Warwick Law

hello! i’m in year 13 and am receiving all my decisions back from unis currently, one of which was warwick- got my offer in january! i haven’t heard of cases where warwick will adjust the offer with a non-contextual student, i must admit, to an a*ab or an aaa. my advice would be to consider applying once you know whether you’re eligible for a contextual offer from their response to your email. if you have mitigating circumstances for your gcse grades (which you’ve said you do) then they’ll consider them in that context. as you’ve said, you’re working hard currently- i’d see what happens with your year 12 exams and year 13 mocks and what grades you achieve. good luck!!

Thank you so much! In that case I’ll definitely wait for their email back and continue working hard to try and get predicted grades that match or exceed their requirements. Congrats on your Warwick offer! If you don’t mind me asking, what were your predicted grades in your subjects and what were your GCSEs grades?

I'm currently in Year 12 studying psychology, philosophy and politics. I'm thinking of applying to Warwick but I don't think I can achieve the standard entry requirement grades for my predicted grades this year (A*AA). Even if I do, I'm not very confident in my current ability to achieve those grades if I were to be made an offer right now. I know things can change but I'm working really hard to improve my grades and listening to all my teacher feedback, but it's somehow just not enough. I am usually eligible for contextual offers, but Warwick doesn't list my school as a KS5 school, and I already know I don't meet their KS4 or postcode requirements. I did email them to ask, but if I'm not eligible, I probably won't receive the contextual offer of AAB. I just wanted to know if there was anyone who has applied to Warwick for the Law LLB course with grades slightly below their standard requirements and has been given an offer that doesn't meet their standard requirements (e.g. applying with A*AB and getting an offer of A*AB/AAA). If so, I definitely would reconsider applying to Warwick for law, as I've looked at their course and the university - both of which I like. Again, I know anything can happen and my grades might improve when I sit my end of year mocks, but I just want to be realistic about my options. Also, my GCSE grades are 876554 with an 8 in English Language and a 5 in maths (I have loads of extenuating circumstances around this so please don't be too harsh). I'd be grateful for any insight that people who have gained Warwick law offers can give me!

Hey,
It’s definitely a stressful time - hang in there!
I’m not really able to help out with the whole contextual offers situation but I do think I may be able to help give you a more realistic picture of Warwick Law. Sometimes before you actually get to uni, the picture you get of uni life is kind of idealistic (that’s just how we’re socialised I think)
You said you liked the course and the university - what are the things you liked? What made you pick Warwick law? Any concerns/questions? What were the things you looked/are looking for when you picked the unis you applied to?
Is Warwick your first choice?

Warwick isn’t my first choice, since I’ve been trying to be realistic with my university choices. It’s more of an aspirational choice, but if they get back to me and tell me that I’m eligible for contextual offers, it will definitely be one of my top 3 choices, alongside Birmingham and Manchester. I like the first year modules in particular. I’m really interested in both tort and criminal law and not many universities I’ve looked at have both in the first year, it’s usually one or the other. I also like the law in context module in first year and the optional modules they have in the following years (e.g. medical law, human rights law, data law). Warwick as a university is one of the more diverse Russell Groups and there’s definitely a strong ethnic community there, which would make me feel more comfortable as a POC. I also like the location, since all my current options are in cities, I think it would be nice to be a little bit further out. I know it sounds weird but Warwick to me is kind of like Oxbridge to most people, in the sense that going there feels so unattainable for someone with my stats and background. I think my only concerns about Warwick are in regards to the teaching. I don’t really know how the law course is taught there and I also don’t know what professors and lecturers are like in terms of support. I probably won’t end up applying to Warwick unless I get predicted grades of A*A*A, since my GCSEs are definitely quite weak, but if I do, then going there would definitely be a goal of mine.

