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Cambridge Law Students and Applicants

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The West Wing

Thanks for your help!

Ugh I wasn't told about this. When and where is it?

It's in the law faculty all day- there's a mini lecture about each subject telling you what they cover and so forth. Go to the civil II one by all means, but the course is very different as it focuses more on later law and civil law in modern society.

Reply 181

The West Wing

Thanks guys :smile:

I went, and I found International, Family, CSPS and Admin the most interesting. Civil II sounded like death.

This hasn't helped me make my decision, but I am still leaning towards Civil simply because it gives a bit of variety.

Reply 182

action5

I'm looking to read Law at Cambridge when I go to university.
I'm currently planning to do 4 A levels along with the Welsh Bacc (worth 120 UCAS points). As a state school student, I'm wondering if this is sufficient to set me out from the crowd.

Also, the subjects I'll be studying are History, French, Chemistry and Maths. I considered taking English Lit but there are some issues as well as the volume of work I'd be undertaking. Is is naive of me not to take such a staple suject when I come from such a humble background?

Reply 183

Brenna

Being at a state school should not be thought of as a disadvantage and your range of different types of subjects sounds acceptable for law. Just to what you would enjoy most - it will be your personal statement and interview that sets you apart not your A levels (obviously provided you do vaguely sensible ones!)

Reply 184

lekky

I have found English Lit a lot less work than Chemistry and Maths. Especially Chemistry was a lot of work to get a solid A. Just something you might want to consider.

Reply 185

writergirl

lekky

I have found English Lit a lot less work than Chemistry and Maths. Especially Chemistry was a lot of work to get a solid A. Just something you might want to consider.

I must agree.
it might take a lot of reading time and essay prep
but there's no learning really
unlike music which takes HOURSSSSSSS
consider your timing

Reply 186

Nouvelle vague

I think that taking too many subjects may jeopardise your grades overall because the subjects you've chosen are all very demanding. You should email the university law department (and possiblity other universities as well) for more professional advice to gain a more boarder perspective.

Reply 187

DJkG.1

They're great A-levels, very similar to the ones I am doing.

As others have said, they need to be intellectually demanding and you need to achieve highly in them all, or at the very least three, to be in with a good chance at a university like Cambridge. Coming from a state school won't be a disadvantage at all and may count in your favour if you've achieved highly at a school where the average achievement is significantly lower.

Reply 188

ily_em

It doesn't matter what A-levels you have for Law at Cambridge as long as they are "respected" ones, which yours are. You can't just do those though: read the Law Review, good newspapers, Law books etc - this makes you stand out and you should write about it in your personal statement, and it will help your interview as well.

Reply 189

englishstudent09

I'm currently at a state college and one of my friends has accepted an offer from cambridge to study law which is one of our A-Levels. As long as you do well in your selected a-levels you should be fine, I agree with ily_em, read some law books! You could buy an a-level law book, the ones by Jackie Martin are good! I would also read some good newspapers such as "The Times" and avoid reading sensationalised news often regurgitated by the news of the world and the daily star !! The best of Luck!

Reply 190

Takahashi

civil I is pathetically small compared to any of the part II or IB modules modules - it is not brilliantly interesting but if you are concerned about the workload then i would choose it. family is probably more interesting ( you don't need the background of civil really) but wll be comfortably double the workload over the year - so your choice :tongue:

Reply 191

swird

Posted this in the chat thread then realized I should have posted it here:
Any lawyers on here have an opinion on Legal History? I'm stuck between Legal History and Sentencing and the Penal System as my "soft" subject for second year. I've decided on Admin and International for the other two options, if that makes a difference. Thanks!

Reply 192

Tom Curr

Have sent you a PM, swird :smile:

Reply 193

The West Wing

I was just flicking through Trinity College, Oxford's website and I noticed this :rolleyes:

The Oxford undergraduate law course is the best in the world. This is due to the unrivalled quality of the teachers and the unique structure of the teaching. All twelve of the subjects studied during the course are principally taught through tutorials. In a tutorial, two or three students spend an hour discussing a particular topic with a tutor who is an expert in that topic. On average, an Oxford law undergraduate will have three tutorials every two weeks: no other university in the world offers this benefit

I'm pretty sure we get 5 tutorials every two weeks here...

Reply 194

Tom Curr

1 supervision per subject per fortnight, yeah (so certainly 5 supervisions per fortnight in the second year). But if I'm correctly informed, the Oxford course is set up differently: you have tutorials in any given paper only for one term (rather than the whole year round), and they are frequent within that term. I haven't worked out the implications for a comparison between the two universities' courses, but there probably are some ...

Reply 195

mwiko

Don't most colleges have a law library?

Reply 196

The West Wing

fumblewomble

mmm Clare definitely does but it's collection isn't renouned like Downing's. I'm not sure that most colleges do - e.g Caius, Emma etc don't to my knowledge. Certainly all colleges will have law books as part of their general library though.

We have one room for text books (basically everything on the reading list), and another for cases and statutes, all of which donated by Kurt Lipstein.

It's designed as a 'round table' type room for people to help each other, though most people find the room quite stuffy and don't work there.

Reply 197

mwiko

I just assumed that all colleges had one, I know Magd. does, Fitz does, Trinity does, Girton does etc, and I've never really heard differently.. or anything about Downing's collection.

Reply 198

Tom Curr

The Downing library is good on the law front, to be sure. That said, it doesn't stop you needing to make some trips to the Faculty library, e.g. for some of the European cases that come up in the Consti course. But yes, overall it's good.

Some very interesting analysis there re Churchill and its rather intense admissions policy. I've wondered for quite a while what results are produced by their (effectively) huge emphasis on the paper application.

Reply 199

rwj18

Hi,

i am starting year 11 and was just wondering what gcse grades are needed for law at cambridge and is there any extra curricular activities that would boost a law application?