Hi everyone

Had already happily accepted the offer from Essex when UCL pulled their finger out... and they're proving harder to turn down than I thought. I really desperately need some help making this decision. I know to half of you Essex is the obvious choice while to the other half UCL is the obvious choice! I am stuck in the middle. Any advice appreciated.

Thanks a mill.

I have read the glowing reports on Human Rights Law at Uni of Essex, however are you willing to turn down the opportunity of attending one of the most renowed and reputable law schools (UCL) in the UK? UCL will most certainly give you the more competitive advantage so on that basis I emphatically recommend UCL over Essex. Both good schools, but UCL is better.

i agree, UCL would open far more doors. were i in your shoes i would go for UCL..

I don't have first hand knowledge of Essex or UCL, but I would go for Essex based on the dynamic environment that's created where a majority of the LLM students have the same interest... If all your peers are there to study HR, you'll have really interesting discussions and make great contacts for the future among your peers. I don't think the same magic can ever happen where you are just one of a handful of students interested in HR and everyone else is there to study commercial or EU law or whatever.

Seriously? Outside of class I'd rather not talk shop, no matter how 'interesting' discussions could be.

Really? That's interesting. I think our approaches are different.

To explain, the point of a Master's degree being specialisation, I don't see a better way to achieve that than by total immersion... Eg forming study groups is so much easier when there are loads of others with similar interests. I'm not even sure how the revision period would work if there weren't other students going through the exact same thing... Revision is a great time and a great bond afterwards!!

Does UCL have a specilised LLM human rights track? Do they offer courses on the law of war and international criminal law? What little information I have found so far doesn't seem to indicate so. Even otherwise, would UCL be a better choice for human rights than Essex?