do i stand a chance at any top 20 schools??? please advise!
Yesterday, 10:44 PM
Hi.

Can anyone please advise me on my chances of getting into one of the top 20 schools?

My qualifications are as follows:
1. LLB Hons University of London external program 2003
2. LLB University of the Punjab Pakistan 2004
3. 3 years experience at 2 top law firms in Pakistan
4. 1 and a half year working as an in-house lawyer for a multinational
5. 1 year legal consulting for national companies
6. currently working for the freedom of the judiciary.
7. member of the punjab bar council

The problem is:
1. dont have any recommendations from any professors. recommendation will be from the multinational and a prominent lawyer in pakistan
2. my grades for the LLB hons university of london were pretty bad. My grades for the LLB Punjab are pretty good.

my top choices are harvard, yale,columbia, cornell and upenn.

please help!!!

I think the essence of any answer to this will be to just apply. As far as I know there are no admissions tutors frequenting these boards and so an accurate conclusion can never be drawn. Essentially, I believe the general rule is that for top 20 schools your grades should be (US equivalent) 65% avg plus and so you should hold good 2:1 in ideally both London external and Punjab programs or at least one (presumably the Punjab program). However, your listing names such as Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Columbia would make me suggest that you need even better than that as you are effectively talking about some of the very top law schools in the world and thus the recipients of some of the very best applicants. Personally I dont see why work experience should lower the academic requirements needed as vocational law and academic law are two very different things. Nevertheless, I do know of instances when Oxbridge have been more lenient on mature applicants who have accumulated some extensive practical experience. Applying this across would mean that you could potentially stand a good chance of accpetance into a top US school but, as I say, the decision is for an admissions tutor to make and the only thing to do is try your luck! They can only say no!

I hope this helps and good luck!

Hi there,

I agree with the comments made by Dimelow.

However, I think that the schools you have listed might be an issue given the fact that you do not have academic referees. Like Dimelow has said, your work experience would most definitely value-add to your application but most admission committees place a certain amount of emphasis on the ACADEMIC references they have specifically required.

Perhaps you might want to include a letter explaining why you do not have academic referees? However, this might not be helpful to your application given that you completed your studies 4-5 years ago (and not 10-20 years ago). The admissions committee might attribute this to the fact that your degree was completed 'externally'.

I am not really sure how you can overcome this issue so lets hope someone else has better advice!


Cheers
Greg

thank you for you advise.

The main reason i havent asked any of my professors for a recommendation is because most of them have either studied in Pakistan or the UK. Do you think that their recommendation would add value considering they have never studied in the US?

Hi,

I would not think where your Professors have studied matters. Afterall, providing them with academic reference is a entry requirement and you are always better off sending them something (rather than nothing).

Regardless, I think what really matters is the content of the letter, not where your Professors studied.

Good luck with your application!!


Cheers
Greg