Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

HELP: Law at Uni

Hi everyone :smile:

1st time poster! *waves*

found this site a few days ago when i was doing a bit of research and it seems pretty useful so thought i'd set up a topic to see what the response would be!

I'm currently a yr12 student studying the IB
Maths (H)
Chem (H)
Bio (H)
English (s)
French (s)
Economics (s)

my GCSE results were 9 A*'s and 3A's

I'm hoping to study Law at Uni and was wondering what are the best places to apply to and why!

i'm also goin to the cambridge law conference in a week and bit which i'm pretty excited about. Has anyone been, or is going?

thanx in advance
Dan

Reply 1

Darkmage

PS: is there anything I can do before I apply to increase my chances of success? what to admin tutors look for etc?

Dan

Reply 2

Lillith Grimore

I went to the law conference last year and had a great time. Even better I now have a place to study law at Catz!! Which college are you staying in? You'll have a great time. Watch out for duck rape and low flying lasers disguised as cucumbers though...

I think the big thing that's come out this year is how important it is to find yourself a univeristy that want less than AAA (or whatever the IB equivilent is) that you would be happy to go to. Quite a few people this year seem to be stuck with either nothing below AAA or a lower offer that they are reluctant to accept. I applied to Cambridge, Durham, Manchester, Nottingham, Warwick and UEA. I'd reccommend any except maybe Warwick (just a personal preference) - I don't even remember why I applied there now and they took 5 months for me to hear a single thing from them!

As for extra things...maybe mock trial if your school offers it (cos it's brilliant) and see if you could get some law-based work experience with a solicitors or something - it gives you something defiate to talk about rather than vague ideas about law and it shows you know what you're letting yourself into. I would reccommend reading 'Understanding the Law' by Geoffrey Rivlin (and if you have insomnia try 'Learning the Law' by Galinville Williams). Hope that helps a bit and good luck!!

Reply 3

emily87

Darkmage

PS: is there anything I can do before I apply to increase my chances of success? what to admin tutors look for etc?

Dan

the conference is great, have fun! hint: pay attention to the legal problems seminar if they do one, knowing how to approach those sorts of questions helped me a lot in interview! Id suggest you go and talk to tutors at any colleges u are thinking of, ask questions and answer questions in the seminars/lectures - if they remember you from the conf whilst they are making decisions it can only be good!

oh and Downing is great, and has good law tutors, and the students are great too (I think there will be some at this years conf). Downing is competitive for law, but you have excellent results so why not consider it?
(ok I'm biased, going 2006)

as far as other universities go, your GCSEs are better than mine (8A* 2A) so I'll just tell you where I got offers from and why i chose them..

(edit - oops, i forgot my firm choice!) Cambridge, Downing AAB- I love Downing. Brilliant college, 3 yrs accomm al (i think) on site, beautiful neoclassical architecture, amazing law tutors (i expect you will see Mr Virgo and maybe Mr Hopkins at the conf), all the students i met from there were lovely and often inspiringly brilliant. Cambridge generally (and Oxford) are pretty much top for law, though london univs are close IMO.

UCL AAA+AS pass- london - life there, links with law in london. generally brilliant university. my offer was for law with advanced studies which is law over 4 years, with the chance to do extra law modules or any other modules from the UoL, or a mixture!
LSE AAA- possibly even better rep than UCL for law, again london (really wanted to go there if i hadnt got Cam) All social sciences here, but that didnt bother me. Good location within london.
KCL AAB- even better location than LSE IMO, maybe not as good for law as LSE and UCL but i dont think there's much in it.
Nottingham - good law school, great campus. not sure about the city.
Warwick AAAc- highly regarded law school
to be honest, I only wanted any of my first 4 choices, but I put Notts and Warwick down because they are very good.

what do tutors look for - I think they look for enthusiasm and commitment to Law as an academic subject, and are not so bothered about your career plans, so I emphasized why I wanted to study Law.

One last bit of advice, if you apply to Cambridge (or oxford), some people chose a college really quickly but I took aaaages so if you aren't the sort of person who can make their mind up quickly I'd suggest looking early (and booking open days early on!).

The above is all my opinion and what my approach was, other people may think differently, it happened to work for me.

Your results are brilliant (though I dont really understand the IB), so with some work and a bit of luck I'm sure you can get somewhere you want for Law.

Reply 4

emily87

Lillith Grimore

I would reccommend reading 'Understanding the Law' by Geoffrey Rivlin (and if you have insomnia try 'Learning the Law' by Galinville Williams). Hope that helps a bit and good luck!!

they're great books which give you a good overall view of studying law, The Law Machine is enjoyable too (more than Glanville Williams!). Mybe you'd enjoy having a go at a book more about law than the study of law, such as The Concept of Law (Hart) it'd be useful - it's hard stuff but well written and interesting, it's all about answering 'what is Law?' ie jusrisprudence, the philosophy of law.

Reply 5

Darkmage

i'm staying at st. catharines :smile:

i'm doing some work experience at a chambers in London so should that help?

btw do you know any regular posters who also study the IB?

i was having a browse at guardian site and made a quick list of uni's that grabbed my eye:

Cambridge
UCL
LSE
Warwick
nottingham

however i think this may be aiming all my choices a bit high?

Reply 6

Hughski

You should really be able to get in with those results, even though I didn't with one more A*. To be honest I couldn't be arsed to re-apply because I don't think the difference is too big between LSE and Cambridge. Cambridge is definitely better though.

I recommend Cambridge/Oxford, LSE, UCL, KCL, Nottingham and then maybe Durham/Bristol and SOAS. Those are all very good.

Reply 7

Hughski

Nah not really, I applied to Cambridge, LSE, UCL, Nottingham, SOAS and Durham...Got offers from most of them with similar results. Predicted IB grade was 41 but got 43 in the end with:
HL: History, English, Geography and Biology
SL: Maths Methods and French

(SOAS gave me a 36 pt offer. LSE and Nottingham were 38 pts with 7, 6, 6 at higher. And Cam rejected.)

Reply 8

Darkmage

what offers based on points did those uni's give you? and is your 43 points including the bonus points for ToK+EE?

Reply 9

Hughski

Yes that's including the TOK + EE which I got 2 pts in. Got 7s in all my highers and French.

(It would be impossible to get 43 without TOK + EE lol).

Reply 10

Darkmage

ah yeh sorry lol wasn't thinking :smile:

did you get an offer from UCL?

what did you do your EE on btw? i'm thinking about biology..

Reply 11

Hughski

Did it in Geography on the immediate and future impact of the Congestion Charge on local businesses both inside and outside the zone.

No UCL rejected without interview. Durham gave me an offer for like 37 pts with 7 6 6 in higher. Random.

My friend doing NatSci at Oxf got an offer of 38 with no conditions. EASY!!! Lol. Mostly they seem to give out offers in the 38 - 41 pt range. Usually with a 7,6,6 at higher or 7,7,6 at higher. That's from what I've gathered. Occasionally they give very high offers...but only very rarely.