Bristol or Durham

Both schools send students on to be trainees at excellent firms every single year. You won't be at a disadvantage at either and it'll solely come down to what you do as an individual to stand out instead. I don't agree with the Durham Durham Durham crowd on this one at all.

Hey there, I have an offer from both Bristol and Durham for law and I do not know which to choose. Durham is obviously ranked better for law however I really do not like the location whereas I love the city of Bristol. I would much rather go to Bristol yet I feel like I would be wasting an opportunity by not going to Durham.

So do you suggest I go to Durham because I’m really scared it’s boring and I value university experience.

This may help your decision somewhat - in my experience following the barrister career path, many many applications are blind marked, meaning that they never see which university you attended. What they do see are your grades and the experiences you gained at the university. I can't comment on whether when applying for training contracts your application is blind marked, but what I can say is that achieving a 1st at any university will have far more weight than a 2:1. Prestige alone will never be sufficient to get you a job - what you need to be considering is where will you perform to the best of your ability.

Being happy is a major part of this - when you are actually enjoying your time at university you will be more motivated to work hard and find it easier to get though the rough patches. Law is not an easy degree, with significant reading and busy exam seasons, you should therefore pick the university that best suits you as an individual.
Other factors you may want to take into account are living costs, the optional modules available (for example, some universities offer medical law and others do not), the sports and other societies available, the strength of their bar/law societies (both are great I believe), and how the course is organised (frequent or end of year assessments, essays or exams etc.).

Pick the university where you feel you are more likely to come out with a good grade - reputation alone won't get you those elusive jobs upon graduation.

What I thought was that it was solicitors/training contracts employers that had blind-marked applications, not barrister chambers?

Is it not Barristers chambers that still hire circa 85% Oxbridge? While Magic and Silver Circle firms are now hiring even graduates from BPP, Kent, East London and likes that can prove themselves at interviews, and Oxbridge hires are down to below 40%?

What I thought was that it was solicitors/training contracts employers that had blind-marked applications, not barrister chambers?

Is it not Barristers chambers that still hire circa 85% Oxbridge? While Magic and Silver Circle firms are now hiring even graduates from BPP, Kent, East London and likes that can prove themselves at interviews, and Oxbridge hires are down to below 40%?

you do realise it's not mutually exclusive right? it's possible that some chambers and some firms blind mark. or do you assume that any dumbing down only happens for sols
i've gone through a fair few mid tier firms both as an interviewee and as a paralegal and now future trainee and i've never met anyone with an undergrad from BPP or UEL. Let alone SC and MC firms. Kent pops up rarely. There's plenty of prestige uni graduates still. No need to worry about your precious Oxbridge grads not getting a job, they'll get one too.

Dumbing down?

What are you trying to say overall with this emotional and anecdotal rant?

the undertone of your post was that these firms have dumbed themselves down to the point where they accept anyone from any uni. that doesn't happen. oxbridge etc are very well represented

if you have access to data that shows UEL and BPP undergraduates invading MC and SC firms, please show it ^^^