Texas:

I cannot speak for bob but I am pretty sure that I sensed some frustrated sarcasm in the tone of his posting. As for the end of june comment, that come straight off the NYU admissions site. That does seem like a late date but I assume that the well qualified and those who applied early will hear back earlier.

I know that an LL.M. in Taxation, even from NYU, is not a ticket to a high paying BIGLAW job, and NYU has the top ranked program and is in the nation's largest legal market. I didn't apply to any other schools because I don't want an LL.M. from any other program.

Regarding when NYU makes decisions, applications are processed in the order they are received. Easy decisions are made on a rolling basis, so if your application is very good or very bad, you will hear soon.

Difficult decisions are postponed for a second and even sometimes a third round of review. If you're in the third round, you won't hear until the end of June.

(I sort of made up the last two paragraphs, but it's probably a close to accurate description of the process.)

That's fine that it's your personal choice to go to NYU or nowhere, but there's no need to say something like that to degrade other programs. UF and Georgetown are both very good programs, and as for me, I'm still waiting on NYU, but may very well choose UF even if I get into NYU for financial purposes. I just don't think it's necessary for you to say things like that, when they: 1) aren't true; and 2) only serve to degrade those who don't get into NYU for whatever reason.

I'm not degrading anyone for wanting a credential so they can get into a career in tax law, because that's what I want too.

But I'm being realistic about how difficult it is to get the good jobs and how much the legal profession worships prestigious credentials. Given this truth, I question the wisdom of going to school in Florida.

I do see the point of a lot of what Bob has to say, but I think it all depends upon what your career goals are and where you want to end up. Personally, I am going to NYU because I believe that it will help me the most. However, I do think that Florida is a great option for some people. For instance, if you want to end up in the South, Florida carries quite a bit of weight. I know that in Texas, an LL.M. in Tax from Florida really does carry weight (I know some people at great firms with UF LL.M's). If a person wanted to end up in NY or DC, I would question the wisdom of choosing FL. Another reason I might choose FL is if my dream wasn't to be at a BigLaw firm. For a person that wants to be at a smaller or medium sized firm, FL will get you to that goal a lot cheaper than NYU would.

With all of that said, I think Bob is right that after the top five programs or so, the rankings stop mattering nearly as much. It's not that those might not be excellent programs, but their placement for LL.M's is very regional. For instance, I'm pretty familiar with SMU's program and I know that almost all of the people I know who went there for an LL.M. end up in the Dallas area. If I want to go to a Dallas firm with an LL.M. from Miami, I could argue all I want that my school was ranked higher, but in Dallas the SMU degree will usually carry me further because of the connections you will have made. Likewise, in Florida, an SMU degree will mean much less than a Miami degree.

Yes, but that's not what Bob was saying. He was saying that only NYU matters, and the rest are worthless. Of course, his opinion on this matter is pretty questionable, given that fact that he doesn't even have an LL.M. yet. The people to talk to are those that have theirs and are currently working, or those in the process of getting it right now. I want to end up in Texas or in Georgia/Florida. I didn't have the good fortune that many here did of having anyone other than myself pay for a single penny of ANY of my education-college or law school, so my loan debt is already a hefty amount. I don't want to end up in NY or DC, but if I did, of course I'd think that NYU or Gtown would be the best options. However, I don't, and that makes UF a very good option for me, and there's a chance that I may be able to get in-state tutition at UF as well, making it less than half of what Gtown or NYU costs. Under my circumstances, that would seem to be the optimal choice. As far as prestigious credentials being important in the legal profession-there's no doubt that's true. However, I think what many of us have to get out of our heads (I did too) is that while in speaking of law schools in general, there's no doubt that Georgetown and NYU are more nationally-recognized than The University of Florida. However, that's NOT the case in the Tax field. If you're goal is to work at a tax firm, who are you going to be trying to impress? Partners who are in the Tax groups at their firms. It's their opinions that matter, and in tax law, they know that UF (and Georgetown) are very good. While there's no doubt that NYU's the top dog, the difference in price, especially for someone who wants to end up where I do (in Texas or in Georgia/Florida), the extra cost of NYU might not be worth it.

