From what I understand of the conversion between the 4-point scale and the U.K. scale, it isn't so much your raw G.P.A. score that matters but your overall class rank; if a 3.5 places you in the upper 10% of your class, then you're right in there. If for some reason a 3.5 was the average score at your law school (admittedly unlikely), then your chances are somewhat weaker, and your school was decidedly odd.

Someone more knowledgable than myself would have to comment on what approximate class rank the Big 3 are looking for, however. Would it be fair to say top 15%?

Hi,

What concerns the rankings - UCL stands above LSE and way above Kings most of the time.

One of the examples: http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2007/overall_rankings/top_100_universities/

JS

According to this ranking, Imperial College should be your first choice in London (BTW: Imperial does not have a law faculty).

What I want to say is that I would not base my decision on general worldwide university rankings. Apart from that, the QS "ranking" you linked to does not even provide their methodology. The only respected worldwide ranking that I know is the one by the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University: http://www.arwu.org/rank/2007/ARWU2007_Top100.htm

Russ, you say that this ranking you cite is the only respected one you know. Thanks for the link, which was interesting.

But, in this ranking UCL is at 25 worldwide, and the LSE does not make the top 100! While I personally think UCL is well above the LSE, having been to both, the fact that Nottingham makes the top 100 list but the LSE does not, just can't be right. (?)

Or maybe law is only one factor of many in their calculations, so this list is also misleading, something you criticised the others for...

Or maybe law is only one factor of many in their calculations, so this list is also misleading, something you criticised the others for...

too simplicitic to say US/ Canada - LSE and UK- UCL....
Infact lse in also very popular and desirable in UK and they get more applications for each place on their LLM than UCL (lse gets 13 applications for every spot and it is also more expensive than)....in US the two schools are not even compared usually because many people have not even heard of UCL and they have almost always heard of Oxbridge and LSE....for some people...that extra edge of a reputation is very important! You have been to both schools and suggest ucl is better but others have been to both and suggest lse is a lot better....so it proves that this is a pointless and subjective exercise...what is true however is that lse had a better reputation than ucl overall (taking into account abroad rep as well as home rep)....Also many people dont know this but lse has a new law department building opening next year (2008)...a new building with state of the art lecture rooms and it is suppose be amazing!! I went to LSE last week and I got to hear US Supreme Court judge Justice Scalia speak - it was great opportunity to listen to him and fire questions...really got the impression that thibngs are happening at that university¬!