I'm an Indian student planning to pursue an LLM in the US. I plan to work in the US for a year or two after my masters, but eventually want to move back to India. I know getting a job for an international student is extremely hard. But, I just wanted to know what school increases my chances of getting one.

I've been admitted to:

Berkeley (No scholarship)
USC (USD 30,000 scholarship plus a housing stipend of 4500)
Vanderbilt (USD 30,000 scholarship)

I'm not really considering going to Vanderbilt. I think I'd really like to live in a big city (or at least close to one), so my options are Berkeley and USC. Cost of the LLM matters to me a lot. I don't plan to take a loan for the costs I incur, but I'd still like to reduce the cost as much as possible. I know Berkeley has a much much better rank and is generally a better school, but I've also heard that USC networking is amazing!! So my question is, will the networking in USC be enough to get me a job considering I'm an international student? Or should I consider spending the full cost of Berkeley because it'll be much more beneficial to me?

Thanks in advance for your help! :)

anyone??

You've identified a lot of the things people might suggest. The rankings are not that different now: look at the new US news rankings. Berkeley is like 11 or 12 and USC is 19. If you want to work in California, you can't go wrong with either one, but worldwide, obviously Berkeley has a better reputation.

As an American lawyer (getting an LLM only for fun and to segue into other areas) who is well versed with the legal markets in both California and NYC, I don't think going to Berkeley or USC is going to make a difference re getting a job in the US. Both schools are great, and it's just tough to get a decent job here with just an LLM.

So I would think more about how the degree would help you once you go back. Is Berkeley that much bigger a name there? Here, it wouldn't really make much of a difference, but if USC is not a name there, it's something to consider.

But it's true about the networking at USC. For the rest of your life, you're a trojan, which has many perks, especially if you live in California after.

Feel free to private message me if you have more questions.

(Full disclosure, I am a Trojan)

The job market for LLM in USA is very short and the majority of the LLMs return to their home countries I would choose USC. In my experience, I have seen that outside of US some schools have better reputation than other but have similar weight in the recruitment and the pay will be similiar or the same. Also both schools attend the the two job fairs (NYU and UCLA).

On rankings both are in a good spots... Berkeley at 12 and USC at 19 (I do not think that a diference of 7 places worth to pay $35K more). So financially it will better to attend USC and the ROI also will be better.

I think that the only schools that worth to pay full tuition are the top 3... Yale, Harvard and Stanford.