Columbia Law School’s LLM is one of the more popular US LLM options when it comes to the Indian law graduate. Known for its strong faculty across practice areas, the LLM is also aided by it’s “general” nature, allowing candidates to pick and choose their courses.
Having said that, with estimated cost of attendance that crosses one hundred thousand dollars, and a highly competitive admissions process, this law school may not be for everyone.
In this FPA Compilation, we look at seven LLM graduates from Columbia Law School, and find out what made them choose this particular law school.
Who: Dhruv Suri
Why the Columbia LLM?
“One key factor for me was to pick a university that had active alumni. I was clear that the real value of a LLM degree cannot be absorbed during the 9 months on campus but over the rest of your legal (and sometimes even non-legal) career.”
Who: Tara Ollapally
Why the Columbia LLM?
“I was lucky enough to get the human rights fellowship at Columbia Law School. So again I was fully focused on human rights for that one-year program.
Before the LLM, I was ingrained in domestic issues. [After the LLM] I switched to the international practice of human rights law which was very exciting.”
Who: Pallavi Railkar
Why the Columbia LLM?
“….the vast resources that Columbia offered in terms of faculty, courses, advantage of being in NYC. Columbia is a much bigger brand [than Upenn] and is extremely resourceful in every field that it offers.
This is how I narrowed down on Columbia.”
Who: Hiresh Choudhary
Why the Columbia LLM?
“The compact size of the university also means that it is easy to take courses with other departments which are just a few steps away.
It also has a course exchange with NYU where some courses are offered by both law schools to students of the other one. For me, this flexibility was quite attractive.”
Who: Aaina Duggal
Why the Columbia LLM?
“I applied to several law schools based on their locations and courses.
Subsequently, once I was admitted to a few, I researched the courses more deeply, and found Columbia most exciting.”
Who: Mrinali Menon
Why the Columbia LLM?
“….my reason to pursue Columbia Law was bolstered with my desire to get a General LL.M.
While my other admitted schools provided me the opportunity to specialize in Intellectual Property, I chose Columbia as it provided me the option to handpick my subjects..”
Who: Namrata Shah
Why the Columbia LLM?
“I had the impression…that US schools encourage out of the box thinking and have classes that mix different streams (Columbia used to have a brilliant class on Law and Literature). I also expected to improve my academic research and writing skills……I chose Columbia because of the location, the smaller class size, the courses, and specific professors I wanted to learn from.
Lead image from Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
