Dual French /UK National studying law in UK advice needed.

[Wallywobbles]

Hi

DD and I are looking for some information about her options. On another thread, I was told that she should be eligible for home fees as she is a British citizen even though is ordinarily resident in France. We will contact SFE to see if she is eligible for loans. She has savings that cover the first 2 years of fees if they are home fees level.

DD is about to finish her French Bac. She's predicted pretty good grades 15.5 +, and we have been looking at her doing a LLB in English and French Law. Currently, she is pretty certain that she wants to practice in France.

I am keen for her to avoid doing the first 2 years in a French Uni doing law because I think she will be eaten alive. As a result, my first choice is LLB Kings, 2 years at Kings and 2 years at the Sorbonne, which means she comes out with a Masters 1. She needs 16+ at the BAC to get in though. And as yet no offer has been received. She did her LNAT, but we don't have the result yet, but Kings do have them.

She has had a pretty comfortable offer from Goldsmiths, which is currently her first choice, but they are saying that she will need to pay international fees which means it is unaffordable. She likes the criminology and human rights aspects. This is a 3-year UK degree, with no French bit, so I am uncertain if she would then be able to do a Masters in Droit in France, or whether she would then need to do a redo a third year of Licence in France.

We have 4 to put through uni in quick succession and she is the first, so we cannot overstretch ourselves financially for one.

So current questions are, I think:

Is she really eligible for home fees (British but never lived there but lots of family there)?

She'll only be 17 (October birthday) at the start. Does she really need a visa?

Is Goldsmiths worth the money?

Would she have a good time at Kings (she's not overly impressed by the website)?

Would you take a gap year if you were her? She's suddenly gone cold on the idea - not sure if it's due to covid, or the French attitude to gap years, or if it's leaving her boyfriend (she denies this).

Thank you for any help.

We are on our way to Birmingham for an open day tomorrow. Anything we should see in particular?

I appreciate that you probably mean academic facilities / accommodation-wise, but if you can, do make time to drop in to the Barber Institute (art gallery), the Lapworth Museum of Geology if open and if possible, pop over the road (Edgbaston Park Road- the one with the sports centre at the bottom - and also just across and up a bit from the Barber) to Winterbourne House / Gardens/ tearoom)🙂

@Wallywobbles those are all top tips from @MarchingFrogs . Just enjoy soaking up the lovely atmosphere on campus - I've been following the university's Insta feed and it looks fabulous as always. DS started last September sight unseen and was completely blown away. Have a great day.

So far not a great start. Lost in Birmingham city centre looking for specsavers as DD came with no back up vision beyond one pair of torn contacts. So unlike her.

There is a Specsavers in the Bull Ring shopping centre.

Sorry - I think that's Vision Express in the Bull Ring.

Taken her to the goose in Edgbaston for lunch and her first cider on tap! Things are looking up. We are 3 hours late! So moving our sessions to this afternoon. All good.

Results day tomorrow. Slightly scary but it makes no difference as she has the 2 grades they asked for. They just need the official paper and the translation. Nino came through. So has funding. And they have confirmed she can pass her licence during her year (3rd) in France. Looking pretty positive.

That all sounds fantastic @Wallywobbles. Dare I ask how she did? Just been up to Birmingham to move DS into his new house in Selly Oak.

Mention "Bien". So she's done a good job, but wouldn't have got into Kings, so happily not having to deal with that kettle of fish. She's had a bit of a wobble about leaving her mates, but most of them are going away from where we live. Can I ask realistically how many weeks of term there really are. Currently they look a lot longer than I remember them being.

I think the difference is there are now two semesters rather than three terms. In reality DS had about four weeks off over Christmas and another four at Easter and then also had a reading week within each semester. Most of his fiends were finished at the start of June - he was there until the very end because he had an extension on some essays due to a spell in hospital with tonsillitis at Easter. The reality for him is that he he loves being there - we offered to pay for him to come home mid-term, but in the end there was too much going on and he hasn't wanted to.