KCL, UCL or LSE for law

[AngieRaynersDJ]

Any advice please on which of these three to choose for law? My daughter wants to throw one London option into the mix. She is a home student at a state grammar and will not be eligible for a contextual offer. Her other choices are Cambridge, Bristol, Durham and Exeter. TIA

@AngieRaynersDJ

I would suggest King's as first choice, UCL second and LSE third.

Kings or UCL whichever she likes the vibe of most. Kings is glossier, great campus, UCL in shitty 60s buildings but both have excellent law faculties.

UCL in shitty 60s buildings

That would be the Grade II listed 1950s Bentham House with the late 2010s redevelopment?

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/news/2018/mar/ucl-faculty-laws-delighted-return-home-bentham-house

Were you there for the period when the department had to decamp to somewhere else?

I was at UCL in the 80s I didn't even notice the buildings. My best friend was at Kings and my girlfriend was at LSE, I didn't notice their buildings either!

You must admit Bentham house despite being refurbed a while ago can’t compete with the Somerset-house located Dickson Poon school of law. Im fond of UCL - guest speaking at the law school next month actually - campus is pretty shitty compared to KCL. As I say, go with vibes and what you prefer!

To be fair in the 80s all three were as shitty as each other. KCL and LSE are unrecognisable today from how they were in the 80s, having zillions spent on them (Bush House, anyone?) but UCL is not so different. In Bloomsbury anyway. It has spent most of its money in Stratford.

How eccentric of UCL. We always were a bit maverick! You have to admit UCL has the best geographic location. How do you even get to the other two? Temple Tube? Bus?
UCL has Euston and Euston Square and Warren Street. And in a desperate pinch TCR.

Holborn or temple or Charing CrossEmbankment and bus it/walk. Or for the Maugham library Chancery Lane or Farringdon (lizzy line now)

Actually, parts of LSE (the Old Building, at least) are at least vaguely similar to how they were when I was there '82 - '85. Was still quite relieved when DD looked a few years ago and decided she didn't want to go there, though. Hanging out on TSR had warned me that the place was pretty much up itself nowadays - not at all my experience, or perhaps my department was an anomaly. The Admisdions talk on their open day did nothing to refute the view gleaned from TSR, sadly.

But the campus is so amazingly changed compared to then and they have all those fab shiny new/restored buildings in the central bit (Portugal st?) as well as on Lincoln’s inn etc. I worked next to the lse campus full time from 2010-15 and still do a few months a year - as most of the work was being done - and it is really transformed! I agree there isn’t much left of the old ethos though sadly. Not sure about your geog dept but the rest of it is all arrogance and master of the universe bullshit and precious little of the old firebrand politics, sadly

I agree on Kings & UCL above LSE and not because of the buildings or the status of the universities, but because LSE has 70% overseas students as undergraduates. Its not a bad thing, but it is a very high proportion of students who possibly won't be around during breaks or at the end of their course, except for those seeking work in London immediately after.

@AngieRaynersDJ As buildings make little difference to employment, a casual glance at the Complete Uni guide ranks UCL at 2 and LSE at 3. Kings at 5. Therefore I’d look at where she actually would like to be in London and the vibe of the uni. I suspect law at lse is quite small and not sure of overseas ratio. If that is of concern, maybe check it out. Also where she might live and costs. They are all going to give grads a great platform for work and it’s difficult to split them academically.

I’d recommend going to open days. We visited both for law last year and much preferred Kings. FYI you need to sign up for kings law talk aswell as book on open day. The student room forum is good for lnat info - I know home students needed over 30 on lnat for both this year.
How is lnat going? 4 out of 5 lnat is putting all eggs in one basket if she has a slightly off day and drops a couple of marks that only leaves Exeter.

They won’t all want 30 though. So a few marks down might rule 2 out but others will have a greater range of scores obtained successful candidates. A levels and GCSEs will be weighted too.

Still need to be scoring high 20s as an home none contextual. If slightly off your best on day for whatever reason and potentially 4/5 out of running. It’s a risk as you don’t know lnat score until mid February. Obviously if dc happy with clearing or gap year not an issue.

I went to Lse for law - there was a sizeable uk population and I made great fiends. Also we had every single law firm courting us. 15 years on pretty much everyone in my year is super successful - partner in good law firm or good in house

@Investinmyself For Bristol? Or Nottingham? Not sure candidates do. Obviously better if you can. It’s more strategic not to overload with those requiring the highest scores - I do agree. That off day would be an issue. I would say 2 requiring very high LNAT, 2 lower LNAT and 1 not needing it. I’m not convinced London unis are better than Durham or Bristol in the real world. Employers want people who pass their recruitment hurdles. They don’t turn away Bristol grads if they excel in every other way.

Nottingham isn’t lnat.
Not as clued up on Bristol law (wasn’t on our list) but know a dc that got offer for this year was high lnat scoring.
Average lnat score this year was 23/42. Slightly off day and potentially only Exeter in frame. It’s a risk.
There was a dc on another forum this year badly advised by school to apply all lnat and had zero offers despite Astar predictions.
The student room forum is good for lnat info.

Of those 3 UCL

@Delphigirl 'My' department was the small but perfectly formed Demography (the baby sister undergrad degree being BSc Econ. Population Studies), although the standard textbook for one of our first year couses was a Human Geography one. The department was apparently subsumed into Social Policy and Administration (now just Social Policy?)
at some point, I believe.

Having trained as a nurse pre-university, I also worked for a time at St Philip's Hospital in Sheffield St, subsequently acquired by LSE demolished to be replaced by the 'interesting' SU building.

Random things I really do miss from my time at LSE, apart from some great and on the whole not at all self-important academics, are Music Soc (although I did carry on as a choir member until the late 1990s) - and the paternoster lift in one of the other buildings now demolished.

I did a PGDip in the Centre of Medical Law & Ethics at KCL, albeit well before the DP donation - agree with you about the setting

King's is above UCL which is above LSE on this listing which is usually pretty good albeit a bit out of date now https://www.chambersstudent.co.uk/where-to-start/newsletter/law-firms-preferred-universities-2019. (I am a lawyer with 4 lawyer children - youngest 2 qualified this year).

I enjoyed my LLB but do remember 50% of potential solicitors choose to do a different first degree first (although that makes it a bit more complicated at post grad stage for complex reasons I won't bored people over here).

Oh sorry @MarchingFrogs , I confused you with another lovely long term poster who was an LSE geographer.
so sad about the pasternoster’s demise, one of the best things about visiting my daughter at Sheffield Uni was a ride in the Arts Tower’s paternoster lift!!!

@Investinmyself I did think Nottingham was LNAT but currently not. They are top 10 and worth a place on a shortlist.

Is LSE a small cohort so not number heavy in big brand institutions?

Yes Nottingham well worth a look as a none Lnat.
I do think you need to consider psychological impact of no offers. Some dc might not care (gap year planned) but if everyone else getting offers it can be a blow. A few decent offers before mocks can give them a nice boost.
Aim high but I’d also factor in a couple of none lnat - lots of very well regarded for law are none lnat.

Look at the content of the courses. LSE is much more focused on the philosophy and principles behind law than others. It suited my daughter well, but it wouldn’t work for everyone.