I think that I really have something with the city of Chicago. I am going to Northwestern LLM/K this year and suddenly, UChicago claims me from the standby group. I know both are in Chicago and the rankings of UChicago is better than Northwestern according to the USNEWS. As I would like to focus on corporation, securities, M&A and antitrust, which program would you pick if you were me?

Thanks.

Hey there,

I think you should take the UofC offer - no question. For antitrust and economics, there's nowhere better on earth to study than the University of Chicago. Fact. There are also some great faculty who teach securities (Judge Easterbrook teaches the advanced class most years) and corporate law. Last, but not least, I suspect that the University of Chicago has a notably superior international reputation, both as a law school and larger university.

Northwestern is a great law school - no question - but I think UofC is a notch above

I know Kellogg is well-respected, but if you want to take business classes at UofC you can do that too (as well as econ classes in the Ph.D program)

Good luck and congratulations on your "dilemma"!

I do not agree. I think Northwestern is better for several reasons.

On the one hand, Northwestern is more practical, whereas University of Chicago is more theoretical. On the other hand, with the Kellogg courses (that we can choose, even with a llm general), it is possible to have the reputation of the law school and the business school in the same time.

In addition, Northwestern has a much better position in Chicago and it gives me an advantage to get in touch with firms lawyer. Finally, about the international reputation, Northwestern has a best ranking Usnews each year and I do not think that recruiters make a difference between a University ranked 8 th and a University ranked 5 th.

Hi JayK,

I hope I didn't come off as being too harsh on Northwestern's program - it is, of course, a terrific law school with a great reputation.

For disclosure, I was a JD student outside of Chicago, so no vested interest (though I'm from a foreign country and so looked very closely at NU's 2-year JD program).

I'll grant you your point that the joint LLM-Kellogg program allows you to benefit from two programs' reputations. However, I really do think that NU's advantage over UofC ends there.

With regard to US News rankings, a lot of people consider UofC to be seriously underrated (lawyer/judge and academic peer scores place it in the top 4 or top 5; clerkship and academic placement is just as high) and NU to be (perhaps) slightly overrated (lowest academic peer scores of the top 14 law schools). You can place whatever weight on this you want. From my country though (UK), while NU is well-regarded, the University of Chicago is more prestigious.

As for the practical/theoretical divide, I wouldn't place much weight on it. My personal thought is that going to an elite law school should be an academic experience and going to UofC allows you to potentially study with amazing faculty - Judges Posner/Easterbrook/Wood, as well as Professors Epstein, Sunstein, Landes etc. UofC may have the best (or one of the very best) faculty in the US. The practical experience will follow on the job. This, however, is just my opinion, so I can respect other people disagreeing with me here.

For the original poster's interests, though, it's hard to argue against Chicago. For antitrust, for instance, I would argue that Chicago is even better than Stanford and Harvard.

Northwestern law school's location is AMAZING - right on the lake and just off Michigan Av. The advantage of this, however, is social. I simply can't believe it can have any tangible impact on professional opportunities (for one, you can't take the Illinois bar without a JD or 5 years' experience, so it's not like you'll be interviewing with Chicago law firms).

The only real reason I could see for choosing Northwestern would be to have a more enjoyable year, but still getting a prestigious degree. I've been told that UofC's LLM program is a lot of work, with a quarter system as well. Also, Northwestern has a great reputation for having a fun and friendly student population (whereas Chicago is known for being pretty nerdy).

Thanks for your reply randomfella,

You bring up some interesting points. However I still believe Northwestern is an amazing choice, especially for an european: here we're often encouraged to get a 'double training' (Law plus something a little bit different), which the Northwestern LLM provides with its joint Kellog program.

As for its ranking, I personally heard it's getting closer to the top every year. Besides, according to a recent survey from The National Law Journal (http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1207904905249), Northwestern is now ranked 2nd (compared to 11th last year) in terms of percentage of graduates to be sent to NLJ 250 law firms. This is quite possibly _the_ most important factor to take into account when picking a LLM program--at least to me.

I strongly believe this plus all the social/positioning-related benefits are valid-enough reasons to consider Northwestern a top-notch choice for a LLM.

Many thanks to randomfella and JayK. Your advices are very helpful to me. After all, I have decided to go to the University of Chicago. The main concern is the rankings I guess, and many people advise that UChicago has a better reputation than Northwestern.

Congratulations on your choice and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful year!