Current law students at Bristol: Please help me!
I would appreciate it so very much if a law student (preferably in year 2 or 3 - doesn't really matter too much) at University of Bristol answered a few of my questions. I will pray for your well-being for as long as I live if you help me, I am not even joking.
Questions:
1) Where are some of the alumni that you have met working?
2) Can you tell me something about the availability of academic initiatives, such as sponsored mooting competitions, editorial positions on a student law review, and paid research assistant opportunities?
3) What's the teaching format (tutorials? seminars? classes? lectures?), typical class size, and the typical number of contact hours for students in each of the three or four years of the degree?
4) How responsive are lecturers to emails/queries? Do you feel secure in sending an email and knowing that someone will be happy to arrange a meeting and talk to you about your questions?
5) I am assuming the university offers additional support (e.g. one-on-one sessions with faculty, meetings outside office hours, etc.), however in reality how easy is it to arrange these meetings? Is there always an academic there if you need them throughout the year and the degree?
6) Can you tell me a bit about careers engagement/support on offer? Is it good?
I understand that not everyone has the time to sit down and respond so if you would much rather call me and talk to me about your experience on the phone, please PM me.
Questions:
1) Where are some of the alumni that you have met working?
2) Can you tell me something about the availability of academic initiatives, such as sponsored mooting competitions, editorial positions on a student law review, and paid research assistant opportunities?
3) What's the teaching format (tutorials? seminars? classes? lectures?), typical class size, and the typical number of contact hours for students in each of the three or four years of the degree?
4) How responsive are lecturers to emails/queries? Do you feel secure in sending an email and knowing that someone will be happy to arrange a meeting and talk to you about your questions?
5) I am assuming the university offers additional support (e.g. one-on-one sessions with faculty, meetings outside office hours, etc.), however in reality how easy is it to arrange these meetings? Is there always an academic there if you need them throughout the year and the degree?
6) Can you tell me a bit about careers engagement/support on offer? Is it good?
I understand that not everyone has the time to sit down and respond so if you would much rather call me and talk to me about your experience on the phone, please PM me.
@PlantsGalore74 
[Forgot to say this earlier, but I hope you have a brilliant time at your new place and find the support you need. I hope the very best for you!]
[Forgot to say this earlier, but I hope you have a brilliant time at your new place and find the support you need. I hope the very best for you!]@PlantsGalore74 Also, please when you are free, could you answer a few of my Qs? Thanks!
1) Where are some of the alumni that you have met working?
I've met people from HSF, Slaughter and May, Linklaters, Barclays (their in-house team) and many others! There's a whole lot of events on during the year (before Easter and exams) to help you network with them.
2) Can you tell me something about the availability of academic initiatives, such as sponsored mooting competitions, editorial positions on a student law review, and paid research assistant opportunities?
There's usually 2-3 mooting competitions run by the Law Club (Hunt Cup, Negotiation Competition, Mooting Competition) and I think 5 or so run by the sub-law societies? Student law review, there wasn't any when I started but one appeared just as I was leaving, but the positions all went to the people who were friends with those in the UBLC committee, so... Very nepotistic law club at the moment...
There's minimal research assistant opportunities atm and as there's another strike happening in a few weeks, there may be even fewer opportunities! You can only really become an RA in your third year was they want you to have gotten to grips with the degree bye tim you apply.
3) What's the teaching format (tutorials? seminars? classes? lectures?), typical class size, and the typical number of contact hours for students in each of the three or four years of the degree?
Tutorials and seminars are the same thing at Bristol. My seminars had about 6-20 people in it. Lectures? There's about 450 people in first year and that numbers growing fast, so you could have 450-480 people in your lecture next year! These numbers do trickle down once you get to second year for the modules you get to choose, bu the compulsory modules will have those kind of numbers.
Contact hours? I don't know her... Genuinely, I only say my personal tutor for one module where we had 5 2-hour seminars with her (so 10 hours over 3 months, and then for half an hour where she introduced herself. She left without telling us in the summer of 2019 - only got an email that we were being put into another lecturers tutoring group 2 moths later... Some tutors are good-ish and can see you for an hour every two weeks, but others (like mine) don't bother.
4) How responsive are lecturers to emails/queries? Do you feel secure in sending an email and knowing that someone will be happy to arrange a meeting and talk to you about your questions?
They can be good and reply within a day, or you can have the lecturer that ONLY replies to emails on a Wednesday afternoons, and if your email is too far down and he doesn't see it by 5pm on that day, you have to try again and again. I tried talking to him as we were walking towards the same seminar and was told "just email me". He was about to teach me in 5 minutes and still wouldn't talk as I was in the room waiting.
5) I am assuming the university offers additional support (e.g. one-on-one sessions with faculty, meetings outside office hours, etc.), however in reality how easy is it to arrange these meetings? Is there always an academic there if you need them throughout the year and the degree?
One on one sessions are hard to get and even if you do, they will almost always say something like "I have a meeting in 10 minutes" or spend the fist 5-10 minutes finishing up an email or phone call... If you say you're struggling, they always ask if you think you would feel better with some time away from the university (they have a fitness to study policy, which kicks you out of the school for a certain time and this was brought up to me several times when I experienced disgusting bullying in first year as they thought it was "for the best" if I was removed form the situation - not the people making my life hell)
Meeting out of office? Not a chance unless you get the one glorious teacher who helps the Law and German students. My friend who was extremely high risk waited for a meeting from September 2018 to May 2019 (just before exams would start), and even that was rushed.
