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Oxford Law Students and Applicants

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Original post by Raja_Hayder
I am in year 11 nearing my exams and am not so sure of what I want to do for my A levels and would like to get a better overview of if my choice of subjects Economics, business, psycology and PE are a good choice and if I should choose differant subjects.

Thank you


Never double up business and economics. Most universities will consider them the same skill.

No good will come of an A level in PE. Even if you wanted to be a PE teacher you would be better off with biology.
Original post by MJTravers
Cambridge sent me to this link when I asked what subjects would be best for law. I was told that picking 4 from the A1 and A2 category is ideal (the subjects in A1 and A2 are equally desirable, it's just that they're split into arts and sciences.)

http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=604

Economics is the only one out of your A level options which is in either of those categories. Business and Psychology are in list B, and PE is in list C along with subjects like Critical Thinking. They ideally want you to do more rigorous, traditional subjects which build core skills. Also take into account that most people you'll be competing with will have probably chosen 4 A level subjects from A1 and A2.


I am very surprised that Cambridge referred you to one of its college's websites bearing in mind that it publishes its own, slightly different, information.

http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/publications/docs/subjectmatters.pdf

I am also surprised that if they did refer you to the Trinity list they then went and contradicted that list by implying that the group A1 and A2 subjects were better than the group B subjects for courses for which the group B subjects are expressly stated to be suitable.
Original post by studentiam
Hello fellow Djokovic fan! :awesome:

Thanks for your reply and congratulations on your offer, you are very lucky indeed.

I am interested in the application process - could you please tell me what college you applied for and if you had an interview at any other college? Also, what sort of stuff was discussed in your interview?

I am doing the IB and will probably apply for the Law with Law Studies in Europe course, which I am aware is very competitive. If you know anything about this course please tell me.

Thanks so much and good luck in your exams!:h:


Woop woop :thumbsup:

I applied to Queen's and didn't get interviewed anywhere else.

I was given fifteen minutes before both interviews (I only had two) for some reading. Both times there was a sheet with some definitions, basic explanations and questions I would be asked and then two judgments on related cases. The actual interviews were almost about the reading material. The questions (the ones on the sheet) were giving hypothetical situations and I was asked which categories I thought these hypothetical situations would fall under. They would challenge me on what I said and try to guide me towards the right answer. The only slightly weird, 'Oxford-y' kind of question I got was whether I would say I was hard-working or intelligent (I said intelligent, don't know whether that was the right thing to say though!).

I don't know anything much about the Law Studies in Europe course, sorry :frown:

Hope this helps!
Reply 903
Original post by Raja_Hayder
Do you think that I can be accepted at Oxford to do Law with the subjects I have chose for my A levels which are Business, Economics, Psychology and PE. If you do not think these are not suitable choices then can you please recommend me some better possible choices.

Thank you


Is it combined or single Business & Economics?
Reply 904
So in 2013, I decided to apply to Oxford for Law through deferred entry with entrance in 2015. I received an interview from New College but I was rejected after the interview stage.

I sent in a request for feedback but received some general information about how the competition was high.

Now, I am confused whether to re-apply this year for direct entry in 2015. I hold offers at UCL, KCL, and I'm worried they would not give me offers again next year if I rejected them to re-apply. So, can any kind soul please advise me what to do? Or what you would do in my position?

during my interview, the professors said that entrance through deferred entry was usually tougher than a direct path and I don't know how to decipher this. Were they telling me to re-apply or were they preparing me for rejection?

Thanks for your help and for listening!
Original post by amritsg
So in 2013, I decided to apply to Oxford for Law through deferred entry with entrance in 2015. I received an interview from New College but I was rejected after the interview stage.

I sent in a request for feedback but received some general information about how the competition was high.

Now, I am confused whether to re-apply this year for direct entry in 2015. I hold offers at UCL, KCL, and I'm worried they would not give me offers again next year if I rejected them to re-apply. So, can any kind soul please advise me what to do? Or what you would do in my position?

during my interview, the professors said that entrance through deferred entry was usually tougher than a direct path and I don't know how to decipher this. Were they telling me to re-apply or were they preparing me for rejection?

