Law Applicants 2011 Offer Thread

Unless they've specified in your offer, any subject should be fine. Out of interest, do you study Literature or Language?

Hey Kelly, when did you hear back from LSE? Also, when did you send our application in?

Just want to gauge how my application is coming along. Thanks!

How do you guys regard UEA for Law?

Yes, I have seen The Guardian League Table for this year, and I admit there are some surprises in it, but perhaps they are justified. Yes, it's true that research quality etc aren't particularly relevant to undergraduate students, but surely they are important in determining how strong a university is? Obviously, if there are good research levels, then there are [hopefully] good professors, intelligent students and good resources as well. These are what determines a good university. Besides, the Sunday Times also ranks QMUL very highly for Law.

With regards to your second point, I'm not saying that all good universities shoudl require the LNAT - the examples of LSE and Warwick being perfectly valid. My point was that if QMUL did ask for the LNAT, as I believe they plan to do, then they will automatically become a more respected university because there is a common opinion amongst law students that the LNAT universities are [some of] the top universities for law in the UK.

I agree with what you said about QMUL not being as well established as other universities, because it has only started to come into the foreground recently. However, I hope that it will continue to do so in the future as I think it, and especially its law department, has a lot of potential.

Let's face it, we are all vastly under-qualified to decide any of this. At the end of the day, Queen Mary IS a very good law school and there is no point nit-picking...getting a degree from there won't hold anyone back.

Yes, it will. If you're going for jobs at top sets or firms, competing against Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Durham and Nottingham grads, a degree from QM will disadvantage you. Note my use of 'disadvantage'; it won't make it impossible, which is why the 'one judge is a QM grad' comment is absolutely no argument.

Noone has said it's not a good school. 'Good' in this context encompasses many things, which are valued against each other with different weightings for each person's idea of 'good'. 'Good' does not equate to prestige or employer desirability.

'greed.

Although, I feel we should add that we literally are talking only from our perspective.

I met an Oxford Law Grad last night who works in London, but is moving up north shortly, and he made it sound as though with a 2:1 from anywhere, you'll have a shot anywhere except the magic circle (which he stressed even Oxbridge graduates cannot expect to get into.)

Nice guy, said it was probably the worst 3 years of his life, so yeah, I'm looking forward to it now.

Should've gone for Cam

How's the work ex hunt going? Not spoken to you for ages.

Yes, it will. If you're going for jobs at top sets or firms, competing against Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Durham and Nottingham grads, a degree from QM will disadvantage you. Note my use of 'disadvantage'; it won't make it impossible, which is why the 'one judge is a QM grad' comment is absolutely no argument.

Noone has said it's not a good school. 'Good' in this context encompasses many things, which are valued against each other with different weightings for each person's idea of 'good'. 'Good' does not equate to prestige or employer desirability.

I haven't made any great strides (don't know if I told you that I was rejected for a mini-pupillage that I apparently signed up for at a chambers near me) mainly because I haven't sent anything out due to work commitments. I'm going to try get something before I start uni though, even if it's just a copying job at a local firm.

How about you?

First of all, it is obvious that it is not on an Oxbridge level, because nothing is. When it comes to the top of the top jobs, you will be hard to pressed to find someone who is not an Oxbridge graduate. Therefore the fact a LORD JUSTICE OF APPEAL, and not some random judge as you implied, is a Queen Mary graduate shows a lot, because mostly ALL of them are from Oxbridge. Everyone who didn't go to Oxbridge is technically disadvantaged. In fact, anyone who didn't go to Oxford is slightly disadvantaged as Cambridge tends to play second fiddle. UCL, LSE, Durham and Nottingham are amazing universities. It does not mean if you don't go to one you won't be going to the bar. It doesn't mean if you don't go to one you can't work in a Magic Circle Firm. Saying Queen Mary has poor employer desirability is just a snobbish thing to say - graduate prospects are great because there is a high chance you will get a job in a solicitors firm, which is not a given these days!! Just because you may not be high flying (although you could be) does not mean you've failed in terms of employment. The average day to day solicitor can be earning about £70,000 a year. There is a cut off point where going to a certain level of university means you won't be going to the top of the top, but Queen Mary is not one of them.

I'll redirect you to my distinction between being disadvantaged in looking for employment and being unable to get it.
Post's not really worth replying to other than to say that, tbh.

Well you said good does not equate to employer desirability, implying that Queen Mary has very little employer desirability. I'll point out that employer desirability does not mean 'what the best of the best generally prefer' - it means 'is a degree from this university likely to get you a good job?'. Although, there is now a realisation that it is not appropriate to constantly employ the 'old boys' in the top positions.

Same, I'm buried under work. I've applied to pinsent mason's A level programme - which I don't know if you knew about; I would have told you if I'd have seen you - but ideally want to get something bar-y. Well, if all else fails, my dad knows a solicitor, so I'll beg him to get me into some chambers or just do something there
And yeah, you told me about that I'm still planning to emulate you and spam every chambers north of Birminghams' email inbox with my CV

Right. So when you said 'a QM degree won't hold you back', what you meant to say was, 'a QM degree won't hold you back, so long as you aren't too ambitious'?

Of course I'm not making the claim that a QM degree won't stand you in good stead for most jobs; I said that one would disadvantage you for some competitive jobs with many applicants from Oxbridge, UCL et al. I believe I actually used the words 'top set/firm'.

I don't think anyone has much basis for saying it's not a good law school, unless they have studied at the law school, found it horrendous and come out with no job prospects.

the East End is equated with scummy people, so for a university to be there it must be horrific

I had to content with some nutter who was claiming that QMUL is better than Durham .