Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone frequenting this board could give me a reasonable, well informed opinion of my chances of being admitted to an LLM program in some lower T10-T14 US law schools. I am writing from Portugal.

My attributes:
- GPA of 16 out of 20. I was in the top 10 of my class but I think I was not part of the top 10 percentile (I'm pretty sure that the number of peopel graduating in my year was under 100). This was the equivalent to a JD in the USA or a BCL in UK.
- Will finish a Master degree in Law and Business in the most prestigious school in the country with a similar GPA (15 or 16). I will be required to write a thesis for completion of this degree.
- I already have a job offer for one of the most prestigious Law firms in Europe (and the best paying one for 1st year associates in my country). This will guarantee me at least 2 years of high level work experience.
- I won a moot court competition during my first degree (local) and was prized the "Best Speaker".
- I did a summer internship in a nice law firm (before I finished my first degree).
- Ielts score of 8 out of 9.0
- I did volunteer work abroad - stayed in Africa for 2 months teaching a short course in a University in Mozambique.
- Will probably get a couple of nice letters of recommendation.

I think I probably do not have much chances of getting into Yale / harvard / Columbia / Stanford due to the percentiles ( I will probably apply to one or two of those anyway).

As such, I was wondering if I could get into:
- Chicago
- Penn
- Michigan
- Virginia
- Duke
- Northwestern
- Berkley
- Maybe even NYU if i'm lucky, what the heck.

What do you guys think of my chances? And what are your opinions on the second group of schools?

Thank you.

JM

You have an excellent chance to gain admission at Duke and Northwestern, I believe. You may also want to look at
Washington U in St. Louis, Missouri.

You seem to have the typical big-lawfirm lawyer resume, but with some interesting extras, I must point out.

As regards selectivity, there are 3 levels of schools you can seek admission (on realistic basis):

1. Columbia / Chicago
2. NYU / Berkeley / Penn / Michigan
3. Virginia / Duke / Northwestern

I agree with OK_Computer that you have great chances of being admited to the schools at the 3rd level. But I also think you have chances at all of the 2nd level, and you might get into some of the 1st with some luck.

Thank you for answering (both of you).

Chicago or CLS would be perfect. I also tought NYU was as difficult of getting into as CLS or say Chicago.

What would you say are the best choices in the 2nd and 3rd group?

JM

to speak frankly: it's a lottery. buy a ticket and try it. :) that's because admissions process is very arbitrary. i think, you have (with more or less luck) chances in all of the mentioned law schools.

You're welcome.

Chicago has an LLM class of 65, with 750 applications for it: "gross" selectivity = 8,6%

Columbia has a class of 230, with 1700 applications for it: gross selectivity = 13,5%

NYU has a class of 425 LLMs, with some 2500 applications for it: gross selectivity = 17%
(note: I could never find info that discriminated the 150 Americans doing the tax LLM and its applications from the intl applicants to the +/-250 places for them. But still...) What's very hard at NYU is to get a scholarship (only 25-30 of those)!

Keep in mind that this is "gross" selectivity (i.e. doesn't take into account people rejecting the offer) and so the appropriate figure would have to take into account how many people they end up admitting to fill in the seats (people that reject their offer + people that accept it). Anyway, this info is impossible to get... the best proxy would be some sort of prestige/ranking position of the school: the higher ranked, the less people reject an offer and so the more close the "gross selectivity" figure is to the "actual selectivity" figure (which are the cases of Yale [7%] and Harvard [9%], where very few people reject the offers).

Second question (which is the best on each group):
There is no answer to that, they are all very similar, don't let the rankings fool you here: I just grouped them regarding selectivity, some may say that one in group 2 is better than all of the ones in group 1.
I'd go for the play safe strategy: as cristiano ronaldo wrote, apply to them all and then choose among real options.
Good luck.

send your application and you'll know. that's the only way.

Koolgze,

I am Portuguese as well. Will enroll this fall.

I think you definitely have good chances. Let me know if you need any help.

Thank you VERT and congratulations for your admission.