Hello guys,
I study law in Germany and will receive the results of the first state examination by June 2009.

I just received the following message from the NYU Graduate Admission:

Dear Applicant,
The Committee on Graduate Admissions has reviewed your application for admission to the LL.M. program.

The Committee has decided to hold your application and to ask you to submit your First State Exam results. As soon as the results of your First State Exam are available, you should request that an official statement of the results be sent to:

Committee on Graduate Admissions
New York University School of Law
245 Sullivan Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10012

We will make every effort to reach a final decision on your application shortly after the receipt of this additional information.


--> What exactly does that mean for me? Is there just a slight probability of an acceptance or does it imply that my chances of being admitted have actually risen?

Many thanks in advance!

I have received the same letter, except I am a U.S. student. so the they want my last semester grades.

I hope it means our chances of being accepted has risen!

Good luck to us both!

daking, I think that if they want some documents from you, then probably they DO consider you seriously.

daking, could you tell me whether there is any ranking of Law schools in Germany? Do you know any tier 1 law schools?

Hello Baby_Luck,
in Germany you cannot really rank the universities because at the end everybody has to take the state examination.

The state examination is run by the state which means that the university does not have any influence.

Therefore there is no significant official ranking which could be referred to.
However, unofficial rankings are conducted regularly by www.spiegel.de or www.focus.de; these are based on various criteria and according to my opinion should not be taken too serious.

As I've heard from a Heidelberg student here in Paris, the state exam is held by the Lander or something. With as consequence that the state exam for Heidelberg students is more difficult than for example Berlin students.

(He comes from Heidelberg thus may be biased :p)

Hello Baby_Luck,
in Germany you cannot really rank the universities because at the end everybody has to take the state examination.

The state examination is run by the state which means that the university does not have any influence.

Therefore there is no significant official ranking which could be referred to.
However, unofficial rankings are conducted regularly by www.spiegel.de or www.focus.de; these are based on various criteria and according to my opinion should not be taken too serious.

The difficulty of the examinations is approximately the same in every state. There are some minor differences but all in all its the same.

This means when yo achieve the mark "vollbefriedigend" or better you belong to the top 10-15%. In some states however (such as Hamburg or Berlin) you merely belong to the top 15-20% with the same mark.

Daking and Santa, thanks for your replies.

I have not done much research about law degrees in Germany yet (because I am not really seriously thinking about applying right now). I wonder whether a student with a German LL.M. (and a non-German law degree) can sit for a state exam?