a clear cut above any of them are Oxbridge. As to the happiness of LSE students, the LSE alumni I've met had no such issues. However, based on what I’ve heard it appears to be true that LSE students are, on average, especially driven and thus even more focused on studying well than the students of KCL & UCL who certainly do not lack ambition either. Whether you appreciate or dislike this type of atmosphere for your LLM is a matter of personal preference.

[Edited by creativename on Mar 28, 2024]