Advice on studying law

Hi all,

It feels a little weird to be posting in the 'mature students' section given that I am only 21, but I am after some advice on going back into education. Apologies, but this post may be a little long.

I left secondary school in 2012 with 5/6 A-Levels (A in History, Bs in English Literature, Psychology, French and Politics, and A* in General Studies). I should have been a straight A student, and I had an AAA offer from Corpus Christi, Oxford to read Law, but evidently I just missed out, and never tried to scrape it. I had had enough of studying, was not in a good place at home or romantically, and I ended up getting a transfer from my part-time job (where I had worked full-time over the summer) and followed my partner to Nottingham, where she is studying Pharmacy.

Whilst I can have no real complaints with how my career is going or the money I am earning, I know that I am more than capable of earning a degree. I am thinking increasingly about going to uni, and whilst I have made no final decision, have earmarked September 2016 as my entry point. This is because my partner will have completed her course and will be earning at this point.

I am (almost*) solely interested in doing an accelerated law degree, as I am used to the intensity of working all year round, and would feel that I am using my time more wisely by shoehorning study into two years rather than three. As such, this means that I am limited in the establishments open to my consideration.

I started by thinking about Bucks and Herts, as I am aware of their accelerated LLB programmes; however, I know that there are other options - particularly CoL and BPP. BPP is very appealing because their course is only £7k per year, meaning that I would actually be able to save the full amount of the two year course before my entry point. By way of contrast, Herts and CoL seem to be the normal £9k, and I think Bucks is about £12.5k.

I say that I am almost solely interested in this, because the only other nagging thought at the back of my mind is trying to get into Oxford after all (or maybe another particularly prestigious place, but really I'm only thinking of Oxford). Is this a pie-in-the-sky thought? The reason I feel I *may* have a chance is because I would be considered a mature student, and also because I am strongly considering doing an A-level in Law (self-taught) between now and my entry point. This isn't because I expect this to be particularly impressive, but just to give me a background knowledge, and also to give me an idea of whether I would actually like to study law before I spent thousands doing so. As such, if I were to do this, and achieve an A or A*, this might be more persuasive to Oxford? (I'd then have A*, A, B, B, B, B, although I know they would normally only look at grades in three subjects). The only downside is that Oxford would be three years.

I'm just after some thoughts in general, really. The main points being:

1) Is it worth doing the A-level?
2) Which accelerated programme is the 'best' - including the most well thought of?
3) Is Oxford a real possibility?

Plus absolutely anything else you have to contribute.

Many thanks in advance for your time.

You are obviously a very capable student; you got into Oxford - a terrific achievement, so why settle for a university like Herts or Bucks? I do think Oxford is a realistic possibility if you redo an A level or two. You should contact the admissions tutor at Harris Manchester College, Oxford (that is the mature college and they are best placed to advise you), ask them whether you would make a competitive applicant with A*, A, B, B, B, B.

If you want a legal career, your alma mater matters. Frankly, you should aim to go to the most prestigious university you can get into. I don't regard the extra years tuition as very important, the odds are you won't repay the loan in full anyway. You should also take into account the fact that Oxford offers quite a lot more in terms of student and travel grants and subsidised accommodation than most other universities.

I don't think A*ABBBB will be considered acceptable, as they will take it as A*AB.

However, I wonder if they would accept Access to HE Law...