Difficulty of Course - Oxford BCL v Cambridge LLM

Hi all,

I hope you guys have had a fruitful application season so far.

I am considering applying for the BCL as I have already applied to Cantab for their LLM, and I figured it wouldn't hurt.

I have read online (as you do in rabbit holes of LLM discussions) that the BCL is a far more difficult course than the LLM. Could any current students or alums, or perhaps even those who know students, shed some light on this, and if so, why is this the case?

For context, in a bizarre world where I receive offers from both, I would strongly lean towards Cambridge. However, a stricter course might somehow sway me towards Oxford.

Many thanks!

Reply 1

thegeek888

18

They both choose 1st class degrees and it's usually from Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, UCL, KCL, QMUL, City, SOAS, Bristol, Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds and then there are American, European, Australian and South American degree holders with the best work placement experiences and grades?! 😧

So you should also consider LSE, UCL and KCL.

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous #1

Hi all,

I hope you guys have had a fruitful application season so far.

I am considering applying for the BCL as I have already applied to Cantab for their LLM, and I figured it wouldn't hurt.

I have read online (as you do in rabbit holes of LLM discussions) that the BCL is a far more difficult course than the LLM. Could any current students or alums, or perhaps even those who know students, shed some light on this, and if so, why is this the case?

For context, in a bizarre world where I receive offers from both, I would strongly lean towards Cambridge. However, a stricter course might somehow sway me towards Oxford.

Many thanks!

Are you applying for next year, since the Oxbridge applications have been closed ?

Reply 3

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous #1

Hi all,

I hope you guys have had a fruitful application season so far.

I am considering applying for the BCL as I have already applied to Cantab for their LLM, and I figured it wouldn't hurt.

I have read online (as you do in rabbit holes of LLM discussions) that the BCL is a far more difficult course than the LLM. Could any current students or alums, or perhaps even those who know students, shed some light on this, and if so, why is this the case?

For context, in a bizarre world where I receive offers from both, I would strongly lean towards Cambridge. However, a stricter course might somehow sway me towards Oxford.

Many thanks!

Also I’m pretty sure you can’t apply to both !

Reply 4

The_Lonely_Goatherd

20

Original post by Anonymous #2

Also I’m pretty sure you can’t apply to both !

BCL at Oxford is a postgrad degree (the undergrad is BA Jurisprudence) :smile:

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by Anonymous #2

Are you applying for next year, since the Oxbridge applications have been closed ?

For 2024-25, yes.

Cambridge's LLM closed on 05/12/2023, but the Oxford applications are open till 19/01/2024; not sure if this is for all their courses or just the BCL/MJur.

Reply 6

mishieru07

12

Original post by Anonymous #1

Hi all,

I hope you guys have had a fruitful application season so far.

I am considering applying for the BCL as I have already applied to Cantab for their LLM, and I figured it wouldn't hurt.

I have read online (as you do in rabbit holes of LLM discussions) that the BCL is a far more difficult course than the LLM. Could any current students or alums, or perhaps even those who know students, shed some light on this, and if so, why is this the case?

For context, in a bizarre world where I receive offers from both, I would strongly lean towards Cambridge. However, a stricter course might somehow sway me towards Oxford.

Many thanks!

I did the BCL and BA Jurisprudence. In all honesty, I personally felt that the BA was much harder and the BCL really wasn't all that bad.

The BA has far more tutorials (and essays, which are required for each tutorial). There is nowhere to hide when you are one of 2-3 students in a tutorial. In contrast, most of the BCL teaching is in the form of seminars and there are very few tutorials (and essays), and you can slack off/ hide in the seminars by not contributing to the discussion if you wanted to.

BA Finals was also very brutal - I took 9 papers across 12 days, and 6 of those papers were back to back Monday to Saturday. In contrast, BCL only has 4 papers (1 of which can be a dissertation, in which case you have 3 exams), and they are spread out.

I also think that the difficulty of the BCL depends significantly on which papers you take. Some papers have a reputation for being more difficult whereas others are generally seen as soft options, and it's entirely up to you how many "difficult" papers you choose to take. The Vinerian scholar in my year took 4 papers which I would classify as "difficult" (restitution, conflict of laws, commercial remedies, legal concepts in financial law) and you definitely could too if you wanted to.

If I were you, I'd apply to the BCL because there's really no harm in doing so, and if you do get offers from both Oxford and Cambridge then that's a happy problem to have. The BCL seems to have a stronger reputation than the Cambridge LLM though, particularly for barristers.

Reply 7

baltojd

1

I've applied to both the Cambridge LLM and Oxford MSC Crim. I decided against the Oxford MJur because it didn't seem applicable to my career as an American lawyer and hopefully a US law professor one day. So, it was really more of a choice between what made sense for my career goals and what the educational experience and uni was going to offer. I have been accepted to Edinburgh LLM so far so I'm at least "in" somewhere and now just waiting for what my choices may be. I'd recommend applying to everything that makes sense so you can see what your options are. Good luck!

Difficulty of Course - Oxford BCL v Cambridge LLM

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