Hello all,

I need advice. I have an LLB from a Quebec university, which is a civil law jurisdiction. I have also passed the Quebec bar exam but I have not completed my articling yet. I graduated law school with a 3.7 GPA. I am mostly interested in the NYU Corporate law program but I would also like to apply to Columbia, Harvard, BostonU and a few other schools. What are my chances of getting in?

Thank you for your advice

I think it depends on which school you apply to. Naturally, in the top 10 schools you have to have great academics, but some schools put more weight on experience (professional and life, extracurricular), others in pure academics (including judicial clerkships, journal publications etc).

I don't think I need to go into what you need. Obviously, the higher ranking/ high profile LLB, top tier experience the better. Personally, I did not have top rankings (I did go to a top law school though, editied journal/good etracurricular etc). My professional experience is very decent, but not exceptional.

I got into several top 10 law schools. I didn't bother applying to Harvard, Stanford, Yale or Chicago, because there's basically no need to apply if you're not in top 10% of your LLB. Personally, The KEY is Leadership--- ie how does your overall profile demonstrate that you are destined to be a leader. You may have great academics, experiences or otherwise, but you have to use your personal statement to profile yourself as a leader.

Your accomplishments and your experience are "evidence" of leadership potential and your personal statement is the key to tie all seemingly unrelated pieces of evidence into one concise statement of you as a winner.

I had a friend who went to an absolute shitty clown law school. He graduated first class, published, started his own consulting practice (crappy and amature though), clerked etc--- He got a full ride to Oxford/Cambridge/Harvard/Stanford--- went to Cambridge. Now, this mofo can write. I read his personal statement--- and it was fucking brilliant!

Without knowing more about your profile, I can't advise you as to your chances. But prima face, you have a decent shot (ie your grades aren't crap). You'll just have to tie everthing else together. BYW don't bother with admission consultants, if you can't write a good personal statement, they can't do much to help you.

Cheers

Thank you for your advice avonlady, it is definitely appreciated. I don't have that much extracurricular activity. However I do have some experience working in a top canadian law firm during two summers as well as a clerkship. In addition I have good business experience in a real estate management company.

Thank you

All the top law schools admit recent graduates, along side very experienced candidates---- It's important for you to show why you don't want to work a few more years/ you are mature enough for a LLM/ Why doing an LLM at this point of your career is beneficial.

Personally, I don't have that much experience either, but I utilised what little experience I have into a convincing overall package. So-- What differentiates you from the other 1000 applicants with exellent academics and experience? That's the key. Think about constructing your profile as a leader. Consider processes similar to criminal profiling. ie consider how do you demonstrate traits, characteristics of the kind of person they would like to admit.

NYU corporate program is good. The best in US is Harvard/Stanford and Columbia ( but hard to get into). You might want to consider UPenn and Northwestern. Both these Schools have brilliant corporate/sec programs and great rep with employers-- just as good as NYU, if not better. Duke is also good, as is Virginia and Chicago (but Virginia and Chicago is very academically focused).

Forget about GT, UCLA and any lower ranked schools. I know this pisses people off (particularly the ones that attend these schools), but the fact of the matter is outside the top 10, employers don't usually give a shit about you. It's hard enough competing in the legal market as LLM. I'm sure there're successful stories with lower ranked LLM getting great outcomes, but in general LLM in US is pretty much not worth doing if you go to a lower rated school.

If you can't get into a top program, you might want to consider working 2 years to vamp up your profile if you're help bent on doing a LLM in US.