Guys i have received offers from Durham and Queen Mary for commercial and corporate law. Its very hard for me to decide between them. Durham has a strong commercial law dept while Queen Mary is placed in the vicinity of law firms of London. Please help me decide on it. Also, I have been put on hold by Pennsylvania University- U.S. Should I wait for it? What are my odds of getting accepted?

Hi Crash46 !

Regarding QMUL, may I ask how many time they took to issue their answer? Is it an email or a letter?

If I have had an offer from QMUL, I would also struggle to choose between them. Regarding rankings, Durham clearly is the best, and their law fair (http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/careers-advice/2008booklet-A4reducedsize.pdf) provides an impressive list of law firms. An extremely good aspect of Durham is its collegiate system, and I think that clearly enhances the experience there.

On the other hand, QMUL is maybe less regarded (yet I think they are in the same league), but with a much wider module choice. I would really fancy a particular dissertation subject, but only QMUL could provide me a supervisor for it. An experience in London would be great, but I do not think living in the vincinity of law firms is such a huge positive point. In London or not, most of the time, you will still have to apply using the firm's website.

As to the financial aspect, Durham costs £5,670 (UK/EU) or £10,050 (Intl) in tuition fees plus around £4,000 in college accommodation, while QMUL costs £6,000 (UK/EU) or £12,000 (Intl) and surprisingly more or less the same as Durham in accomodation (http://www.ccrs.qmul.ac.uk/residences/accommodation/fees/index.html). I am not sure the financial aspect really helps making a fair distinction.

I would say that the final choice depends. If you are focused on pure commercial/corporate law, go for Durham. Otherwise, I am not sure it would be worthwhile.

Hey Erasoft, thanks for the advice. Frankly speaking, I was thinking about QMUL only fo the reason that it was in London. But, I was always inclined towards Durham as it is known for its commercial and corporate law department. I was scratching my head for more than two weeks regarding this. You and some other friends advice has made my decision eazy........Durham here i come. Btw, are you accepted at Durham...if so which college?

Regarding your question, they took around 8 weeks to reply and it was by post.

Glad to have helped you :)

I have applied to Hatfield College (and his Palatine House). I do not have a formal offer from Durham, just the recommendation from the "admission office". How does it work after that? I cannot find any explanation on what is to come.

8 WEEKS from QMUL ?! That's incredibly long !! :(

Dont worry, you will get your offer letter in a week or two for sure. The procedure is - Admissions office recommends a student to the university and the university sends the offer letter. I had applied in December 2008, so i got my offers around March. 7-8 weeks is the standard time required to arrive at a decision. So, if you get an offer from QMUL, what will your decision be?

1. Buy a bottle of champagne. It's always good to celebrate a good news.
2. The day after, I think I would struggle (and not only because of the hangover).

I am generally interested by corporate law, but I am also *precisely* interested by IT and Computer law, and I would like to do my dissertation on that topic. That's impossible at Durham. But on the other hand this dissertation idea is very broad and is maybe not worth insisting.

I thing a way of coming to a decision between QMUL and Durham would be... to get an offer from UCL :) Otherwise, I would still have a (maybe irrational) preference for Durham.

I would go to Durham... I know that QML is located at the heart of Londo... and maybe that's the reason why I prefer Durham. About Penn... I keep my vote for Durham... Regards.

You said that right erasoft, but I was rejected by UCL and LSE, am still waiting for KCL to reply. And beicon, where are you heading? If I get a positive reply from Penn I would definitely go there.

Strangely, I've never heard of Durham as being particularly strong or well-known for commercial/corporate law, whereas QMUL has a huge commercial law school for postgraduates.

Hi Crash. I'm not heading anywhere right now actually. I will be applying this year for the academic year of 2010/2011. I will try Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Edinburgh and Aberdeen... depending on how things turn out, I will also apply to KCL and Leiden and Amsterdam (these last two in Netherlands).
Best of luck to you. If you want Penn, I will be cheering for you. Regards,

Guys, got rejection letter from Upenn... will be communicating acceptance to Durham in a day or two. Hope to see you guys there....erasoft, did you get any reply from queens?

Not yet.

Actually, I may have changed my mind. I am no longer sure to be "made for corporate". On the other hand, QMUL is one of the only very few universities in the UK to have an LLM in the area I would like to specialise in, IT. If I received an offer from QMUL and Durham, today, I would accept QMUL, in spite of the "collegiate experience" I wanted to have (but I want to totally commit to the modules, and I am not sure that would be possible at Durham, considering I am not overwhelmingly motivated by *pure* commercial law).

Hi Crash. Sorry to hear you didn't get into UPenn. But like I said before, since the beginning I thought you'd better off at Durham. So, best of luck to you at Durham.