Why is law so popular?

It seems every uni in the top 30 has a grade requirement of AAA. Why is it so popular. Obviously money is a factor but the truth is most won't even become lawyers. So why is law such a popular degree?

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Reply 1

QuirkyDoDo

The skills you learn in it are very transferrable.

Reply 2

chelseafan

Original post by QuirkyDoDo

The skills you learn in it are very transferrable.

Are they? I've heard a law degree is tedious and boring.

Reply 3

fnm

Public misconceptions due to the media, TV, films etc. bit like Psychology.

And games I suppose, I was inspired to look at Law after playing Phoenix Wright... :colondollar:

Reply 4

chelseafan

Original post by fnm

Public misconceptions due to the media, TV, films etc. bit like Psychology.

And games I suppose, I was inspired to look at Law after playing Phoenix Wright... :colondollar:

Shows like Law and order for example.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 5

Howbeit

Original post by fnm

Public misconceptions due to the media, TV, films etc. bit like Psychology.

And games I suppose, I was inspired to look at Law after playing Phoenix Wright... :colondollar:

What do you mean misconceptions? I can understand them for Psychology as I'm not enjoying the course but a degree in Law has extremely transferable skills. Law surrounds us all the time and if you wanted to become a lawyer, accountant, business/human resources then Law teaches key, transferable skills.

Reply 6

tehforum

Original post by chelseafan

Shows like CSI for example.

That's criminology.

Reply 7

zaliack

Original post by tehforum

That's criminology.

Forensic Science, actually.

Reply 8

fnm

Original post by RobertWhite

It's funny because people say that about psych as well. Psychology surrounds us all the time (more than Law imo). I've heard that a few times :biggrin:

Transferable skills are skills that can be used in a wide range of different jobs, and generally are skills that a key in any, ie good writing skills, team working, communication, which most degree courses teach. I wouldn't say Law teaches transferable skills used to be a Lawyer...

Also, I would say a degree in psychology would also have useful parts in relation to those professions.

A lot people believe Law to be this high paid bad ass job where you smack down criminals or support them in really exciting court situations, yet most Lawyers warn students or aspiring ones that it's a very tough, very stressful, not easy to get into job. A bit like where many psych student think they're gonna walk into a job as a glamourous clinical/forensic psychologist.

I also linked it with Psy as they are the no 1 and 2 most popular courses on UCAS for last year. 16,000 for Psy, way more for Law.

Reply 9

Howbeit

Original post by fnm

It's funny because people say that about psych as well. Psychology surrounds us all the time (more than Law imo). I've heard that a few times :biggrin:

I think getting into any job is difficult at the moment. Law is notoriously a stressful job - I view it as mainly being in an office, advising people etc... not like it's shown on TV. Psychology definitely has useful transferable skills as does Law. Law does give you a deep understanding of the system, how it works, how to analyse cases, write, report etc... so it is useful if you plan to be a lawyer.

Reply 10

Aspiringlawstudent

I think there are three main reasons;

1. It is a prestigious discipline. People like to say they study law because it is generally thought of as being a very tough and respectable course, and it doesn't look like you're spending three years of your life sitting in bed at 15:00 watching repeats of Jeremy Kyle on ITV2.

2. The idea that you're going to earn a considerable amount as either a lawyer or another professional. While this is true for some, for the majority of law students it will not be the case.

3. Job prospects. Linked to my first point, people believe (rightly or wrongly - its an empirical argument and I don't have the figures) that a law degree will give you a better chance of landing a decent job than one in another discipline.

These are my observations anyway from asking friends why they're taking it. There are other reasons, but these are the three I encountered most often.

Reply 11

QuirkyDoDo

Original post by chelseafan

Are they? I've heard a law degree is tedious and boring.

Regarding the transferrable skills, other people have already answered with what I was going to reply with. Sections of law can be very tedious but the criminal law modules (which is where people get this fancy idea of being a lawyer and convicting big criminals) is very interesting.

Original post by RobertWhite

Can I ask why you're not enjoying psychology and where you're studying? It was something I considered for a while.

Reply 12

smd4std

MONEY

Reply 13

DontWantYourBloodMoney

Boston Legal.

....Denny Crane.

Reply 14

Arekkusu

Historical precedent conferring power, high standing in the community, high visibility in the media. Secretive, arcane institutional practices. Probably one of the most punishing courses in terms of the trade-off between volume of work, real-life job "prospects", expense incurred during training (correlates with elitism), difficulty of degree, money earned.

It is probably however the only "high-powered" job that can be got by people who are smart in a wordy way rather than a numbers way.

Reply 15

kka25

Original post by fnm

yet most Lawyers warn students or aspiring ones that it's a very tough, very stressful, not easy to get into job. A bit like where many psych student think they're gonna walk into a job as a glamourous clinical/forensic psychologist.

This.

I was a volunteer teacher before and this admin lady in the school has a degree in Law; I asked her to encourage the students to do Law by telling them about the profession; she wasn't too thrill to share it or inform them about doing Law. As you said, she said to me that the job is stressful, lots of 'dirty' things involve, etc.

Reality of things :/

Reply 16

zedeneye1

Original post by RobertWhite

there's law courses specifically designed for accounting , business etc programmes at university, so they don't have to go through the entire law syllabus...

Reply 17

Zenomorph

I can't see how it is transferable, would have thought the skill set was very much catered for 1 profession and 1 only.

Reply 18

nulli tertius

Original post by chelseafan

There is a supply side to this as well.

There is a large demand to read law because there are a lot of places to read law. A place to read law isn't unattainable for the vast majority of students.

There are lot of places to teach law because it is a cheap course to offer (except for the library resources), there are lots of people equipped to teach it and, with electronic resources provided one avoids anything arcane like Roman law, electronic databases will largely provide a university with a ready made law library. It would be far harder for a university to start teaching geography from scratch.