Thanks for your help and for listening!


When the tutors say that deferred entrance is tougher than direct entrance they mean exactly that. This is because they are not basing you against just the current cohort of applicants but instead have to be satisfied that you would be strong enough to be accepted in any given year. So for example, even if you apply in a year in which you would have been accepted for direct entry, that year being perhaps slightly weaker than average, you may still not be accepted for deferred entry if you are below the standard of entrance which had been required in any previous year.

I wouldn't read much further than the above into the tutor's statement.

Whether to apply again or not is risky as you recognise - it is perfectly possible that you will not get offers from KCL and UCL again, especially if you do worse on the LNAT next year than you did this year. To be honest it probably depends to a large extent on the risks you are prepared to take, whether you already have your grades and if not, whether your grades you receive will be better than those you were predicted, and whether you are confident in your ability to do well on the LNAT again.

You will however have the benefit of having already taken the LNAT and having already had experience of the Oxford interview process. This is not to be underestimated.

Having had experience of both Oxford at UG and UCL at PG, my personal view is that Oxford is a better environment to engage in serious study - you have lots of academics at the London institutions who are the top in their fields, but you miss out on some significant benefits. The lack of college libraries and the nature of London is that it is somewhat less conducive to study. This is on top of the fact that you will not have the Oxford tutorial system.

What I think you should do is to evaluate what risks you are prepared to take, and ask yourself what you think you want out of your university experience. Once you have the answers to these questions, you should be able to make a well-balanced decision.
Reply 906
Original post by boffdude
When the tutors say that deferred entrance is tougher than direct entrance they mean exactly that. This is because they are not basing you against just the current cohort of applicants but instead have to be satisfied that you would be strong enough to be accepted in any given year. So for example, even if you apply in a year in which you would have been accepted for direct entry, that year being perhaps slightly weaker than average, you may still not be accepted for deferred entry if you are below the standard of entrance which had been required in any previous year.

I wouldn't read much further than the above into the tutor's statement.

Whether to apply again or not is risky as you recognise - it is perfectly possible that you will not get offers from KCL and UCL again, especially if you do worse on the LNAT next year than you did this year. To be honest it probably depends to a large extent on the risks you are prepared to take, whether you already have your grades and if not, whether your grades you receive will be better than those you were predicted, and whether you are confident in your ability to do well on the LNAT again.

You will however have the benefit of having already taken the LNAT and having already had experience of the Oxford interview process. This is not to be underestimated.

Having had experience of both Oxford at UG and UCL at PG, my personal view is that Oxford is a better environment to engage in serious study - you have lots of academics at the London institutions who are the top in their fields, but you miss out on some significant benefits. The lack of college libraries and the nature of London is that it is somewhat less conducive to study. This is on top of the fact that you will not have the Oxford tutorial system.

What I think you should do is to evaluate what risks you are prepared to take, and ask yourself what you think you want out of your university experience. Once you have the answers to these questions, you should be able to make a well-balanced decision.


Thank you for your advice! I am actually on an enforced gap year ( 2 to be more accurate) due to National Service requirements in my country. I applied last year together with my actual results. Do you have any thoughts on UCL/KCL rejecting an applicant who rejected them the year before? And for a re-application should I alter my personal statement?
Original post by amritsg
Thank you for your advice! I am actually on an enforced gap year ( 2 to be more accurate) due to National Service requirements in my country. I applied last year together with my actual results. Do you have any thoughts on UCL/KCL rejecting an applicant who rejected them the year before? And for a re-application should I alter my personal statement?

