I'm a 3L at a 4th tier applying to NYU, GU, FLA, NW, and maybe a few further down the line (DU, Miami, San Diego). Stats are as follows: 3.3 gpa (around 35%), A in Corp. tax and A- in Income tax, internship at gov't agency dealing with property tax. Any input regarding acceptance, or recommendations of any sort, would be appreciated. Thanks.

Admissions in good schools should depened a lot upon your GPA, work experience, and recommendations. If you intend practicing law in USA, it is rather better to join law practice than LL.M; even otherwise, for LL.M in USA every school prefer a candidate with some work experience;

Based solely on your class rank and the tier of the school you are coming from I would say the top 3 schools are a stretch. As for the rest of the LLM programs well I am not certain but you could probably get into one of them. Do you have any work experience aside from the internship? Are you on law review or journal? How are your recommendations? All of these things can help though I do think the top 3 schools may be closed off to you. Be sure to do very well on finals this month!

I clerked for a private firm and externed at the local states attorneys office. Unfortunately, I'm not on law review, but I have a couple great recommendations (at least I believe they are great). Responding to nriattorney, are you referring to full time work experience post JD completion? Not sure myself, but I've found most LLM programs, particular tax programs, accept students immediately upon completion of their JD. Thank you for the time spent on your response.

Yeah I dont think that work experience will make much of a difference for the top 3 schools though as I am sure you have read at taxtalent things may be different at UF. As for NYU, I am sorry to say your chances are probably pretty slim. Most of the tier 4 people here did very well in law school or had lots of experience before they got here.

With regard to recommendations, I think it matters more who the recommendation is from rather than what it says. Recommendations are self selected by applicants so it is obvious that you are going to pick someone who is going to write good things about you. If the person writing the recommendation is well known in the tax community or at least by people at NYU that will carry a lot more weight when something nice is written. Then again some people dont think when they ask for recommendations and end up getting less than spectacular ones so be sure to pick someone you know likes you!

I would absolutely agree with you regarding my chances at NYU, fortunately I have no desire to attend. Sure its regarded as the best, and part of me wants to know whether I would be accepted, but I have greater interest in other schools. To clarify, I meant who is writing the letters, not what the letters of rec. actually say (does anyone see the flaw here). Thanks for your reponse...looking for opinions everywhere, as you already know.