Hi everyone!

I'm currently looking through law schools in the US that offer either general LL.M. programmes with a good range of courses in public international law or specialized LL.M. programmes in that field.

My preferred option would be a general one at a school that has a strong int'l law record so that i'd still be free to choose courses in other fields of law as well and gain various experiences.

It appears to me that out of the Ivy League schools, it is only Columbia that has a strong international law record. Any thoughts on that?

My options for now are NYU law and Berkeley law. I'm thinking maybe Georgetown too?

There are other schools apart from the above mentioned that are maybe not as competetitive and are good at the same time (like Virginia, Michigan, Chicago,...) but what i find disturbing is that the tuition costs for these schools are almost the same as the "elite schools" above so if i get to choose i'll probably pay so much money for living in New York or DC. What do you think?

And do you think it is likely to receive big tuition waivers from these schools?

Thank you so much for your help guys!!!

NYU law school is definitely the best one in the USA if you are considering int.public law. My colleagues are very satisfied with the program and provided set of courses.
In Europe (UK, Russia, France, Germany, Holland) you can find much more better program in this field.

Hi,

I personally would strongly recommend people NOT to study public international law in the US. Why? It is extremely expensive when you can have so much better in Europe (which is, let's face it, the place to be if you want to study PIL).

I strongly recommend you to look at the programs offered in Geneva or around the Hague (Leiden University in particular, very renowned). You would most likely have a better formation in such places than anywhere in the US. Otherwise, if you speak French, there are also excellent LL.M. equivalents (Master 2 - M2) in public international law (which are without a doubt once again better than any US LL.M. in PIL). I believe it would still be cheaper for you to go live in Europe for some time than paying for an LL.M. in the US which would be far from being as good as an European degree.

HOWEVER, if you absolutely have to or want to stay in the US, then I believe there are only two schools which are worth going to for PIL: Columbia and NYU (I do not know which of the two would be best though - maybe they are equivalent?). I believe with a certain degree of confidence that you can forget about the other schools (even the ones which are as prestigious as Harvard or Yale - which are not particularly renowned for PIL).

Don't hesitate to ask me any questions you might have! Hope my message helps!

[Edited by NapZ on Sep 26, 2016]

First of all, although rankings do matter, they don't matter that much for LL.M. programs.

The ranks you see online are for the JD programs, and that's it. When it comes to LL.M., you really can't go wrong if you stay in the T-14.

Choosing an LL.M. program from T-14 schools depends a lot on your preferences and your monetary situation. Aside from Yale and Harvard, who have a lot of financial aid available for international students, most of the other schools have a limited amount of money for those purposes.

You really have to ask yourself what's important for you. Tuition costs are about the same between law schools in the top 30. if money is such an issue for you, I would consider not living in New York, for example. Aside from the expensive tuition (like the rest of the T-14), studying at NYU or Columbia means you're gonna spend a TON of money in living expenses. Believe me, living in New York is expensive as hell.

I'd suggest applying to all T-14 and pretty much see what school gives you the best scholarship. Back in my time, I applied to Chicago, Columbia, NYU, UPenn and Michigan. Columbia and NYU because of their good networking opportunities, UPenn and Chicago because I have close friends that went there and had a lot of praise for their programs, and Michigan because I really liked the fact that Michigan had a top program and only 35 LL.M. students a year.

I got accepted to all of them except Chicago. Everybody told me that Columbia would be the best place for my field and a lot of other crap. I didn't wanna spend that much money though, and I knew that in Columbia I'd be just one more LL.M. candidate among 300 others. So I decided to go with my gut instinct and went to Michigan. Best decision ever. And I did it against everyone else telling me to do otherwise. What I mean with this is: in the end, it really doesn't matter what everyone else says. YOU will make the ultimate decision of where to go. And following your instincts is usually the best way to go.

I repeat, there's no way of "choosing wrongly" if you decide to go to a T-14 school that has plenty of courses in your field of law. It's a win-win situation.