In that case you should think very very seriously about whether to reject and reapply. Clearly you were not a strong enough candidate for Oxford this year even with your results. If nothing has really changed, why would you take a year out and risk wasting yet another year? At the very least consider applying to Cambridge instead. But if you're desperate for Oxford have you thought about accepting your current undergraduate offer but doing a Masters at Oxford? The timing won't be any different from taking another year out now, but at least you'd have a post grad degree to show for it.
Original post by amritsg
Thank you for your advice! I am actually on an enforced gap year ( 2 to be more accurate) due to National Service requirements in my country. I applied last year together with my actual results. Do you have any thoughts on UCL/KCL rejecting an applicant who rejected them the year before? And for a re-application should I alter my personal statement?


If you are reapplying change your personal statement to reflect anything significant you have done in the last year I guess, but you probably don't need to change it that much.

I'm not sure about chances of being rejected having rejected the previous year. It will probably depend on if they have some kind of blacklist and whether the person/s doing the applications are the same as in previous years, and if so, whether they recognise the application and look into it further. It might be worth contacting UCL/KCL to see if they have a policy on reapplications before you reject them. I rejected Southampton, applied the next year and was given an offer again, so it might not be an issue.

If you do apply to Oxford again I would recommend applying to a different college. I'm not sure if the faculty keep on file people who have applied in previous years. It might be worth contacting admissions about that.

Crumpet1 mentions doing a masters at Oxford. The problem with this suggestion is that the taught law masters - the BCL - is more competitive to get on to compared to the BA. If you think you will be able to get a 1st in your UG at UCL/KCL though this is always an option.

Crumptet1 does make a valuable point re already having your results though. On paper the only thing that will differentiate you from last year - presumably you haven't done anything of note during your national service - is a better LNAT, so if I were you I would ask myself whether I was pretty close to the entry standard last year. If not, you have to ask whether a better interview/LNAT will be able to push you up to this and get you a place. It might be worth going back to the tutors at New and seeing if you can get more detailed feedback, mentioning you are considering reapplying.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Raja_Hayder
Do you think that I can be accepted at Oxford to do Law with the subjects I have chose for my A levels which are Business, Economics, Psychology and PE. If you do not think these are not suitable choices then can you please recommend me some better possible choices.

Thank you


Hey Raja! I took English, Accountancy, Business Studies, Economics and Maths (Indian qualifications) and I have an offer from New College for Law. However I have to say I have an offer in spite of the fact that I took those subjects. As has been mentioned early, subjects like Business Studies and PE are really not preferred. They don't reflect academic rigour and that's not good for law, which is one of the most rigourous courses you can do. That said, I would advise you to keep Economics and Psychology but switch Business and PE out for "stronger" subjects such as a language, Maths, Philosophy or a science.

Original post by amritsg
So in 2013, I decided to apply to Oxford for Law through deferred entry with entrance in 2015. I received an interview from New College but I was rejected after the interview stage.

I sent in a request for feedback but received some general information about how the competition was high.

Now, I am confused whether to re-apply this year for direct entry in 2015. I hold offers at UCL, KCL, and I'm worried they would not give me offers again next year if I rejected them to re-apply. So, can any kind soul please advise me what to do? Or what you would do in my position?

during my interview, the professors said that entrance through deferred entry was usually tougher than a direct path and I don't know how to decipher this. Were they telling me to re-apply or were they preparing me for rejection?

Thanks for your help and for listening!


Hey Amrit, I remember you from last year's cycle! I'm so sorry you didn't get an offer but it's as boffdude said, they're trying to measure you against a future standard which they don't know, so to be safe they set it very high. The fact that you have offers from KCL and UCL show you're capable of big achievements. They also reflect positively on your LNAT and Personal Statement so my guess is that if you reapply to Oxford you stand a stronger chance than you did last year simply because now the standard they weigh you up against is lower than last year's.

Also, the same can be said for UCL and KCL: despite their high standards you made it in this year (congrats btw, UCL rejected me) so it's safe to assume that if things remain steady as last year you can make it this year too.

