Dear all,

after a long time of consideration I now know for sure that I would like to study for a LLM in the field of commercial law (competition and trade regulations) or law and economics. However the whole process of applying seems just a little bit intimidating to me. This web-stie have been very useful but I still have some questions that I am struggling with.

I will apply to several universities, after all, there is now garantuee that I'll get in anywhere, but how many universities do you normally apply to?

And I must ask, letter of recommendations are required everywhere. This is something that I have never come across before so I wonder... what are they suppose to say and how important are they and their content for my application?

Dear Johanson,

Recommendation letters are required by almost every colleges, Some even requires three. Their comments are very important, whatever they should compliment your written statement/statement of purpose. They usually give details about your rank in class, your other academic abilities, soft skills- like leadership qualities, a godd recommender will give details as to how they reached a conclusion on this. You must atleast apply to 5 universities (this is my opinion) three from top five and 2 to other university that falls some where in top 5 to 20. Again this should be based on your marks and other achievements.

For universities, recommandation letters are very important because they are more objective than your personal statement.

First, you should read the CV of your professors. Perhaps, one of them was a visiting scholar at the university you intend to go.

Second, if you write in your application and personal statement that you want to study comercial law, you should request recommandation letters from commercial law professors.

As said above, recommandation letter should be based on your academic achivements and marks. However, no worries. Professors are used to write recommandation letters.

I think you don't need to apply to more than 5 universities if you do it early.

The choice of the university is mainly based on three factors: its reputation, its location and the university fees. Regarding the reputation, the Time publishs each year a ranking by subject: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,6734,00.html

I think letters of recommendation are very important in both US and UK applications. Work experience is particularly important for applications to US schools.