I would love to get advice from anyone who has applied and been successful in getting into a top ten Tax LLM program in the U.S. Specifically, I would like to see if there are others that are like me (same background) that had success in getting in.

In an effort to be as transparent as possible here are my stats.

2010-Graduated Top 13% at Golden Gate University School of Law, Deans List, Scholarships, etc.
A lot of extracurricular activities (Research & Teaching assistant)
Business Law Certificate, and took one federal income tax course. I will be getting a letter of rec from that professor.

Graduated Undergrad in Poli Sci from UCLA 2005.

Currently working as a litigation associate at a small-midsize firm doing business litigation for last two years.

I realize that not coming from a top tier school may hinder me, but I feel that academically I succeeded there and maybe that'll help. Wanted to see if anyone had some good advice.

Thanks!