I am a Norwegian student on my 4th year of my masters degree in law. I wanna do an LLM in the states, but I am unsure if I wanna do it after I finish my degree here, or if I wanna do my LLM as a part of my last year here.

What it really comes down to is grades and cost. I do not have the best grades; one A and one C from my 1st year, one B and one C from my 2nd year and one C and one D from my 3rd year. I expect my 4th year grades to be better. Will it be possible to get admitted to a good school with grades like these?

When it comes to cost, I don't really have any savings, as I have been a student the last 4 years. I get some school money covered by the state; about $35 000. The LLMs I've looked at are all around $50 000. Are there any schools that are cheaper, or might be willing to put their price a little bit down?

yes, you have a chance - it all depends what school you're aiming for. first off, grades are relative, given your school's grading systems etc; here, for example, you'd be above the average with those grades; elsewhere, you'd be bottom of the classe). second, there's a thousand ways to offset mediocre grades (internships, voluntary work, law journal work, professional experience, shiny hair...).

yes, there are schools cheaper than 50.000. plus, a lot of schools that charge that kind of money really will be happy to recruit you and give you considerable tuition waivers (don't expect harvard to do this, but others will).

as always, i guess you'll have to know what you're looking for. if you want a school with a name that will blow away people when you get back home, then you probably have to put in some money. if you're looking to spend a year abroad and get a degree that basically confirms that your english is quite alright, then you'll find quite affordable programs.

i don't get about the "school money" - are you saying you got public funds covering 35,000 USD for tuition in your LLM? if so, consider yourself lucky and go wherever you want! :)

Yes, the state offers a maximum of $35 000 - part loans and part scholarships, when a student wants to study abroad in a country where education costs. It's free to study at a university here in Norway so no one has money saved up for education, like they do in the states. So I guess I'm pretty lucky! But I have no idea where to get the rest of the money I need from...

I spent the day looking at LLMs at different universities, and most were between $45 000 and $50 000. The cheapest degree I found was around $35 000.

My dream is to do an LLM in international law at NYU, but the tuition fee is $50 000, plus the fact that it's really expensive to live in NYC. And I also expect that my grades will exclude me from a school as prestigeous as NYU. :(

as i said - your grades alone don't do the talking; if you got other factors going for you, you might have a shot nonetheless.

don't look at the price tags alone. schools that aren't top ranked will still have high tuition as standards, but are much more likely to offer you a tuition waiver, as they tend to appreciate international students.