However it is a risk to reject UCL and KCL since they could put you on a blacklist of sorts - although I've only heard of American unis doing that in certain circumstances (like when you're on their wait list and push for them, get accepted and reject them). I doubt British unis will do that but it's obviously best to be sure. Write them an email and say you are "evaluating feasible options as your situation has changed". That's not untrue, your situation has changed in the sense that you have another chance at Oxford and you would like to take it, not that they'll ask. Wait for their response and go ahead accordingly.

Even if next year you get rejected again and also are accepted by only KCL or only UCL, both are absolutely brilliant choices, coming behind Oxford by a really tiny margin. I do hope it doesn't come to that though, and that I see you next year at Oxford. Good luck :smile:
Original post by AakankshaS
So, I've started on my Personal statement (Very early, i know) and the course i'm going to be applying for is law. So i just wanted to know if anyone had any tips? And is anyone, who's been accepted to oxford or has any idea about what the admissions tutors are looking for, willing to take a look at it? Thank you :smile:


Hi again, I think we had talked last year? Basically they want people who are passionate about studying law, demonstrate that they can handle hard work and do well, have the ability to go beyond what is required, and are overall intelligent.

Remember that unlike India, people study law often just because they like it and not for the explicit purpose of being a lawyer. None of the tutors care a lot about your career plans in your Personal Statement unless there's a compelling link. Wanting to be a lawyer is not that; you can read any degree, do the GDL and still be a lawyer. You need to show them that you love studying law and that you want to spend 3 years doing it.

As for the hard work bit: you need to show that you're handling school work and other extra-curricular activities (relevant ones, mind you) and excelling at them all. I would suggest gaining some legal experience if possible (shadow an attorney, talk to lawyers), you'll find it easier since you're from Bombay. Also try listing all the ECAs you can participate in. Then try and extrapolate the skills each of them develop in you and how those skills will come in handy when you study law Then pick one or two and pursue them doggedly. That means you know what to write about them on your PS

You can demonstrate your intelligence through marks, the LNAT and, if you succeed, the interviews. The way you talk in your PS also reflects on how intelligent you are, I'd imagine, but I don't know how strongly it's factored into the tutors' decision.

I'd love to look at your PS if you need any help and yeah, message me on Facebook any time, I have you as a friend.
Reply 911
Is there any quota for the number of internationals admitted?

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Original post by BIGDIKC
Is there any quota for the number of internationals admitted?

Posted from TSR Mobile


Don't think so; I'm pretty sure my tutors don't care.
Original post by amol_chalis447
Hi again, I think we had talked last year? Basically they want people who are passionate about studying law, demonstrate that they can handle hard work and do well, have the ability to go beyond what is required, and are overall intelligent.

Remember that unlike India, people study law often just because they like it and not for the explicit purpose of being a lawyer. None of the tutors care a lot about your career plans in your Personal Statement unless there's a compelling link. Wanting to be a lawyer is not that; you can read any degree, do the GDL and still be a lawyer. You need to show them that you love studying law and that you want to spend 3 years doing it.

As for the hard work bit: you need to show that you're handling school work and other extra-curricular activities (relevant ones, mind you) and excelling at them all. I would suggest gaining some legal experience if possible (shadow an attorney, talk to lawyers), you'll find it easier since you're from Bombay. Also try listing all the ECAs you can participate in. Then try and extrapolate the skills each of them develop in you and how those skills will come in handy when you study law Then pick one or two and pursue them doggedly. That means you know what to write about them on your PS

You can demonstrate your intelligence through marks, the LNAT and, if you succeed, the interviews. The way you talk in your PS also reflects on how intelligent you are, I'd imagine, but I don't know how strongly it's factored into the tutors' decision.

I'd love to look at your PS if you need any help and yeah, message me on Facebook any time, I have you as a friend.


Hey yeah, we did talk last year.I was just about to message you on Facebook in fact. Well, I did get a bit of legal experience working under a lawyer as well as attending a few cases in court. The guy i was working for is an Oxford alum himself, so i took whatever he said about the Personal statement as the bible but it is different from what I remember seeing on your PS; so I don't know where to go with that. Also, are you sure about the whole extracurricular thing because doesn't it say - practically everywhere on the oxford website- that they want you to focus on your academics?

