HELP! Law vs Economics

Sara2007

I’m trying to decide between law or economics for university and I would appreciate any advice 🫶

Pros and cons for each subject?

Does law involve a lot more independent study than other subjects?

What is a good LNAT score for Russell group universities?

What careers arise from doing an economics course?

Original post by Sara2007

I’m trying to decide between law or economics for university and I would appreciate any advice 🫶
Pros and cons for each subject?
Does law involve a lot more independent study than other subjects?
What is a good LNAT score for Russell group universities?
What careers arise from doing an economics course?

Answering the economics side of your queries:

What are the pros/cons for each subject?

Bit of a pointless question in my opinion - what is a pro of an econ degree for one person can be a con for another student studying the exact same course. Without more information about the sort of things you want from a degree and what you think you might enjoy, any response beyond "it depends" will be spurious and useless.

What careers arise from doing an economics course?

Probably 90% of careers don't require you to have studied a specific subject at university, so you'll be able to do basically any career that doesn't obviously require a certain degree that's not economics (e.g. becoming a doctor/lawyer/engineer/etc etc).

A more useful question is what sort of careers do economics graduates usually go into. Here, I would say that the majority of economics grads I know generally go into one of finance, consulting or the civil service/public sector policy roles. Obviously it will depend where you study and where you want to work after uni (e.g. probably not a tonne of investment banks in Middlesbrough if you wanted to work there for example haha), and what you're actually interested in.

But the three groups I mentioned are quite broad, finance covers lots of areas like investment banking, trading, research, private equity, venture capital, commercial banking, wealth/asset management, etc. Econ grads looking to work in the public sector can go into the generalist fast-stream but you see most in the Government Economic Service (largest employer of econ grads), the Bank of England, as well lots of other smaller public sector organizations. The UK has a big consulting industry so lots go into that too, whether that be more traditional consulting (management & strategy consulting), economic consulting (usually microeconomic/competition focused) or working in more generalist roles at big consultancies (e.g. in audit, assurance, etc).

Now, lots go into roles outside these three broad areas, but I would say these areas are generally the most popular and soak up probably the bulk of economics grads at the good-to-elite universities.

Reply 2

Sara2007

OP

3

Original post by BenRyan99

Answering the economics side of your queries:
What are the pros/cons for each subject?
Bit of a pointless question in my opinion - what is a pro of an econ degree for one person can be a con for another student studying the exact same course. Without more information about the sort of things you want from a degree and what you think you might enjoy, any response beyond "it depends" will be spurious and useless.
What careers arise from doing an economics course?
Probably 90% of careers don't require you to have studied a specific subject at university, so you'll be able to do basically any career that doesn't obviously require a certain degree that's not economics (e.g. becoming a doctor/lawyer/engineer/etc etc).
A more useful question is what sort of careers do economics graduates usually go into. Here, I would say that the majority of economics grads I know generally go into one of finance, consulting or the civil service/public sector policy roles. Obviously it will depend where you study and where you want to work after uni (e.g. probably not a tonne of investment banks in Middlesbrough if you wanted to work there for example haha), and what you're actually interested in.
But the three groups I mentioned are quite broad, finance covers lots of areas like investment banking, trading, research, private equity, venture capital, commercial banking, wealth/asset management, etc. Econ grads looking to work in the public sector can go into the generalist fast-stream but you see most in the Government Economic Service (largest employer of econ grads), the Bank of England, as well lots of other smaller public sector organizations. The UK has a big consulting industry so lots go into that too, whether that be more traditional consulting (management & strategy consulting), economic consulting (usually microeconomic/competition focused) or working in more generalist roles at big consultancies (e.g. in audit, assurance, etc).
Now, lots go into roles outside these three broad areas, but I would say these areas are generally the most popular and soak up probably the bulk of economics grads at the good-to-elite universities.

Thank you, this is really helpful with thinking about future pathways after university.

Reply 3

_Blessing_

6

Hello 👋 currently a Y13 wanting to fo law so I'll try and answer the law side for now until someone who has a better idea fully answers them instead for you.

What are the pros/cons for each subject?

•

As stated above by Ben the pros and cons may differ for each person. While one may enjoy the independent study time giving to students another might prefer the face to face lectures giving by the professors so it will only really depend on your preferences. I'd suggest having a look at around at how both courses are offered by different universities and see which one you would enjoy more. Think about the type of modules you'd prefer, types of exams done and just what you would see yourself doing in the future.

Does law involve a lot more independent study than other subjects?

•

Yes, law tends to be a very independent degree in fact most universities making so that 20% of a term is lecturer/seminars whilst the leftover 80% is independent study. This will obviously vary between uni to uni but this seems to be the standards. Independent study will involve a lot of readings, going over lectures, group work and essays.

What is a good LNAT score for Russell group universities?

•

There are now only 10 universities that require the LNAT - Uni of Nottingham don't require it anymore and SOAS don't necessarily require it but may look at it as a deciding factor if you have lower A levels. Every other university does not care about your LNAT and will not be able to see your results for it either ways. In the LNAT there are two sections:

•

Section A: MCQs - the average score is around 22/42 showing how hard it is. To have a fairly good chance of being accepted onto all the LNAT universities 26 marks with high a levels is good. Even if you do get below this, then it's fine as students have been known to be accepted in their university with a 16 (with good a level or personal statement) though it's not common.

•

Section B: This is the essay section and is marked differently by each university. Some universities place a higher importance in this than Section A. For example Oxford and UCL place a much higher emphasis on it and are know for accepting students scoring mostly higher than 60%. The average score on this section is 52%.

Reply 4

Sara2007

OP

3

Original post by _Blessing_

Hello 👋 currently a Y13 wanting to fo law so I'll try and answer the law side for now until someone who has a better idea fully answers them instead for you.
What are the pros/cons for each subject?

•

As stated above by Ben the pros and cons may differ for each person. While one may enjoy the independent study time giving to students another might prefer the face to face lectures giving by the professors so it will only really depend on your preferences. I'd suggest having a look at around at how both courses are offered by different universities and see which one you would enjoy more. Think about the type of modules you'd prefer, types of exams done and just what you would see yourself doing in the future.

Does law involve a lot more independent study than other subjects?

•

Yes, law tends to be a very independent degree in fact most universities making so that 20% of a term is lecturer/seminars whilst the leftover 80% is independent study. This will obviously vary between uni to uni but this seems to be the standards. Independent study will involve a lot of readings, going over lectures, group work and essays.

What is a good LNAT score for Russell group universities?

•

There are now only 10 universities that require the LNAT - Uni of Nottingham don't require it anymore and SOAS don't necessarily require it but may look at it as a deciding factor if you have lower A levels. Every other university does not care about your LNAT and will not be able to see your results for it either ways. In the LNAT there are two sections:

•

Section A: MCQs - the average score is around 22/42 showing how hard it is. To have a fairly good chance of being accepted onto all the LNAT universities 26 marks with high a levels is good. Even if you do get below this, then it's fine as students have been known to be accepted in their university with a 16 (with good a level or personal statement) though it's not common.

•

Section B: This is the essay section and is marked differently by each university. Some universities place a higher importance in this than Section A. For example Oxford and UCL place a much higher emphasis on it and are know for accepting students scoring mostly higher than 60%. The average score on this section is 52%.