Since most of the people are now deciding which LLM offer accept, I decidied to open a forum where everyone can give a simple advice in order to help everyone in this decision process. (I have been accepted at Chicago, NYU, still waiting for Columbia, rejected at Harvard)
My advices are:
Firstly answer to this question, What you wanna do with an LLm??
4 possible answer:

1- Live and work in New York, in a big firm:
If you pursue this you should go for NY Law school (Columbia and NYU) for several reasons, networking, reputation, environment ecc... If you look in each single law firm website you\'ll see that NYU and Columbia have both the biggest number of associate and partner. Eaither in terms of absolute number, either in terms of ratio per number of graduates.
Harvard is equal as well, but I will discuss about it separately.
Moreover, you can also choose between NYU and Columbia on regards the firm you wish to work for:
Example: you wanna work for Watchell lipton rose and katz, the number 1 law firm in the U.S according to http://www.vault.com/nr/lawrankings.jsp?law2009=2&ch_id=242&top100=1
then go to NYU. (the four founding partner are ex NYU student, David Katz is still a law professor over there, Allen is private counsel and many others are connected).
- As a personal suggestion however, this choice is less reccomend today for the economic crisis. With an LLM is usually hard to work in a U.S law firm, today is even harder by not mentioning impossible!!
(personal ranking for this section: 1 Columbia, 2 Harvard, 3 NYU, all the others)

2. You wanna work in the U.S generally, in a big firm
Then you can pick among the top ten school in the U.S and you can\'t go wrong. However, you should know that law school in the U.S are considered with geographical bias. It means that if you study in Chicago, it is much easier to find a job in the midwest then in NYC. Only Harvard and Yale are not subject to this bias and are national oriented!
So in this case I would firstly try to figure out where you might want to work afterwards and then pick the school, do not just look at the ranking! If your really have no ideas, then, if you can, pick Harvard (Yale is academical oriented as regards LLM).
Still we are talking about an LLM here so same suggestion as before.
(personal ranking for this section: 1 Harvard, 2 Columbia, 3 Stanford, 4 Chicago)

3. You wanna work in your home country, in an international law firm
This is the easiest choice. Even with an LLM at Fordham (no offence!) you can find a job! In this case, among the top 10-20 school I think you should choose based on where you wanna spend one year abroad. I know many of you probably do not have any ideas on where to live since they have never been in the states before. Then try to figure our, you wanna live in a big city (NYC Chicago) or medium city (Yale, Cornell, Duke), you wanna live in hot places (UCLA, Berkeley)or cold places (Chicago, Harvard), you wanna party (UCLA, Duke) or not at all (Harvard, Yale).
(personal ranking for this section: 1 Harvard, 2 Columbia, 3 Stanford, 4 Chicago)

4. You wanna become a Law Professor in the U.S
In this case look very close to the J.S.D program in the law school you have been accepted.
Chicago admits two to four students each year but only accept Chicago graduates, it means that the ratio is 4 to 50, roughly 9 %. Obviously not all LLM graduates go for the academia in Chicago (maybe only 20 people apply for the JSD afterwards) so I would say that the Chances are more or less 20 %. However, You receive nothing for a JSD in Chicago, you have to pay a small tuition 4,000 $ and the life over there.
NYU to the contrary admit people from everywhere, by not mentioning that the LLM program itself is 425 people so the competition for JSD is very hard!! It all depends if you can build a strong connection with a law professor over there who can promote your JSD candidacy. However NYU pay for JSD the full tuition, and give you an extra pay of 20,000 $, not bad!
(personal ranking for this section: 1 Yale, Harvard, Chicago, NYU, Columbia)

All this advices are still very general because depends also on which field you are interested in, for example Chicago Is the best for antitrust, Columbia for Corporate law, Harvard for constitutional Law ecc... So I would say to take very carefully into account your field of study.

I mentioned before that Harvard is different from the others and I would have discuss it separately. Harvard is different simply because it can fit all 4 points above and still be in the top and also it can fit all the fields of study you interested in. Harvard then is specifically a perfect option for those who are still uncertain on which particular field pursue their career or in which country and city work.. Its the best balance for everything.

I am open for a discussion about all I have stated and hope I have been helpful to some of you.
P.S If I looked too much self confident on my judgement, dont pay attention to that, since I am still personally uncertain between Chicago and NYU.. so we are all in the same boat

This is a very helpful thread alex83 :)

I myself am in the third situation and I will attend UVA. I decided that I will probably feel more at ease in Charlottesville than in a big city for a year that far abroad. The cost is also lower and Charlottesville is close to Washington and even not too far from NY.

