A Level choices/Universities for Law

Hi everyone. I'm hoping to read Law at either Lancaster, Kent, or Exeter after A Levels, and was wondering your opinion on either of these Unis - any experience; personal opinions; etc.

Also, if the following A LEvel options are good for the Unis and Law, in general:
AS: Business, Economics, Government and Politics, and Law. I know it's controversial to do Law for A Level, before a Law degree, but Psychology is my only other choice that'd I'd do happily.
A2: Business, Economics and Gov + Pol.

Any advice/tips would be great! Thanks in advance!

Is there an unwritten rule that we need humanities for law? I've done 4 sciences


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Hi everyone. I'm hoping to read Law at either Lancaster, Kent, or Exeter after A Levels, and was wondering your opinion on either of these Unis - any experience; personal opinions; etc.

Also, if the following A LEvel options are good for the Unis and Law, in general:
AS: Business, Economics, Government and Politics, and Law. I know it's controversial to do Law for A Level, before a Law degree, but Psychology is my only other choice that'd I'd do happily.
A2: Business, Economics and Gov + Pol.

Any advice/tips would be great! Thanks in advance!

1) try getting into the Russell Group of Universities for law.

2) the people who will chide and chastise you for wanting to do A-level law are busy at the oxbridge section of the forum so you don't have to worry - for now

1) try getting into the Russell Group of Universities for law.

2) the people who will chide and chastise you for wanting to do A-level law are busy at the oxbridge section of the forum so you don't have to worry - for now

3) why don't you read the main textbook for each subject first and see if you like one more than the other?
go to your exam board's website and they'll provide a list of recommended books for each subject.
you can go onto google books and read a sample of it.

also look at the specifications of each subject and the past year exam questions.
so you know what you're getting yourself into.

have fun.

Having an essay subject helps, I think law and Gov & pol count as essay subjects.

tbh these combinations of A-levels are not very strong, it's not entirely necessary but it would be better to include at least one top tier facilitating subject; econ and gov & pol are 2nd tier, so they're ok, but combining them with business isn't the strongest combination.

If the OP wants to get into a Russell Group uni - of which Exeter is one - (not necessary for law career, although I agree it might help in some areas of law that are more competitive), they would likely need a stronger combination of A-levels as competition is higher and RG unis like to see 1 or 2 of eng lit, history, geography, sciences (bio, chem, physics), maths or languages.

The position of most unis regarding law is that it doesn't give you either an advantage or a disadvantage. It's only a problem if your other subjects aren't strong.

Thank you for the advice.

You think? I've opted to do Business 1) Because it was, pretty much, a guaranteed A* (despite A prediction) for GCSE, and I've been told if I do the same for A Level, it'll be at least an A. (Basically, as a good grade subject.) 2) Because I just enjoy the subject.

I'm thinking of an RG uni, but I'm not too bothered (prepare the gallows). Of course, I'd love to go, but between Lancaster and Exeter (abolished the idea of Kent), Exeter being a RG wouldn't make me go there, if I preferred Lancs. If that makes any sense?

I was thinking of doing History, but the AS course doesn't appeal to me, in the slightest. A2 is right up my street, but I've got my heart on doing the aforesaid for A2, simply because I am really interested in them, and will work solidly to achieve in them (happened with GCSE Business coursework - 14 days, surviving on 30 mins to 2 hours sleep a night, to get it finished - because I enjoyed the work!). But, I can't do A2 without having dragged my way through AS.
For the record, I got a B in GCSE History. And an A* in Business.

Thanks for the advice. I agree - which is why Exeter is one of the top 2, as it's a Russell Group.

I've had a look, and I think it'll be Law, over Psychology. There just seems to be more substance to the subject, and substance that appeals to me more.

Thanks, again!