6) Can you tell me a bit about careers engagement/support on offer? Is it good?
Oh the Careers Service... I could not begin to explain to you how caring and brilliant those women working there are! They host skills workshops, employment workshops and extra curricular activities to help you CV, and handle the 25,000 students coming to them with careers and postgraduate studies enquiries with an army of just 5 people.
I managed to get in to them just before they removed my details form the system and they helped me with my personal statement so much that I got unconditionals from 3/4 of the unis that have come back with offers for me (still waiting on one). I had doubts about my disability getting me a TC, and they had booked meetings for me for the 2019/20 academic year to go over the Watson Glaser and ensure that my applications would have been perfect before being sent off. Sadly, I never got to have one of the meetings, but one of the women checked up on me to ensure I was okay as she saw I'd been removed from the system and was worried.
It was the only place I could sit and know I'd be okay. Sounds a bit sappy but they are so helpful and understanding - if the Law School had an ounce of the respect and caring these women did, maybe I wouldn't have told them where to stick their degree!
I've met people from HSF, Slaughter and May, Linklaters, Barclays (their in-house team) and many others! There's a whole lot of events on during the year (before Easter and exams) to help you network with them.
2) Can you tell me something about the availability of academic initiatives, such as sponsored mooting competitions, editorial positions on a student law review, and paid research assistant opportunities?
There's usually 2-3 mooting competitions run by the Law Club (Hunt Cup, Negotiation Competition, Mooting Competition) and I think 5 or so run by the sub-law societies? Student law review, there wasn't any when I started but one appeared just as I was leaving, but the positions all went to the people who were friends with those in the UBLC committee, so... Very nepotistic law club at the moment...
There's minimal research assistant opportunities atm and as there's another strike happening in a few weeks, there may be even fewer opportunities! You can only really become an RA in your third year was they want you to have gotten to grips with the degree bye tim you apply.
3) What's the teaching format (tutorials? seminars? classes? lectures?), typical class size, and the typical number of contact hours for students in each of the three or four years of the degree?
Tutorials and seminars are the same thing at Bristol. My seminars had about 6-20 people in it. Lectures? There's about 450 people in first year and that numbers growing fast, so you could have 450-480 people in your lecture next year! These numbers do trickle down once you get to second year for the modules you get to choose, bu the compulsory modules will have those kind of numbers.
Contact hours? I don't know her... Genuinely, I only say my personal tutor for one module where we had 5 2-hour seminars with her (so 10 hours over 3 months, and then for half an hour where she introduced herself. She left without telling us in the summer of 2019 - only got an email that we were being put into another lecturers tutoring group 2 moths later... Some tutors are good-ish and can see you for an hour every two weeks, but others (like mine) don't bother.
4) How responsive are lecturers to emails/queries? Do you feel secure in sending an email and knowing that someone will be happy to arrange a meeting and talk to you about your questions?
They can be good and reply within a day, or you can have the lecturer that ONLY replies to emails on a Wednesday afternoons, and if your email is too far down and he doesn't see it by 5pm on that day, you have to try again and again. I tried talking to him as we were walking towards the same seminar and was told "just email me". He was about to teach me in 5 minutes and still wouldn't talk as I was in the room waiting.
5) I am assuming the university offers additional support (e.g. one-on-one sessions with faculty, meetings outside office hours, etc.), however in reality how easy is it to arrange these meetings? Is there always an academic there if you need them throughout the year and the degree?
One on one sessions are hard to get and even if you do, they will almost always say something like "I have a meeting in 10 minutes" or spend the fist 5-10 minutes finishing up an email or phone call... If you say you're struggling, they always ask if you think you would feel better with some time away from the university (they have a fitness to study policy, which kicks you out of the school for a certain time and this was brought up to me several times when I experienced disgusting bullying in first year as they thought it was "for the best" if I was removed form the situation - not the people making my life hell)
Meeting out of office? Not a chance unless you get the one glorious teacher who helps the Law and German students. My friend who was extremely high risk waited for a meeting from September 2018 to May 2019 (just before exams would start), and even that was rushed.
6) Can you tell me a bit about careers engagement/support on offer? Is it good?
Oh the Careers Service... I could not begin to explain to you how caring and brilliant those women working there are! They host skills workshops, employment workshops and extra curricular activities to help you CV, and handle the 25,000 students coming to them with careers and postgraduate studies enquiries with an army of just 5 people.
I managed to get in to them just before they removed my details form the system and they helped me with my personal statement so much that I got unconditionals from 3/4 of the unis that have come back with offers for me (still waiting on one). I had doubts about my disability getting me a TC, and they had booked meetings for me for the 2019/20 academic year to go over the Watson Glaser and ensure that my applications would have been perfect before being sent off. Sadly, I never got to have one of the meetings, but one of the women checked up on me to ensure I was okay as she saw I'd been removed from the system and was worried.
It was the only place I could sit and know I'd be okay. Sounds a bit sappy but they are so helpful and understanding - if the Law School had an ounce of the respect and caring these women did, maybe I wouldn't have told them where to stick their degree!
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