I also think you are right that the choice of law school for an LLM when you intend to return to your home country and join a big firm there, is wider. One can always find a good job with an LLM from law schools ranked 15-20, but I think a top 10 law school will really open more doors.

Thanks Alex83 for the very clear post indeed. I would only like to add the option of working for an international organization afterwards. Although there are some schools that are particularly good for the specific field of work of IIOOs (e.g. GULC for International trade law, NYU and Berkeley for Human Rights law, Chicago in general for everything related to economics), I think that your best bet would be Harvard anyways. Another point for them!

Excellent guide Alex. I think it s very clear .....I m part of the first group. I d like to work for a big law firm in NY enter the bar and probably take a JSD either in CLS or NYU. Right now i am only in NYU.

Thanks a lot for that thread!
Just a question about your number 4: is doing an SJD sufficient in order to be sure you will find a professor position in the US?? I mean, once you have done the SJD, what are your chances?

Well, a jsd from a top law school is pretty much a secure job as professor, at least you will start in a less prestigiuos law school but its a start. The salary will not be as high as a first year law firm associate, but the working hours per week will not be demanding as well... Moreover, the actual economic situation have generated a dead end for law firm career, in the sense that many firms have stopped hiring associate or they are postponing those hired for one year, it means that when we will end up the llm we will have to face the competition both with actual jd graduate and past jd graduate... very bad scenario...

Hi alex I agree with you, you were very cleary, but what about georgetown and george washington? of course I'd like to know what do u think regard d.c.

and in the case of work as foreign attorney at ny law form for 1 year and then come back in your country I think even cardozo or fordham( which has a very good banking program insted of nyu) are good universities for.

are u sure if u wanna a party u have to go just to ucla and not to berkeley or usc??

I think you are accostumed to time ranking which is very fair for j.d. program but accordingly to us practitioners not for ll.m. program (i.e. some t 15 or 20 are better than t 10)

I look forward your advices

Hi alex I agree with you, you were very cleary, but what about georgetown and george washington? of course I'd like to know what do u think regard d.c. and in the case of work as foreign attorney at ny law form for 1 year and then come back in your country I think even cardozo or fordham( which has a very good banking program instead of nyu) are good universities for. are u sure if u wanna a party u have to go just to ucla and not to berkeley or usc?? I think you are accostumed to time ranking which is very fair for j.d. program but accordingly to us practitioners not for ll.m. program (i.e. some t 15 or 20 are better than t 10) I look forward your advices

I agree generally with alex's insightful comments, though I should also add that under "Live and work in New York, in a big firm", it is quite surprising that YLS is excluded from that list (by way of observation, it is also interesting that so much attention is paid to NYU in your discussion but it only ranks third!). To be sure, YLS is an academic institution first and a law-firm-job-platform second, but given its reputation, quite unsurprisingly, it holds considerable sway in the job market (when you only admit 20 odd students, most tend to have stellar credentials). Ditto for SLS. So my own selection for that would be as follows: (1) HLS; (2) and (3): YLS/SLS; (4) CLS; (5) and (6): NYU / Chicago. Other than that, I agree with alex for his other comments and thoughts. Very useful guide indeed.

Hi, nice guide! Still don't know what to choose though.. Still doubting between Harvard and Columbia. Is there seriously no partying at all at HLS? It has more campus life than Columbia. Of course, CLS is in New York.. For corporate law they are about equal isn't it?
aah 1 april is approaching..

seems like a no brainer to me, go to hls!

Alex much appreciate your effort to help others think clearly of their options. Thanks!

While I appreciate the effort involved in writing this guide... your recommendations can basically be summed up in one line "you can't go wrong with HLS, no matter what you want to do. Oh and Yale Stanford Columbia and UChicago are great too".

Everyone knows HYS are excellent choices. And btw, firms don't even care whether Yale states "for candidates interested in teaching" on their website: they'll hire you all the same as a SLS or HLS graduate. And most universities will be honored to hire a SLS graduate as professor.

Had you classified the top 4 to 14 schools rather then the top 5, it would already have been much more helpful.

Here's my guide:
1. Choose the most prestigious school you get accepted to.
2. Use scholarships to go to less prestigious schools.
3. Use location and specialization to choose between schools of equal prestige.
Only exception to this rule: you're domestic and already have a JD from a T1 law school, then for example GW IP, Florida tax, or Oregon environment are excellent choices.