It's not entirely necessary to do facilitating subjects, especially if you don't think you will do well at them. Being interested in them can be an important part of doing well at them (although it doesn't have to be, but that makes it a slog, I didn't really like maths that much ). An A in Business is still worth more than a B in history!

tbh the whole RG vs non-RG unis thing has no real impact on your student experience, education or value of your degree at the end. There are plenty of good unis with good reputations for teaching quality that are not part of the RG (I'm at one of them! We're not NUS either due to the huge fees, we're real renegades!). To be RG a uni just has to be a member of the organisation, this means that they meet certain standards for research and teaching as judged by the RG council; but that doesn't mean that all non-RG unis aren't just as good, just that they haven't joined. It does make it more difficult to tell which of the non-RG unis have excellent teaching/research etc - RG is like a brand label which makes it nice and clear!

It's more important that you like the course, the teaching, the atmosphere, etc. than just that you chose it because it was RG - if you prefer Lancs then go for it .
Most employers won't be that bothered, it's not like they keep a list of RG unis and throw out your CV if you didn't go to one! It's far more impressive if you get a 1st class degree, lots of work experience, and show real potential & enthusiasm (without sounding cringe-worthy in your CV). I sometimes have to sort CVs at the law firm I temp at, I once was told to put in the shredding pile a CV from someone with a 2.1 from cambridge in geography who'd just passed the GDL - I believe the phrase used was "she doesn't sound like she lives in the real world" - the whole CV just full of her grades and school and uni activities, all fluff and no substance. Just goes to show that the uni you went to doesn't guarantee anything, it's can help but only if you have talent and drive and come across as grounded and the kind of person who can just get on with their job and do it well.

Having studied for 2 years at Lancaster and about to go into my 3rd year at Exeter I have one piece of advice to give you.

For the love of god avoid going to Lancaster.

Economics tier 2 subject..... lol. Please.

FYI Law would be fine as an A2 subject, providing you have suitable subjects alongside it such as your economics and politics.

Bit of tip with Economics: work your freaking ass off in AS. A2 is hell compared to it.

Why? What's wrong with Lancaster? I've heard lots of great things about it! What course were you doing there?

Ok.

Are you saying to work solidly in AS, to then go into A2, with it being even harder, despite having worked hard for it?
(When you've just previously mocked it?)

The University management are far too willing to make a promise to the students that they will do one thing and then completely ignore their own promises.

The college system, while it seems great at first glance, can be dreadful depending on which college you get. If you get stuck in Cartmel then you are essentially in a college that is as far away from the rest of campus as it's possible to get, with a bar that is always empty and about as exciting as a crematorium and is increasingly being used as a dumping ground for foreign, mainly asian, students who for the most part will only socialise within their own nationality.

The campus itself is pretty damn dull with nothing to do.

The city is pretty damn dull with bugger all to do.

If you want to go to any bigger cities (not including Preston because that is an absolute dump) you're looking at about 90 minutes on a coach or over an hour by train, meaning that spontaneous trips are pretty much out of the question due to the cost of tickets at short notice, and even planning it well in advance is costly.

I personally was studying Maths with a minor in Engineering, but my closest friends were split between Law, Business, Economics, French and English and not one of us had more than one or two good lecturers, the vast majority of them were either pretty bad or downright dreadful.

The University is hugely elitist with the way that it handles funding for societies and sports clubs. I played Lacrosse when I was there, and the team was OK the year before I joined but the entire team except 3 players graduated at the end of that season. So as a result we had a squad comprised almost entirely of brand new players, and were in a league against some of the best teams in the North of England, so obviously we didn't stand a chance. After our first few matches the University saw that we lost all of them pretty heavily and so cut every single penny of our funding. So instead of us being able to have a proper coach come in twice a week to help us new players improve and give us a chance of competing as the season went on the club suddenly had no money at all and so the progress we were making virtually stopped and we continued to get thumped every single week. Basically the University screwed us over at the first chance they got.

Going back to the city, if you enjoy a good night out then forget it. There are virtually no clubs, what clubs there are are dreadful, and it's so quiet that on any given night you pretty much have only one place that will be even vaguely busy, so you end up going to the same places on the same nights every single week and after a few weeks it is incredibly boring.

Want me to go on?

??? Whos mocking.... I bloody did economics. Maybe it wasnt too obvious.... But anyways, Economics is a very good subject to take and definitely not a tier 2 like what the other dude said.

I mean work hard for AS because UMS is MUCH MUCH easier to gather compared to the A2 exams, which is a lot more constrained and has higher grade boundaries