I've applied to Cambridge for 2007-2008 and it appears having looked over the messages from last year that the process will be many, many months of nervous waiting - up to 5 or 6 months before all decisions are made.

When I log onto the Self-Service account, and go on to "Track your Finances", it says "Course Offered: LLM" whereas my status on the homepage says "Applicant". Is this the case with everyone? I don't think that I would be offered a place so soon but it would be nice, so just want to double-check. Also, has anyone received any replies yet?

PS Thanks in advance for any replies

Yes, this is the case with me.

Nope, no replies yet, I believe the earliest you'll get your reply (if you're a strong applicant) will be January.

MNE

Hey guys,

That whole "Course Offered: LLM" caused a lot of confusion last year as well. Suffice to say that it means only that you have applied to the LLM. It holds no other significance. The self service page will be the last thing to be updated if you are admitted. I was sent an e-mail offering me a place and the self service was updated about 1 1/12 weeks later. As far as decision making goes I really couldnt tell you how it works. I think the earlier you apply the earlier your application is reviewed. But from what I can tell the entire thing is completely random and they review applications in fits and spurts when they can get the committee together. You tend to get a cluster of admissions every two to three weeks from about January onwards until late April.
The courses and resources here are unreal. To say that I was and am bowled over by the whole thing would be an understatement. I really hope ye get in cause it is a fantastic opportunity. If you guys or anyone else want to know anything else about what its like here just post on here. I'm quite bored and I got obsessed with this sit last year so check it a lot. Good luck with applications.

Alright irishguy, I'll take you up on your generous offer. Question: what courses do you suggest fall squarely in the 'unreal' catagory? Which courses should one avoid? Are you doing a thesis option and, if so, is it overly onerous, is there sufficent feedback, assistance with defining the scope of your tipoc/research etc..?
Also, if you don't mind more personal questions, what qualifications did you have when admitted? what was your GPA (and those of your classmates)? Dod you apply to any other top flight schools like oxford, harvard, yale, columbia, and, if so, were you admitted to any of these?
I'd appreciate any insight you can give.

Ok, will try and answer these questions as best I can. If you look at the course list they are pretty much divided into four main areas. Commercial (most popular) International (2nd most popular concentration) European (very specialised courses and not a lot of them. Quite academic-y and policy based) and then Jurisprudence/English Law/Legal History for lack of a better term General subjects (very much English orientated). I love Commercial Law so those were the only ones I was interested in. I am doing Restitution (which is an essential course for anyone from a common law jurisdiction in my opinion. Very tough, but worth it. Nice mix of academic and practical. All about the nature of property ownership when do you or should you have to give something back. Picks up where tort and contract law left off.); International Sales (Sales of Goods but in an international context, so how the Sale of Goods Act applies to shipping contracts, definitions of all those terms you saw at undergrad but never quite got the hang of like f.o.b., c.i.f etc, little bit of maritime law in next semester, very practical and interesting); Competition Law (don't like the lecturer in this subject, hap hazard off the cuff lectures, allows too many interruptions from people in the class which means you end up getting totally lost, gives the impression that he is making it up as he goes along. There are two other lecturers for this course who are brilliant though. I wouldn't recomend this course.); International Banking Law (brilliant course, incredibly interesting, lecturer fantastic, essential for anyone who wants to appy for a commercial firm, by far and away my favourite course). I was also considering doing Corporate Finance Law, but in the end decided against it because the Companies Act is about to be replaced. The course was being taught using the legislation which had yet to be implemented so all text books were essentially useless and it seemed like there would be a lot fo guess work involved. I attended some International Intellectual property seminars at the beginning of the year. If you havent done Intellectual Property before, avoid it. It assumes a detailed level of knowledge of the subject. The problem I had with it was the complete lack of structure. Totally randome topics, no connection really, classes based on talks on IP being given at the Law School over the year so no real course outline or flow. Exam format changes every single year.
Of the other courses I know a lot of people who love the international law modules, and I mean LOVE. Apparently incredibly interesting, brilliant lecturers and never boring. Law of Armed Conflict is very popular as is anything taught by Professor Gray.
I did not do the thesis option because a thesis is an incredibly difficult and time consuming obligation. You will find that it will eat into everything. I also dont think there is a lot fo supervision for the thesis. I think you meet twice a semester or something like that. If you look at the video on the website Professor Cheffins gives all the details. I personally wouldn't recommend it unless you knew exactly what you wanted to do well before arriving(you have about two weeks to submit a proposal which is very very short and it must coincide with the syllabus of the course you are doing it instead of) and have exceptional time management.
When I was admitted I had a law degree and a masters degree with distinction. Of the other people admitted from England and Ireland I think they had first class honours law degrees and had just graduated. Age range about 21-23/24 (from England and Ireland anyway). I was also admitted to Columbia and NYU but they were too expensive. I was rejected from Harvard and Oxford. Oxford is a funny one. You tend to get either Camb or Oxford (or both if unbelievably exceptional). Peopl in Ox rejected from Camb and vice versa. Its odd. Anyway, sorry for delay in replying. If you wanna ask anymore questions feel free, or if you want more detail let me know.

