Career prospects Manchester vs Exeter.

In order, I would recommend Warwick, Exeter, then Manchester, then Leeds. I've seen students from the first two unis get a respectable number of TC offers at MC and SC firms but basically none from the latter two unis. Manchester may supply 'more trainees to firms' (doubtful) but have you looked at exactly what kind of firms they are? I would suspect they're most likely regional.

There isn't really anything quantitative when it comes to these things, but you can always read the Chambers Student article on uni breakdowns of trainees. A lot of people have conflicting opinions on these things - some will claim your uni doesn't matter whatsoever (false), others that Oxbridge is the be-all and end-all (also false but a little less so). I can only offer up the conclusions I've drawn from my own experience, which are that Oxbridge forms a significant proportion of London firms' cohorts, followed largely by Durham and the top London unis (UCL, LSE) and then the better RGs (Warwick etc).

Thanks for the help. I have another question regarding this. KCL is one of my choices and has about a 30% offer rate for my grade of A*A*A, meanwhile, Durham has a 75% offer rate for these grades. Being that Durham graduates are much more successful in breaking into the Magic circle, would it be good to substitute KCL with Durham? UCAS allows me 14 days to do so. Also, these offer rates have come straight from the official UCAS offer rate calculator

Edit: I'm very career orientated so I'm speaking solely about career prospects here.

Looking solely at career prospects, I do think Durham is better. I had a vac scheme at an MC firm this summer and out of around 40 students, the majority (over half) were from Oxbridge, around 10 were from Durham, and only one person was from KCL. I know this is anecdotal, but even just looking at trainee profiles on LinkedIn, there are far more people from Durham than KCL. I'm not saying unequivocally that you should definitely exchange, but I can honestly say that I would do it if I were you. KCL also has a poorer reputation in terms of just 'prestige' than Durham, which often claims to be a rival to Oxbridge (it isn't really but there's a reason it can pretend to be).

Offer rates... not sure you should take those into account much. When I was applying to uni three years ago I don't think this calculator even existed and certainly nobody ever discussed them. It sounds very woolly and I wouldn't base any major decisions on it.

I've actually chosen to swap Nottingham for Durham, I've just done it on UCAS, because of your recommendation. How does it feel knowing some words you typed on the internet may very well of just changed where I live for the next 3 years?

On a serious note, don't you think its odd KCL has a much lower acceptance rate yet is regarded much more poorly? acceptance rate and prestige normally go hand in hand. But I've seen many graphs that support the fact KCL graduates are much less represented at MC and even SC firms. Thanks for the input

Haha well I typed them earnestly in the full intention of helping you so I hope it works out okay! I think swapping Nottingham for Durham is a great choice. Do let me know how you get on!

This acceptance rate stuff seems relatively untrustworthy. I just went on the calculator myself and typed in my predicted grades from three years ago. It told me I had a 71% chance of being accepted at Cambridge to read the course I actually do read.* That's rubbish, the odds are much lower than that. The uni gives out 20% chances as a baseline but it varies by college/year/etc and in my year the offer rate at my college was 15%.

*I may be totally misunderstanding this calculator, please correct me if that's the case.

I think the case with Kings may be that it gives out a lot of contextual offers, I have a friend studying medicine there whose offer grades were lowered because she went to a comprehensive. That kind of thing massively limits prestige and could mean that when it's time to apply to law firms, the student isn't actually of the calibre they're wanting.

With all due respect, @Bona Cynara, this is very much anecdotal. I've been tracking the numbers on LinkedIn for quite a while. The pattern is generally similar across cohorts and really does not match what you are saying here. Attached below are the numbers you get when you enter "trainee" into the search box for each individual firm on LinkedIn. The figures here are specifically for the five firms generally considered to constitute the "Magic Circle".

The notion of "prestige" is really getting quite tiresome and as I've learnt, it doesn't mean much. Even in industries where your undergraduate institution plays a part in the selection process (corporate finance and investment banking), the question isn't "prestige", but rather past patterns of recruitment.

As for the acceptance rate, I believe what OP was referring to is the percentage of applicants who are given offers. In this regard, OP is correct in that Durham's offer rate is twice that of KCL (Durham has a considerably larger cohort as I recall). This is not the same as the likelihood of acceptance as you referred to.

I did say I was giving anecdotal evidence. Thank you for this graph - I think it seems to confirm a lot of what I said, though. The gap between Durham and King's may not be massive but there's a distinct pattern which goes Oxbridge --> LSE --> UCL/KCL --> non-London RGs. Manchester clearly has relatively few trainees at the MC.

I would say that prestige to some extent essentially is past patterns of recruitment. Institutions are perceived to be more prestigious partially as a result of where their graduates end up. For instance, Slaughter and May (from your graph) take fewer non-Oxbridge trainees than the others so a uni which consistently sent people there would seem more prestigious in the corporate law world. The more 'prestigious' unis also tend to have better career support, career events etc so it becomes a cycle.

Ah, thank you for clearing that up.

I feel like I just witnessed OP's thread get hijacked, v. entertaining and enlightening.

haha, I like to learn about this stuff, so I'm enjoying it.

What did you decide on for your final 5?

I chose Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Bristol and York.

Cambridge, Durham, Bristol , KCL and Exeter (just got an offer! )

Maybe ill be seeing you around.

Exeter have been on point with actually replying, are your preferences in that order too?

Wow this could be the start of a friendship held together by the shared depression of an unfulfilling legal life, fun times.

Cambridge would be my firm and Exeter would be my last choice. Bristol is my favourite of the rest but I feel like I'd go with Durham just for the career prospects. It feels like the wait for Cambridge interviews will never end haha, we should keep in touch regarding how everything goes.