What can hopeful Law students do to improve there chances?

Should they do things like pre law courses (like the one UCL provides)

Should they try and get work experience or volunteer?

What can they do to make their applications to university look better?

Is there anything like MedLink for Law?

So many questions...

Firstly, *their chances, and don't say 'basically'...
The primary things for getting a place are A-level results, so make sure you concentrate on that to get the grades you need, also your personal statement, make sure it's strong and doesn't have any errors in it!
Make sure you have lots to write about, so yes, experience would be helpful, so would the pre Law courses, if you can get onto one, also, see if you can find a reading list, and do some relevant reading that you could write about

No.



It's nice, but completely unnecessary, it won't get you brownie points.



Good grades, unpretentious and solid personal statement, related extracurricular activities (won't help much with the application, but should really be there anyway).



If there is, it's really not worth doing.



Fire away.

I'm confused, i thought i spelt it right and i forgot i wasn't allowed to say certain words on a student forum.

I will definitely do the extra reading, but the poster below you seems to disagree on the pre law courses, but i guess it won't hurt to do more law orientated things.
Thank you for the advice!

What would you class as a law related extracurricular activity? Also, you seem to know a lot about Law, may i ask what you suggest is a good combination of a-level subjects for Law? I'm thinking of doing History, Phil&Ethics, English Lit, and one science/economics. Also, should i carry 4 subjects onto A2 or drop to 3? Thank you.

So basically, i was just thinking about how medicine hopefuls have loads of stuff going on to help them prepare like MedLink and i was wondering why us law hopefuls don't have something like MedLink...hmm.
Anyway,
What can future law students do to increase their chances of reading Law?
Should they do things like pre law courses (like the one UCL provides)
Should they try and get work experience or volunteer?
What can they do to make their applications to university look better?
Is there anything like MedLink for Law?

So many questions...

Hi
I'm not actually studying law yet but I am in the process of applying to university to study it.

I'll just pass on the different things that admissions tutors from the universities I am planning to apply to have said, and I'll give you a vaugue idea of what I have been doing in an attempt to build a strong application.
At the various law talks I have been to the thing that really struck me about what admissions tutors were looking for was that they are interested, primarily, in your grades. A strong set of GCSE results and AS level results are the first thing that they look for in an applicant. Strong AS results are more important than GCSEs for most universities, but if you are thinking about Oxford then they really concentrate on the GCSEs.

The other thing that I have gleaned on my travels to law schools around the country is that the people who look at your application are looking why you want to study law, not why you want to be a lawyer. Whilst writing my personal statement this summer I've tried to link all of my experiences as to: a) why I have the necessary skills to study law; and b) why my experiences have made me want to study law.

Remember also, alot of the universities use the LNAT (i.e. most of the redbricks) so getting a good score on that is also key to being noticed.
I think that the personal statement is more important for some universities then it is for others. Some have really said that they do give it a considerable weighting whilst others don't as they can't prove that you have written it.

I have actually attended some of the pre-law courses, if I'm honest, I don't think that attending one will really make any difference to your application but they are certainly useful in regard to determining whether you want to study law. I attended the Cambridge Sixth Form Law Conference and the UNIQ course in law. Both of these were residentials and they were great experiences in regard to learning about law (and what an amazing subject it is) and of course meeting some great people. The Cambridge Conference is open to anybody (the UNIQ course is selective) but I wuld certainly recommend them to anyone thinking about studying law. Alternatively, there are a few one day pre-law courses (I attended one at UCL) these can be interesting to.

In regard to work experience, I've just finished a week with a solicitors firm. Again, it's not key to any application- after all it's very difficult to find legal work experience, but the general consensus amongst the admissions tutors I talked to is that it certainly wouldn't harm an application to put it down on your personal statement. I've done some experience with the courts; two solicitors firms (one major, one smaller) and I'm going to do some with a barrister's chambers in October. Work experience for me has been more about sussing out potential careers, rather than applying to university, and from that point of view it has been interesting.

Debating is something that is very popular on an application form, all the admissions tutors said that they like to see that. I think it's because it really hones your argument skills, which of course are key when studying law. Fortunately for me, I actually run my schools debating society but if you have one at your school (or public speaking) then you should definitely go along. If you don't, why don't you think about setting one up?

In regard to A Levels awesome choices - I picked exactly the same: History, English Lit, Philosophy, (and my science) Chemistry. I'm actually going to drop chemistry next year, because the feed abck I've been given from universities is that they'd prefer 3 excellent A Levels rather than 4 very good.

Sorry for the really long response ( I hope it's helped) and for those of you who are studying/have studied law feel free to correct me if you disagree with any of my points.

Okay, I'm going to say this once: by and large, extra-curricular don't matter a jot. I used to think they were a big deal too, but trust me, as long as you've got some stuff to put down (an instrument, DofE etc.), then you'll be fine, just something to show you do something extra.

History, English Lit, Philosophy sounds good, I'd go for Maths personally (although you absolutely don't need to), but any science or Economics would be fine, do something you think would be interesting for that fourth subject, any academic subject would be fine.

Personally, I think dropping a subject for A2 is slightly weak, but it certainly doesn't seem to hinder your application, and carrying a fourth subject on doesn't seem to help. But it'll be down to you, you've got loads of time and you'll have a better idea of what you want to do later.

I gave you rep for this, because it was unbelievably helpful!

Thank you

So basically, i was just thinking about how medicine hopefuls have loads of stuff going on to help them prepare like MedLink and i was wondering why us law hopefuls don't have something like MedLink...hmm.
Anyway,
What can future law students do to increase their chances of reading Law?
Should they do things like pre law courses (like the one UCL provides)
Should they try and get work experience or volunteer?
What can they do to make their applications to university look better?
Is there anything like MedLink for Law?

So many questions...

Hiya, I've flagged this up elsewhere but in case you hadn't seen, the Guardian's law site are running a Q&A here, which allows people who are thinking of doing a law degree to ask questions to current students, recent law grads who are now doing pupillage and lecturers at Birmingham and Lancaster law schools.