Uni of Sheffield vs Aston for Law (LL.B)

hi i am a Sheffield law student and i would definitely recommend the llb at Sheffield. we are a Russell group which can be important if you are targeting commercial firms and also are visited by the likes of Slaughter and May, Freshfields, Clifford Chance and many more law firms at the law fair and in general on campus presentations. The law school is well respected, old and many old partners of law firms attended Sheffield in addition to Sheffield producing quite a few barristers over the years. in contrast, the LLB at Aston is relatively new, and i dont think there is much information on employability as they haven't had a cohort graduate yet. We recently had a partner come in from HSF who was a former student in the law school at Sheffield come in to present to us, he was keen to strengthen links between the uni and HSF. the 2 trainees accompanying him were also from sheffield, and RPC presented to us recently, which saw 2 of the former students, who did not study law, now associates, sing their praises to us. Norton Rose are also running an exclusive open day for first year students. there really is loads to do in sheffield in addition to the ed bram law society being very well respected and running a number of great career related events, in addition to barcrawls and other non law related activities. Recruiters know Sheffield, and whilst many of the students prefer training in regional firms and staying in the city, more and more ae gravitating towards the city, and the new strategy at sheffield law school is apparently going to make it much more attractive, with them wanting to have their law school more like a top 5 department, which is very ambitious but shows the positive thinking prevalent at the uni

Aston's strengths are mainly with its business school. I believe law at Aston is a newly introduced subject so that;s something to take into consideration. Sheffield would be the better option for law.

Thanks for that it was really helpful. I do prefer Sheffield as it is a very high rated university and also a redbrick. But my concern was just with the employability but i think your answer has put my mind at ease knowing that Sheffield is well respected by employers.

If you dont mind would you also be able to tell me what your timetable was like for 1st year? In terms of things like hours in lectures or seminars etc.. that would be great thanks again for the information.

Sheffield is the clear winner amongst those two. A thing to consider is that Sheffield would take you with AAB (and probably ABB) in all honesty, so it's at the bottom end of the AAA LLB courses. Certainly consider other universities and best of luck with Durham.

Oh really? From what i have heard from previous students they are apparently quite strict regarding their grades however i couldn`t not see them accepting people come results day with AAB however if they are dropping their standards to ABB that is quite a concern or is it just normal for universities to do this?

No worries on the employability front I forgot to mention that Addleshaw Goddard recruited most of its trainees from Sheffield last year aswell. I have just completed my first semester at the law school and had 10 hours of lectures and seminars each week, with the seminars alternating and happening every other week so for example contract law there would be a 2 week break between seminars but in the week between I would have a criminal law seminar. The seminars are 2 hours and the first sees you discuss things with your group and answer the problem questions if you haven't already, with the second hour more formal and discussions with the lecturer. While 10 hours may seem like a small amount, there is a lot to cover and you are expected to do wider reading and your days can go quickly when you've got lots to do, too quickly! For the semester I've just done I had something on everyday apart from Wednesday, which everyone has off due to sport social day occurring. For the upcoming semester, my Monday and Tuesday will be jam packed, which is unusual for a law student (in my experience!) and my Wednesday Thursday and Friday will be entirely free (except for every other week in which I will have a seminar on Friday) however I will still need to work despite having what is essentially a 5 day weekend. That term goes from February 8th to March 19th in which I will have 3 weeks holiday, bringing me back to sheffiekd on the 11th April. My exams will be sometime in May I expect, and even though the official end of term date is 11 June, you can go after your exams, so this second half of the academic year will fly by I expect, especially nearer exam time

The timetable and contact hours actually sound perfect as they will give me enough time to do extra reading and make sure I revise what was said in the lectures...

Maybe a stupid question.. however do timetables at Sheffield change drastically? Or would you say they would be the same if not very similar next year? As the timetable you have currently is very balanced.

I think they stay very stable in regards to hours, as I can only imagine the level of independent study required will increase, in addition to more sophisticated scenarios and assignments plus the lecturers have research commitments and other years to teach aswell. The degre at Sheffield is also more flexible than others, as whilst you have to do core modules in first and second year, there are some modules in second year which you can choose and in third year you choose every single modules you want to study

hi i am a Sheffield law student and i would definitely recommend the llb at Sheffield. we are a Russell group which can be important if you are targeting commercial firms and also are visited by the likes of Slaughter and May, Freshfields, Clifford Chance and many more law firms at the law fair and in general on campus presentations. The law school is well respected, old and many old partners of law firms attended Sheffield in addition to Sheffield producing quite a few barristers over the years. in contrast, the LLB at Aston is relatively new, and i dont think there is much information on employability as they haven't had a cohort graduate yet. We recently had a partner come in from HSF who was a former student in the law school at Sheffield come in to present to us, he was keen to strengthen links between the uni and HSF. the 2 trainees accompanying him were also from sheffield, and RPC presented to us recently, which saw 2 of the former students, who did not study law, now associates, sing their praises to us. Norton Rose are also running an exclusive open day for first year students. there really is loads to do in sheffield in addition to the ed bram law society being very well respected and running a number of great career related events, in addition to barcrawls and other non law related activities. Recruiters know Sheffield, and whilst many of the students prefer training in regional firms and staying in the city, more and more ae gravitating towards the city, and the new strategy at sheffield law school is apparently going to make it much more attractive, with them wanting to have their law school more like a top 5 department, which is very ambitious but shows the positive thinking prevalent at the uni

I echo this post, Sheffield is in the Russell Group and therefore puts you in good stead when applying to Law firms, especially if you wish to apply to top city/Magic Circle Law firms. With the grades you are predicted you would be silly to pick Aston over Sheffield. That is no disrespect to Aston, but for Law it is so important to go to Oxbridge or a Russell Group uni e.g Sheffield as it fiercely competitive to get a TC/pupillage. Despite what people may say that you get anywhere if you work hard enough, in Law where you attended for university will certainly be taken into account.

Thanks I was actually completely oblivious to Sheffield's reputability until i had a good look around the website and found they are linked with some of the biggest MC firms. Looking back i feel rather stupid in even comparing the two as there is no comparison. (No disrespect to any Aston students)

No worries! Yeah Sheffield have produced a fair few QCs as well and are well known to the MC firms. As further info, here is a good guide from the legal website Chambers student. Sheffield does do reasonably well in it

http://www.chambersstudent.co.uk/media/1067/what_is_a_good_university.pdf

I will be doing Law at Manchester (an RG uni) as of September

I will have a read of that, looks like a good read so thanks again!!

And it was either Manchester or Sheffield for me Best of luck with your A-level results hope you get what you need!!

Its not the be all and end all but a good guide and indication! Thanks but I have already done my A levels on a year out at the moment so when I applied got an unconditional best of luck with yours!