In another post someone mentioned what happened to his/her friends. Just out of curiosity, is that common?

I hope the question is not as dumb as asking for a reason why one is rejected by a lower classed LLM program than the one he is accepted in? :s

I hope the question is not as dumb as asking for a reason why one is rejected by a lower classed LLM program than the one he is accepted in? :s

It is common enough such that I think everyone, if you ask around enough, would find that they know someone to whom that has happened before. It is not common enough to assume it is the norm (it is not the norm - the conventional norm is that the higher-ranked the university, the harder to get in, subject to a few exceptions).

But the admissions process is by nature idiosyncractic and although most of the universities see the positives of an applicant in the same way, for obvious reasons, some universities might not see it that way, particularly if the university focuses on particular specializations (as an example, Yale's focus on law teaching may mean that having many years of corporate practice on the CV detracts from the application while the same facts can buttress an application to CLS or any other corporate-centric institution).

It does happen. A year ago, I was admitted to Stanford LLM (not SPILLs), and rejected at UPenn (where I even had applied early action). Go figure. As someone said, your goals play an important role on this decision and school look at different profiles.