Practical example 1:
You are accepted at HLS (no $) Columbia (20k) and NYU (40k), very difficult situation, unless money isn't a problem, CLS and NYU are a much better deal.
Practical example 2:
You are accepted at UChicago and CLS: choose according to location: do you want to spend a year in NYC or not. That's a very personal choice: I don't like living in NYC so I'd go to Chicago.
Practical example 3:
You are accepted at Duke UPenn and GULC: UPenn. UPenn should be the overall choice as well as specialization choice (corporate law), Duke the location choice (atmosphere/campus), and GULC another location (DC) and specialization choice (tax and international law). Pick whatever matters the most for you.


I don't think CLS / NYU are as much an advantage to work in NY as you make it sound like. The statistics are just skewed in their favor. Many students pick NYU/CLS because they already know they absolutely want to work in NYC before even enrolling. And once they're there, they'll have a higher tendancy to do everything they possibly can to work in NYC, including accept a less interesting offer at NYC over an offer anywhere else.
For example, there are not many SLS graduates hired in NYC, but that's because many of them *choose* not to look for a job there. Most NY employers, even if they're CLS or NYU graduates themselves, will be equally interested in a UChicago or UPenn graduate provided you've got good grades/credentials.

Rankings have one major flaw: they make no distinction between what graduates choose to do VS. what choices were available to them.
For instance Yale is considered the end all be all law school for future professors. I can guarantee you that should ALL SLS graduates decide they want to become law professors, they'd ALL be hired. And all of a sudden SLS would be considered the new haven for prospective teachers. Likewise if ALL Yale graduates, every year, decide they want to work in NY firms, they'd all be hired too. In this scenario, Yale's employment rate in law teaching would drop to zero. Should we rank Yale as the worst law school for future professors as a result?
One last example, GULC could have higher employment statistics in NY, but many of their top students *choose* to accept offers in DC even though they could have been hired in NY.

I agree generally with alex's insightful comments, though I should also add that under "Live and work in New York, in a big firm", it is quite surprising that YLS is excluded from that list (by way of observation, it is also interesting that so much attention is paid to NYU in your discussion but it only ranks third!). To be sure, YLS is an academic institution first and a law-firm-job-platform second, but given its reputation, quite unsurprisingly, it holds considerable sway in the job market (when you only admit 20 odd students, most tend to have stellar credentials). Ditto for SLS. So my own selection for that would be as follows: (1) HLS; (2) and (3): YLS/SLS; (4) CLS; (5) and (6): NYU / Chicago. Other than that, I agree with alex for his other comments and thoughts. Very useful guide indeed.

Berkeley doesn't make my top six unfortunately (though of course, I'm aware that some others may take a different view). I'm led to believe though, apart from maybe U of Chicago (for which views appear more split), these are the top five universities most LLM students aim for, though they may prioritize them in a different order from how I did it.

As for Hedek's view that Alex's guide isn't of much utility, sure, Alex83's guide wasn't comprehensive, but that was the point - his "guide" was never meant to be an end-point, but a starting point, so it is great to see that you've added to it. As Hedek noted, coming up with a guide is fraught with uncertainties given that LLM admissions is quite a subjective animal, and involves variables quite outside anyone's ambit of knowledge. The classification you gave may not necessarily be one which everyone agrees with either: for example, if I am accepted into HLS (no $) Columbia (20k) and NYU (40k), quite frankly, it is not a very difficult situation, I will still choose HLS (and thereafter CLS) since the distinction in grants or tuition fee waiver is too insignificant to give up the leverage these institutions can give me over the longer term. Of course, once more, others may take a different view, but that's why we have a board, and we have a guide, so that we can build upon it.

And what would you say if you want to go to an international organization, or a think tank or a UN agency?

crimlawyer,
congrats for the five stars! I didn't notice so far...you're one of the few privileged :)
As to your question, I gave my opinion above: HLS would be absolutely the best for that matter. Chicago maybe would rank second, but it also depends on what area you'd like to focus on

hey when do you get the 5th star?? with 250 posts?? :D than I would have 100 more to go damn it :(

Gosh!
I am becoming sort of a celebrity here! hahaha I have no clue as to the fifth star, and Harvard shall it be!

Comprehensive advise,

but what if the specialisation (IP) is better at for exemple GWU (20) than at UVA or Duke (9 and 12)), and you think you want to live in DC, more then Charlottesville or Durham?

Is the ranking than the most important ?