Unis for law

[Nineafter]

My daughter will be the first in our family to go to uni. She wants to read law but her school - which is inadequate and about to be taken over by an academy trust - are not being very helpful in that they are trying to put her off law and encourage her to read something else instead and convert later to law. She is pretty determined to do law though and has excellent grades - 10 grade 9 at GCSE and is likely to be predicted 3 A stars. She is not the most confident person and feels she is not good enough for Oxford or Cambridge so where else should she apply? Thank you for any help as we do not know about unis.

PS I should add that she wants to be a barrister eventually and has lined up work experience in two London Chambers over Easter - all off her own bat as we have no connections

She sounds bright and motivated which are great places to start.

Oxbridge certainly isn't the only place to go but she shouldn't be put off by her school. She should aim for a range of the top unis for law as she ought to have a good shot of them.

Have a look at The 93% Club too as I think that has mentoring schemes so could be worth a look for help along the way.

She sounds great and you should tell her to think seriously about putting Cambridge as one of her choices. If she is at a failing school she has done brilliantly to get those GCSEs and predictions and with her minipupillages and obvious interest, most good departments will be interested in her.
So for her other choices, in order, I would recommend Durham, one of UCL or KCL if she is prepared to be in London, Bristol, Exeter, and one of Manchester Birmingham Nottingham or York, in that order. If she is putting Cambridge and a London uni down then I would say perhaps choose either Bristol or Exeter but not both.
Also suggest that she goes to her local crown court centre for a few days and watch some trials. She should introduce herself to the court clerk as a local A level student who is going to be applying to read law, and if she gets a nice reaction which she should, then after she has been watching a day or so she could try chatting up the barristers in a break if they seem simpatico. She may well find that she gets some good advice or another minipupillage offer, and in any event the fact that she has bothered to attend court and follow a trial will be a good thing for her personal statement. It is amazing how few law applicants do!

She sounds really motivated you should be very proud.
Barristers will have a law degree or some do have a none law degree and a postgraduate law conversion.
But to be a barrister they also need to do a postgraduate bar practice course.
As they only can have one masters loan then unless they can secure some funding from a chambers then realistically they will end up self funding all or part.
So while you can do a conversion it adds an extra year study and possibly another £20,000-30000 for fees and living costs. Fine if from a wealthy family but how you’ll fund it really needs thinking about.
If your dc wants to study law, study law. It’s an interesting well respected academic degree (I’ve got a law degree). You get to do lots of interesting options not just the 7 core subjects.
Most of the top ranked universities for law require LNAT (law aptitude exam) they take it early yr13. It’s multi choice and essay. Booking opens August before yr13. Use book off Amazon or arbitio to prep.
League table wise for law look at complete university guide and times (guardian table I’d discount for law it’s very odd)
Top law unis are Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Durham, Kings.
Definitely look at diversity and access schemes for first in family to go to university.

Sorry, this doesn't answer your question, but I'm curious about why your daughter's school is discouraging her from doing a law degree. What's the school's reasoning?

(I'd second the advice about visiting a Crown Court but widen it to Magistrates' and Civil Courts too.)

Might be worth making sure that at least one of the Universities she applies to does not require the LNAT (just incase she doesn’t score high enough although she does sound very bright). Exeter & York don’t ask for the LNAT so might be worth including one of them.

A good, achievable option to consider for one of the UCAS choices is LSE's Law and Anthropology degree - AAB entry requirements, no LNAT but still accredited by the Bar Standards Board for the purpose of a qualifying law degree.

Obviously, your daughter would need to find anthropology interesting

I enjoyed my law degree and am a lawyer (and 4 of my children are lawyers). She should aim for the hardest go get into university that she can starting with Oxbridge if she wants to try. Mine didn't try there but three of them rejected Durham (had offers) for Bristol and the 4th went to Nottingham University. Barristers (and indeed solicitors) tend to have the best chance if they go to Oxbridge but plenty of other university feature. Your daughter can have a look online at barristers' chambers' websites where the newest youngest barristers' CVs on there will show where they went. The same can be done for solicitors if you pick a big firm name type into google along with linkedin and trainee solicitor and that will show where people studied.

Good luck.

There should not be barristers offering off the cuff mini pupillages. Most are competitive by application and most go to university students.

However I do completely agree with going to the best university you can get to. What also matters with being a barrister, is where you intend to practice. If you are London based or SE, Manchester is a waste of time. Manchester is a big hitter in Manchester. If you are North or Birmingham, look at Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester and Durham. Durham is the best of those.

If she’s looking to be a barrister in London (DD is) then Oxbridge, Durham, Bristol, KCL, UCL or Nottingham are very good. She can afford LNAT at 3 out of 5. Or even 4 out of 5. Few Oxbridge grads go to the regions to become barristers. London is dominated by Oxbridgeso that’s why university matters in terms of where you work.

Is the school looking at her A level choices and commenting on degree choice? What A levels is she taking and are they right for Law? Cambridge likes 2 from English, Maths, MFL and History for law. Then quite a wide choice of academic subjects for the 3rd A level. Does this match her profile? My DD did a MFL degree then conversion.She’s a barrister. Her friends did classics, history, music and PPE (those I know of). A first in your degree is useful and sometimes schools might suggest go with known strengths. However if she wants law, why not if she can make a competitive application?

The conversion course isn’t so bad if you can live at home. The Inn of Court DD will belong to will have a possible scholarship. They all do for the Barristers training course. Some major scholarships will pay all fees and there are residential scholarships too (in London). They can give you a lot of money! Residential scholarships are means tested but definitely worth investigating.

It’s important to get a scholarship and go to the best university possible and get the best degree possible too. If she doesn’t do law, it must be an academic degree.

Ask away if you need to know more @Nineafter because most teachers have no idea about getting your ducks in a row to be a barrister, and DD went to a very good school.

Forgot to say: Chambers Student and Legal Cheek are good resources for this career as well as the Bar Standards Board. Also see if she can get to an Inn of Court open day. The Inns are Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Grays Inn and Lincoln’s Inn. Have a look at their web sites.