I dropped out of Law - AMA

Did you not enjoy it?

What degree are you doing now?

What was your reason for studying law and what made you change your mind about it? Curious because I am also considering doing a law degree.

My reason mainly was that I did have some vague interest in it and it is an incredible degree to have! however, as I said in my previous post, I do think you really have to know that you will like it. My dislike for it, personally, was too strong for me to actually finish the degree.

What changed my mind was that while it is a good degree to have - I wasn't convinced about being a lawyer. I found it so incredibly boring, majority of the time I couldn't finish the readings. The cases were boring and there was a LOT to memorise, I can't stress how hard and stressful Law actually is. I simply just grew to hate it, especially over the period of summer exams where the exams were worth majority of marks for the first year and it was a mixture of mooting, presentations and problem questions with a few essay questions thrown in. My mental health really suffered as it made me feel like I wasn't clever enough but I never stopped to think and realised that it's just the content that I don't like.

I hope you don't let me throw you off I would try and read first few chapters of some law textbooks i.e contract law, criminal (most interesting imo) or constitutional law to see if you find it interesting. Also, read a few cases as well if you can, especially the older ones as I found those a lot harder. Flick through module pages for Law degrees as well and read the content to see if you find it interesting

No I didn't! I really overestimated how much you actually have to love law to do it at a degree level and it's something that I wouldn't have known unless I chose to do the degree so I don't really regret it. I found the readings extremely dry, I hated the old cases and I hated anything contract related which is what the majority of careers in law require. I also realised how competitive it really is - before I applied for law I researched it a lot but no amount of advice seemed to scare me away. Once you start applying for Insight Days, Vac Schemes etc you actually realise how competitive it is. I was someone that wasn't really convinced I want to be a lawyer so the long application processes and rejections made it even harder for me to stay motivated when I already hated the degree :/

It's also really random but I absolutely hated the way we were assessed especially the constant problem questions and things like mooting. I come from a very essay based/humanities background and I really struggled with it as all I wanted to do is write essays.I am aware that it is a qualifying degree but the lack of choice of modules was annoying as well.


Politics! I originally wanted to do either that or English but was put off by the initial talks about lack of graduate prospects. I realised that it's so important to do what you love as you only really have a chance once. I picked Politics over English as I have a lot of interest in IR and I love everything about my course now, I love that I can pick any modules I want and no amount of reading is boring to me now I have been able to secure a lot of internships in areas that interest me also which is encouraging!

Thank you for doing this interesting AMA.

How easy did you find it to transfer courses and did you stay at your original uni or transfer to another one?

I vaguely knew I'm gonna switch courses by March in my first year but didn't actually make the switch until after May exams because I wanted to give it a last go!

To be completely honest, same careers as I was looking at before except since I am getting high grades as I enjoy the content, I've been able to secure a lot more work experience than before. I'm hoping to get into Politics/IR, potentially civil service - I'm really interested in diplomacy but have enjoyed a few finance internships so I'm not ruling that out

There is a bigger message here that people don't have to stick with courses they are not enjoying. There's no shame in switching courses if you feel you would prefer something else and I'm glad you have found something you really enjoy

No I didn't! I really overestimated how much you actually have to love law to do it at a degree level and it's something that I wouldn't have known unless I chose to do the degree so I don't really regret it. I found the readings extremely dry, I hated the old cases and I hated anything contract related which is what the majority of careers in law require. I also realised how competitive it really is - before I applied for law I researched it a lot but no amount of advice seemed to scare me away. Once you start applying for Insight Days, Vac Schemes etc you actually realise how competitive it is. I was someone that wasn't really convinced I want to be a lawyer so the long application processes and rejections made it even harder for me to stay motivated when I already hated the degree :/

It's also really random but I absolutely hated the way we were assessed especially the constant problem questions and things like mooting. I come from a very essay based/humanities background and I really struggled with it as all I wanted to do is write essays.I am aware that it is a qualifying degree but the lack of choice of modules was annoying as well.


Politics! I originally wanted to do either that or English but was put off by the initial talks about lack of graduate prospects. I realised that it's so important to do what you love as you only really have a chance once. I picked Politics over English as I have a lot of interest in IR and I love everything about my course now, I love that I can pick any modules I want and no amount of reading is boring to me now I have been able to secure a lot of internships in areas that interest me also which is encouraging!

I too changed from law after the first year. I think an important point is that you can always do law after doing a degree in a totally different subject: it was this which motivated me to change. As it was, I didn't go back into law, but I do agree with you that you really do need to enjoy it to make it bearable and do well. Having said that, a lot of my friends were quite open about how much they hated it, but they had no intention to change subjects.

There's a lot of threads concerning actually studying Law but I didn't seem to find many about dropping out.

It was a very difficult decision for me and if anyone is facing that dilemma ask me anything!

(PS I'm not going to encourage dropping out lol just trying to help)

(PS2 I studied at an RG Uni where I stayed on to do a different degree)

Was there a constant pressure?

which uni?

Which university ?

Yes, 100%. Not only in terms of content but majority of the people were very hard working and set the standards very high, there was no point in turning up to seminars and syndicates if you haven't done the work which I feel like I can get away with now (and judging from my friends a lot of them doing different subjects can get away with too but I don't recommend not doing work lol). I felt like the expectations from the professors were very high as well.

Also personally, I am very bad at work/life balance and I used to go out a lot which law people (that I know) didn't do very often (maybe 2 nights a week max) so I kinda shot myself in the foot as I prioritised socialising more and underestimated how much work I actually need to do in order to do well. I then found it really hard to catch up purely due to the amount of content if I even missed one lecture. I constantly felt like I wasn't doing enough which is draining.

There was also pressure to get into committee roles, work experience and getting into crazy networking opportunities like career dinners with magic circle firms - in general, just pressure to get into law from the start. I personally felt like a constant failure when it seemed like 90% of people on my Linkedin/law school were getting into insight days and work experience (a lot due to contacts but that's just life) when I spent like a week doing an application for an event (they are super long especially for magic circle) and got rejected. I wouldn't take this personally though, rejection is a part of the process there's no doubt, law is super competitive and I just wasn't passionate enough.