I am a Zambian student in the UK, planning to apply to Harvard, Yale and Cornell this year this year and I was wondering if those of you that were accepted for the LLM at any of these Law Schools could share some of your infinite wisdom on a couple of points:

1) What are the entry requirements. Do I have to get a First class pass or will a 2:1 suffice?

2) How difficult is it to get a fellowship at any of these?

3) What sorts of things do you put in your personal statement? ie what classifies as a good reason for wanting to study at Harvard, Yale or Cornell? I know that announcing that you've wanted to do Law since you were three years old wont quite cut the ice.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. (First one to respond gets free cookies: LOL)

Hi Senator. I'll briefly answer your questions in turn.

1) Admission depends on number of criteria: educational achievements (not only grades, but scholarships and stipends etc., too), work experience, recommendations, and your essays. American law schools do not have mechanical grade requirements for LL.M. programs.

2) Financial aid to Cornell depends on similar criteria: if you're good enough, they'll give you money. Yale, however, only grants need-based aid (i.e. if you get accepted, but don't have enough money, they'll give it to you, either as a stipend or a loan).

3) Your personal statement is a personal statement, it depends on you. Mine were very academic (for instance, my ps to HLS elaborated on the reasons why I wanted to conduct my doctoral research in Cambridge, Massachusetts). But you can write about your childhood experiences as well. I think it's safest, however, to concentrate on your study objectives.

Good luck with your applications!

Thanks for that; that was very helpful.

I am a Zambian student in the UK, planning to apply to Harvard, Yale and Cornell this year this year and I was wondering if those of you that were accepted for the LLM at any of these Law Schools could share some of your infinite wisdom on a couple of points:

1) What are the entry requirements. Do I have to get a First class pass or will a 2:1 suffice?

2) How difficult is it to get a fellowship at any of these?

3) What sorts of things do you put in your personal statement? ie what classifies as a good reason for wanting to study at Harvard, Yale or Cornell? I know that announcing that you've wanted to do Law since you were three years old wont quite cut the ice.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. (First one to respond gets free cookies: LOL)

Hi there. First of all thanks for your response. I am surprised to hear that my post left you puzzled because everyone else that has read it and sent me personal messages (with some valuable advice) has understood it just fine.

I was not in any way implying that Cornell University was in the same league as Harvard and Yale (that is as far as the league tables go). The reason why I had asked about them collectively, is because after extensive research, those are the universities that suit me and are therefore the Universities I want to go to. Perhaps I should have written three separate posts but I did not see the need to because I think we are ALL intelligent enough to know that Harvard and Yale slightly higher than Cornell. What I was concerned with was the entry requirements.

Furthermore, Cornell does offer funding to foreign students, including African students. Again my question was: how difficult is it to get a fellowship?

I have to say that whilst I am grateful that you took the time to respond to my post; you spoke to me in a very condescending manner and that is something I was not grateful for.

I think Senator is on the right track. I applied to Cornell myself, because they have many comparatists on their faculty. My own strategy was to apply to Yale and Harvard as my first choices, to Columbia, Michigan, and Virginia as my second choice, and to Cornell and GULC as my third. I think this makes sense, because it's simply impossible to know beforehand whether you'll get accepted. I found it way too risky to apply only to Yale and HLS. I didn't apply to Chicago or NYU, because although they're great schools, their profile didn't match mine.

Cornell would have granted me a full-ride scholarship worth of 45,000 U.S.$ It was tempting, but at the end of the day I chose Yale. I don't know how many of those they grant annually, but at least one. So go for it, Senator!

Thanks for that tmalmine

Dear Senator,

I couldnt agree anymore in respect of your response to Cookier. You would have noticed by now that there are several culrpits on this message board and others (see for instance Jess2006 and others) who regularly post merely to gratify themselves for whatever reason.

I apologise for the condescending manner in which Cookier posted and can only hope that you take some of the very helpful advice offered on the list. I wish you good luck in your studies and I hope that you enjoy Cornell or Harvard or Yale. Unfortunately what has happened on this site is that in the severe competition endemic in this system, some have lost sight of the wider picture and indeed the purpose, which after all is a good education and one that fits your individual circumstances. I often recoil in horror at the way certain individuals become slaves to ranking systems and dismiss other schools based on the perceived ranking of the school.

I understand that the commercial reality is that certain schools are considered more prestigious and have higher recruitment rates, however, this is obviously not the case between the great schools to which you refer.

It is normally at this point that someone provides a post saying heor she is only saying that because they didnt get into a top school. Obviously to dignify such an accusation with a response would be undermine my very purpose in writing this email of support for you and the minority of others like you.

I really do hope when I begin my studies that I meet you and we can be friends. I also hope that you are not too disheartened by the commodified manner in which stiudents seem to apply for US LLMs. I find it appalling.

Good luck.

Hi Hamish,
Thanks for that. So what Uni are you going to be applying to? Cornell??

That cookier is either a bot financed by Harvard and Yale for aggressive advertisement puroposes...Or...
another of those lawyers with a clear personality problem.
Nevermind what cookier says.