Thanks for the insight. Further questions: when you say most people had frist class degrees, what does that mean? I'm from Canada, and here the grad schools care about ranking and GPA. Would I be right in saying that a first class degree is the equivalent of dean's list in Canada (ie top 10? of class)?
Also, to what degree do the admissions people take into account work experience, law review/journal; etc...?
Also, in canada law is a second degree, so i wonder how that affects our chances. If most candidates simply had a law undergrad, and we have a BA and an LLB, wouldn't that improve our odds?
thanks again for your lengthy respnse

My comments about these questions are going to be pretty much perceptions and guesses from talking to people and from my own experience etc, so I might be incorrect.
I don't know anything about the Canadian system, but just to give examples of people I know on the course. They had first class honours degrees and were either first in their class or in top ten with lots of prizes etc. So yes when I say first class honours it would probably equate with the Dean's list.
While extracurricular/work experience/law review is great if you have it, I think you'll notice on the application form that there is very little space given for you to list these things compared to application forms for the American Law School Applications. Yes they are taken into account, but they are not given as much weight as they are in American Law Schools. Results matter most for Ox and Camb (If anyone thinks I'm wrong please feel free to post otherwise), especially when you consider that they set minimum results requirements in their offer conditions that must be met, even if they have offered you a place. So, unlike American LLMs, no amount of extracurricular activites will change this, though it will help to set you apart from someone with similar results which is why they are still important for an application.
I know there are quite a few American and Canadian LLM students so it probably doesnt do you any harm to be more experienced. There are 9 people from Ireland on the course this year that I know of. At least four or five Americans (again that I know of, some might even be Canadian, I'm really crap with accents and there might even be more that I havent met) a lot of Australians, a lot of Germans/Austrians and a lot of English people. Then there are smaller scatterings of people from loads of other jurisdictions. Its quite diverse.

Hi I have applied this year too. I got a First last year from Glasgow Uni in Scotland but didnt win any prizes. I note Irish guy that youve said lots of the people you know were first in their year and had lots of prizes - do you think that is quite important or that the rank of your degree is the most important? also wondering how much your undergrad uni counts. as i said i went to glasgow - is the LLM course full of oxford, cambridge, yale, harvard folk? do u know which unis most of the uk applicants seem to come from?

thanks

further qustion, irishguy: what are the grades like at cambridge? are the classes curved like in canada? here a class of 30 students will see 2 A's, %-19 Bpluses, and then a handful of Cpluses, C's, all the way down. Is Cambridge like that? since those admitted to the course are presumably all terrific students, it would seem unfair if a class of 30 only had ,say, three A's up for grabs, regardless of performance.

Ok, I don't know enough about everyone else's qualifications to be able to give you all these details. Of the nine from Ireland, there are three people each from three different Universities. There seems to be a wide mix of universities represented from UK, I know of at least one guy from Glasgow and I'm sure there are a few others. It's certainly not populated by certain Uni's from what I can tell. There are people from Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and quie a few others. As I said before it really is very diverse. I'm pretty sure if you have a first you have an excellent chance of getting in. They admit more people than Oxford do. I'm sorry if I scared people before about the prizes and stuff, sure there are some people like that, but equally there are others here who are not.
I never really understood the whole curved system. I think its slightly more informal, though in most Universities in England and Ireland there will only be a handful of firsts given out in any course. However, if you really deserve one you will get one. They don't have an actual quota as far as I am aware, at least I hope they don't. That would be kind of depressing. The criteria doesnt say there is a quota anyway. Sometimes they don't give out any firsts because no one is deemed to have reached the requisite standard.

Thanks for the insight. Further questions: when you say most people had frist class degrees, what does that mean? I'm from Canada, and here the grad schools care about ranking and GPA. Would I be right in saying that a first class degree is the equivalent of dean's list in Canada (ie top 10? of class)?

And the guy JW who was on the Dean's list was admitted to Oxford so I guess that kind of answers your question about how the grades equate.

thanks a lot irishguy thats helpful

First off, irishguy, Russ- cheers, your advice is much appreciated. Second, I notice lots of posts indicating that the grades one recieves in the final year of their program may be more important than the years previous. Do you guys agree? In you experience, does cambride (and other top schools) weigh all years of law together equally or does an exceptional standing in, say, one's final year tend to make up for less stellar grades in years one and two?

I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea about this one. Couldnt even hazard a guess. I suppose it depends on what years are counted for your overall degree result but that's a total shot in the dark. Sorry.

has anybody recieved their application ID number or a letter confirming receipt of their application? I recieved an email saying they had my application on Dec. 1, 06, but haven't heard anything since.

Have you received the letter that gives you a CAMsis username and password? If you have received this, I do not think Cambridge will be getting in touch again until a decision has been made. You can check your application status using this service.

no, I heven't recieved a letter with Camsis. I simply recieved an email saying my application arrived. Also, how long does cambridge usually take to make decisions?

From what I gather from the third post, decisions begin to be released from January onwards until April or May with a new batch of decisions released every 3 weeks or so once the Admission Committee meets.

In respect of not hearing from them again, they received my application in the second week of November and I got the letter stating my username & password two weeks after. So do not worry, I'm sure they are just working through all the applications that they received near the deadline and you will be hearing from them shortly.

thanks ut. I suppose it's only been 6 days since they recieved my app so even if they sent a letter immediately (unlikely) it would still take at least a week or more to arrive here, in canada.
Where are you from ut? (does ut stand for university of toronto?)
where else did you apply?
what do you believe your chances are?
I feel relatively confident, but dont want to jinx it.
I have a first class honours BA and finished well inside the top 10% in my LLB. Ive also got some decent work experience and law review.
do you think my cautious optimism is unwarranted?