Also, on an unrelated note, how did you do on the CLAT?(Hardly matters, doesn't it? ;P )
Original post by AakankshaS
Hey yeah, we did talk last year.I was just about to message you on Facebook in fact. Well, I did get a bit of legal experience working under a lawyer as well as attending a few cases in court. The guy i was working for is an Oxford alum himself, so i took whatever he said about the Personal statement as the bible but it is different from what I remember seeing on your PS; so I don't know where to go with that. Also, are you sure about the whole extracurricular thing because doesn't it say - practically everywhere on the oxford website- that they want you to focus on your academics?

Also, on an unrelated note, how did you do on the CLAT?(Hardly matters, doesn't it? ;P )


Hmm. What did he say? Perhaps I could figure out why there are discrepancies.

Yes I am. ECAs always help if there's a point behind your doing them past just your interest. In this case, they demonstrate your interest for law-related activities, your ability to handle work and your willingness to learn new skills; or so I would position it :smile: That said, academics are still paramount. ECAs can only contribute to your application, the foundation needs to be academics.

Ah I really didn't do well at all. Rank 670, score 133.75. I guess it's good for someone who didn't study for it.
Original post by amol_chalis447
Hmm. What did he say? Perhaps I could figure out why there are discrepancies.

Yes I am. ECAs always help if there's a point behind your doing them past just your interest. In this case, they demonstrate your interest for law-related activities, your ability to handle work and your willingness to learn new skills; or so I would position it :smile: That said, academics are still paramount. ECAs can only contribute to your application, the foundation needs to be academics.

Ah I really didn't do well at all. Rank 670, score 133.75. I guess it's good for someone who didn't study for it.


Well, I'm surprised you bothered at all about the CLAT. I certainly wouldn't have. Anyway, I have PM'd you two of my statements, do go through them and please don't hesitate to be harshly critical. xD I've written about five completely different statements so I'll forward those along to you as well and maybe you can go through it and give me some advice.
Original post by AakankshaS
Well, I'm surprised you bothered at all about the CLAT. I certainly wouldn't have. Anyway, I have PM'd you two of my statements, do go through them and please don't hesitate to be harshly critical. xD I've written about five completely different statements so I'll forward those along to you as well and maybe you can go through it and give me some advice.


I paid (and went) for LST the whole of 11th and a couple of months in 12th, I felt bad about not sort of closing it. So I wrote it anyway :smile:

Can you please create documents on Google Drive and send the links to me on Facebook instead? I find that much easier!
Original post by amol_chalis447
I paid (and went) for LST the whole of 11th and a couple of months in 12th, I felt bad about not sort of closing it. So I wrote it anyway :smile:

Can you please create documents on Google Drive and send the links to me on Facebook instead? I find that much easier!


Will do. Thanks. :smile:
Hi everyone! I just thought that, since we are all probably thinking about apply to uni in September, I would create this thread for those of you, like myself, considering applying to study Law at Oxford. We can discuss everything from colleges, LNAT, results, to preparatory reading. Also, it would be a good idea to state GCSE results, AS results, predictions, IB results, and LNAT scores and which college you're thinking of applying to. I'll start off...

Subject: Law with Law studies in Europe (German)
Hometown: Manchester
GCSE results: 8A*'s, 2A's
AS results: pending
College: St. Catherines
Reply 919
Do You guys think that (as a foreigner, and not native speaker) I would make a fool of myself if during the interview I would encounter the word I don't know and asked the examiner about it's meaning ? For example during the case reading and analyzing ?

I've just watched the mock oxford interview ( http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/admissions.php ) and there was a word I did not know - conveyance, and without knowing what it meant (and checking it up) I would be pretty unable to work out the rule interpretation (although context was quite helpful and clear, so I could particularly try ).

I do realize that the examiners are all helpful and nice, but I am afraid that they could take me as someone...dumb?

So what You guys think ? xx

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