I concede that my original post on the topic was a little bit on the obnoxious side. I'm sorry.

Most tax LLMs are going to go into the area of international tax law because it's the most complicated so it's the area where there is the most need for people with advanced tax education. You don't need an LLM to do someone's 1040 form. (I did mine on using Tax Cut this year--boy was that easier than filling it out by hand.)

The one U.S. city which is the center for international commerce is New York City. More Fortune 500 companies are based in New York than any other city in the U.S.:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/cities/

Independent of that, New York City is also known as the nation's financial and legal capital. Fortune 500 companies based outside of NYC will often use law firms in NYC because they think they need the best firms to do their most complex legal work. (Whether or not the NYC firms truly are the best is a different story. I suspect that a sheeplike follow-the-herd mentality causes companies to overlook the quality local talent.)

For this reason, an LLM's reputation in New York City is probably the most important thing when it comes to getting a job in tax law.

Now I know that the same link above shows that Texas, surprisingly, has the second largest concentration of Fortune 500 headquarters outside of NY, so therefore Texas would have a decent sized market for tax lawyers. Maybe the degree from Florida has some pull there, I don't know. But it seems risky to me. NYU has the weight of the high prestige of its JD program to pull up the LLM, Florida doesn't have that.

Florida is also isolated from employers. A firm from NYC could be too lazy to fly people down to Florida to do interviews, and too cheap to pay for the Florida students to fly to New York. But it's easy to interview prospective associate attorneys from NYU. Florida is not especially close to Texas either, so wouldn't, by geography, have an obvious advantage in the Texas job market.

NYC is also only a short Amtrak ride to DC, another center for tax law because the IRS is headquartered there.

bob_d:

You do understand that there are a lot of good law firms located in Florida and Texas don't you? NYC isn't the only city worth working in, or the only place where "real" tax work is. I think you have an inflated sense of NYC, and I suspect that you're from the north or the east coast. You need to understand that the vast majority of people DON'T think that way.

setho:

it is true NYU will notify you as late as june. last year, someone from my school (who is graduating GT LLM this year) didn't hear from NYU until June (admitted).

So I went to the open house at gtown for those accepted to the LLM program and the general consensus of the faculty who were present was that unless you want to practice in the south then you shouldnt go to Florida. They were also very honest and recognized that choosing NYU over any school is never a foolish decision.

Also speaking to one student there, in his experience he applied to NYU last year and was not rejected until early June. I really hope that doesnt happen to me!!

Hey Bob-D

dont quote things i say and then make obnoxious remarks about them.. thanks

Your finding an insult where none was intended.

Would everyone here please stop being so uptight?

Alright so it looks like we have gotten a little off topic here. Lets get back to talking about NYU. Everytime you hear something about the school keep us all in the loop. I called them last week to ask about the status of my application, so I dont plan on calling this week, but maybe next week.

How about the rest of you?

I think my application is too strong to be in the auto-reject category, so either I will hear soon that I've been accepted, or they will hold my application for more thorough review, which means not hearing until June.

This sucks for me because I need to make decisions based on whether i get accepted --- like take the bar exam in the state where I would like to practice tax law.

What are your stats like bob_d?

Alright it seems like things have died down here as none of us has heard anything from NYU recently. Please remember to post here if you hear anything.

Any news?

Nothing on my end of things. I have a feeling I am going to be waiting until June. I really wish I'd hear soon because my next deposit at G-town is due soon.

It took less than 30 days from the time my application was complete to the time my acceptance letter was mailed out.

The admitted students website didn't help. I couldn't log on until a few days after the postmark on my acceptance letter.

I called admissions the other day just to yet again check on the status of my application, and the man I spoke to said that NYU has not given out any decisions for the tax program. Didn't some people say they already got theirs for fall 2007 for LLM in Tax?

I think the guy was kinda clueless.