I’m also a POC and I can vouch for the diverse student body!! The student community is definitely one of the best parts about the uni tbh so you’re definitely all good there!!
Location-wise can be either good or bad tbh. I applied initially bc I get really stressed/overwhelmed in big cities like London so I definitely wanted a campus university and geographically it’s in the midlands so very close to big cities like Birmingham etc so not too far to travel which is great bc it helps with networking when you’re looking for a career in law.
However, you should know that Warwick University isn’t in Warwick at all. It’s in Coventry. But not even - it’s on the outskirts of Coventry. So you leave campus and you’re literally surrounded by fields and a railway track site that is always under construction but somehow seems to stay exactly the same. So yeah you get campus accommodation for first year (no catered accom though and some of the options are pretty awful) but thereafter, you either stay in Coventry city (it’s alright but it’s Coventry and nothing really happens there) or Leamington Spa (most people live here, especially if you want a social life - but buses are awful genuinely) or you stay in Canley which is the random area that campus is in where there’s literally nothing but tescos (and other little shops in the same little shopping centre) but apart from dominoes, it’s pretty difficult to get good takeout that delivers. Bus services are horrendous and getting worse. Significantly. Less terrible I think to cob but again, most people live in lean because Leam is nicer and there’s more stuff going on.
Student welfare and wellbeing honestly does not seem to matter to the university. The student community is great but that’s because they have to be - you don’t get support from the university. Disability and welfare team are genuinely awful.
Law school imo is worse for welfare than the uni generally. Esp with disability/mental health stuff imo.
I don’t think they care much about student experience at all.
Also, if you apply for a qualifying law degree anywhere in England you’ll have to do certain core modules - of which both tort and criminal are compulsory. So even if it’s not in first year, you will definitely have to do them and the years go by extremely fast. The optional modules are kind of like specialisations of some core modules. Like medical law will go into more specific elements covered in tort and contract law (tort and contract are two compulsory modules for a qualifying law degree in England) for example. Honestly medical law is pretty great - I loved it but it’s literally such a small aspect compared to the rest of the experience at Warwick law so even though medical law is awesome, it’s just not enough to make up for everything else on its own. Human rights - there are different human rights based optional modules and they vary in terms of enjoyment tbh. Very dependent on the module convenor. But medical law, human rights, data protection are extremely popular specialties of law so you’ll get that at most places. Optional modules also aren’t guaranteed so you might not even get any of your choices (I know someone who didn’t get his top 9 choices and had to get put onto a random one later (for reference, you only get to take like 2 or so optional modules in second year so he had to keep choosing modules after always being told there wasn’t space. It’s not allocated based on merit btw - he did well but the uni and esp the law school are extremely disorganised. So don’t count on specific modules as determining factors as other than the compulsory ones, they really aren’t guaranteed.
When you’re looking at optional modules at specific universities, things like human rights and data protection or medical law are like I said, extremely common everywhere so not a worthwhile factor to be placing THAT much emphasis on when making your decision. Warwick law has got some pretty unique optional modules (ofc again, same issue with difficulty getting a place on the modules bc of poor planning)
Optional modules that are kind of unique at Warwick Law are things like ‘Shakespeare & the Law’ (looking at how law would apply with regards to Shakespearean times and settings) or ‘Islamic Law’ or ‘Transitional Justice’ (human rights based I guess but more specific in that it looks at how law is used in the aftermath of tragedies like apartheid or genocides etc) or there’s one module I think on ‘mooting’ or something - can’t remember the exact name but I think most of the assessment is through like courtroom style debates/mooting I think. I just remember the mooting one being especially difficult for people to get a place on. Unsure if Shakespeare and the law is still running actually. So yeah optional modules also change so kind of an unreliable factor sometimes. But still, modules like human rights/data/medical law will be common in most unis I think.
Warwick does perform well academically though - you’ll likely find a lot of oxbridge rejects lmao and yeah it does do well on the league tables. Don’t expect uni teaching to be anything like school. Lecturers probably won’t recognise you bc there’s so many in a lecture. If you do have one on one contact it’s usually you making an initiative to make an appointment with them but yeah that’s a big step away from what it’s like at school. I think that’s common at uni level though. Just remember Warwick is iffy with their priorities when it comes to student support and wellbeing. Tbh seems more like they’ve got the disability and wellbeing teams so they can say that they have them. Once you’ve been enrolled and paid for your place, doesn’t really seem to matter to them.
But again, truly - the students at uni are really great so it really isn’t all bad. There are pretty great things about Warwick.
Just be aware that the stuff unis advertise is with the intention of having you apply so you can boost/maintain their rankings and fill their pockets with your fees. It’s not actually all sunshine like they make you believe.
I may be a bit cynical so take what I say with a pinch of salt ofc but I think it’s worth looking into informal/non-university sanctioned advice from people who have studied at those unis on forums like this because it’s hard to get a picture of what the day to day is like from their promos

Thank you so much for the insight this has been really helpful! I know student support at most unis isn't amazing but it is disappointing to know that Warwick's is lacking particularly. That's something I've been keeping in mind a lot when applying to university. I'll be honest, I mainly like Warwick for the student environment, but I know that there are lots of Oxbridge rejects, and being from London, Brampton Manor and LAE people too. It did seem quite competitive, but I'm grateful you've told me a bit more about the nature of student life there. I didn't know you could get rejected from optional modules, so that's 100% something that's making me rethink. Again, I was only going to apply to be aspirational, but I think I'd rather play it safe and keep Sheffield on my list. My plan is to do an LLM after my undergrad anyway, so I might re-visit the idea of Warwick again then (as well as US unis, Oxbridge and LSE). Thanks again for the insight I really do appreciate it!

You don’t get rejected exactly from optional modules - it’s just that there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a space
First year is 100% only compulsory core modules. It’s from 2nd year onwards at Warwick law that you can pick some optional modules alongside the compulsory ones.
The optional modules are basically (more or less) the same ones that are available to all law students (except first year) so there’s a deadline to submit your preferences but even then it’s not guaranteed. You have to submit your choices as well as reserve Choices. See because the optional modules are optional it’s not a requirement to take any one of them to get the qualifying law degree.
So for stuff like tort or criminal which everyone HAS TO TAKE in order to get the qualification, there are more lecturers and staff essentially to teach them as well as dedicated spaces for large groups (bc everyone in the year has to do them) and they are pretty much guaranteed to be on the timetable. But the optional modules are more specifics areas of law that some may take and some may not so usually there are considerably fewer people (compared to core modules which have hundreds bc it’s the whole year doing it) and also it’ll be professors who personally specialise in those areas of law who choose to teach those specific optional modules. Rather than the really general core modules. Remember how I said medical law was a like a more specific part of a topic in tort law and a part of contract law too? So it’s essentially like going from combined science in year 7 to specialising into bio, chem or physics at gcse (but harder lmao) if that makes sense?
So fewer professors to actually teach and won’t so many optional modules there are limited scheduling opportunities. Made worse by the fact that all optional modules (more or less) are open to all law students (excluding first years) so if you’re in 2nd year, law students in third or fourth year will get preference over spaces in the optional modules.
So it’s weird like that. There’s just limited spaces and it’s just that there always loads of people who want to sign up (unless it’s a really REALLY dead module) so they give preference to final year students and then give what’s left over to second year students. So you may not get what you want in second year (or you might!) but in third/final year maybe the professor who teaches the module goes on an exchange programme for their own research or something - that module may not run. So there’s no guarantee on optional modules if that makes sense