Hi! Everyone. I, as a very newbie, persistently intend to study LL.M. in the United States or UK thanks to their best role models of law system so far.

At this stage, requesting for your help and experience, I have certain quiries concerned with English Requirement of each USA law school prior to makinf an appliaction as follows;

1. Which could USA law schools particularly those among Top 20 ranking or Ivy League U accept or endorse English Profiency with IELTS score instead of TOEFL Even though I knew that almost all of them prefer to recognize TOFEL score?
2. Eventually, If we can find out any USA law schools in which accept IELTS score, how to compare their score/band. TOEFL IBT 100 eual to IELTS band 7?

Anyway, from now on, I will certainly reach my questions to some Law Schools I have interested for complete answers further.

Trillon Thanks to all resposes in advance.
Waran :)

Hi there,

I am not sure I understand your question - or was it a statement?!? In any case check this link: http://bandscore.ielts.org/ to find out which US unis accept the IELTS. Pretty much any uni in the UK will accept the IELTS so I wouldn't worry about those.

For a conversion table see here: http://www.eurogates.nl/en-TOEFL-IELTS-score-conversion/

There is no official conversion from ETS/IELTS but this one (or any other you find by googling "conversion chart ielts toefl") will do.

Unis I applied to using my IELTS test scores are:
- U-Washington
- UT Austin
- BU
- Case Western Reserve Uni

Unis that only take TOEFL include (but are not limited to):

- Cornell
- UCLA
- Boston College
- Cardozo Law School

Some unis like UConn only mention TOEFL but might be flexible depending on your language skills.

I haven't really applied to many top 20 US schools but believe the information you seek will be easily obtained by checking for them with the link provided above. Also note that application deadlines for most top schools have already passed for Fall 2011 admission.

Best, Miss Chatterbox

Dear Miss Chatterbox

I don't know how to say many thanks to you. Pertaining to your beneficial suggestion, I'm strongly convinced that It is very crystal clear to me and everyone who has confused about this kind of matter so far.

It is due to your reply, excluding USA Uni, you would make another option to persue your LL.M. in UK law schools as well, isn't it?

Nonetheless, I completely wish you a very best luck and a greatly success in your academic study and on your career path afterwards :)

Best,
Waran

Hey waran,

Just offering a quick insight: why would you take the IELTS if you wanted to apply to both UK and US Schools? You could easily take the TOEFL test which is formally acceptable both by top 5 UK Schools (I got accepted there with it) and be covered for all US Schools at the same time. It seems to me that IELTS would be more of a hassle if you can get two birds in one stone with the TOEFL. Just my two cents.

Freckles, Thanks for your advice but my problem is that I have taken TOEFL tests twice but me score is still low.
As a result, I decided to try to take IELTS instead which might be easier? I think that getting IELTS band 7 is more possible than making TOEFL up to 100 points. :)

What's your thinking?

Uh, sorry to say Waran that it is highly unlikely you will pass the IELTS better than the TOEFL. I have taken both tests and found the IELTS more demanding overall. Granted, the speaking part is easier given that you have a real person interviewing you but the writing exercise - in one of which you will have to describe tables or graphs accurately - is definitely more of a challenge and the reading passages seemed more difficult to me too. In any case I ended up with equivalent scores (116 versus 8.5) so the grading seems similar.

Having said that given that you have a decent academic record can make up for a shoddy language test score. Cornell for instance accepts a score of 79 or higher and asks you to take a special English course in summer with a score below 100. In the case of Cornell the deadline has already passed though...

Oh one more thing you want to keep in mind: if you use the LSAC Credential Service ALL your scores will be reported to the schools. You cannot have one deleted from the record.

And my personal suggestion is to seriously start working on your English. And better use simple words that bring your point across than being not intelligible at all. Sorry to be blunt.

Good luck in any case,
Miss C

Thank you very much again Miss C, your advice is truely beneficial for me. Actually, I tried to practice IELTS Tests a few days and found my score is better than the other test. By the way, I am about to get an academic test soon and I will tell you my report score. Best, Waran.