2014 How to Apply to Law School Millenium Education

2014
How to Apply to Law School
Millenium Education
1/1/2014
Applying for Law
Law is an extremely popular degree course and as such offers made by universities tend to be high.
The recent recession has taken its toll on the legal profession. The number of vacancies available to
students wishing to practice law fell during the period 2008 – 2012. However, the improving
economy is seeing the green shoots of recovery in the number of law vacancies across England and
Wales.
A Law degree is the general starting point for most students who want to practice law but there are
a number of routes into Law (see below) and the advice remains that at degree level you should
concentrate on taking a degree in the subject area you enjoy most.
Law graduates will generally aim to become a Solicitor or a Barrister. There are a number of
differences between the two. Solicitors typically deal with the public and generally research and
advise clients on legal practice and the drafting of contracts and other legal documents. They can
appear in court to argue cases but are not necessarily specialist in doing so. A Barrister on the other
hand is trained specifically to argue cases in court and in particular, the higher courts.
The vast majority of law graduates will train to become solicitors. The route to becoming a barrister
can be a long one and in the early years many barristers earn a surprisingly low income.
The decisions as to be a solicitor or barrister can and should be left until the end of your law degree.
The Routes to Becoming a Solicitor or
Barrister
Completing a Law degree is a common starting point to practicing law as a career but many students
don’t realise that you can easily convert switch to law after finishing almost any degree course. We
have outlined the routes to becoming a lawyer below:
Taking a Law Degree
3 years studying for a
Law Degree (LLB)
Students then take a one year course
called the Legal Practice Course ( LPC)
to become a Solicitor
Converting to Law
3 years studying for a
degree
Student take a one year law conversion
course called the Graduate Diploma in Law
(GDL
OR
Take the one year Bar Professional
Training Course (BPTC) to become
a Barrister
Students can then apply for work as
a trainee Solicitor or Barrister
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Students then take the LPC or BPTC
Students can then apply for work as
a trainee Solicitor or Barrister
The total time taken for a student taking a Law degree from the day of starting a Law degree to
entering employment if four years. For a non-Law student, five years.
The National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT)
The National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT) has been developed to test student’s verbal reasoning
skills.
The LNAT acts as an indicator of a student’s ability to develop a key skill required in the legal
profession. It is used alongside A Levels when a candidate is being considered for entry into a Law
School and tries to establish a student’s potential for legal study irrespective of educational
background. It is an online test taken at a specialist centre rather than your school or college.
In theory, you cannot revise for the LNAT but we strongly recommend that students prepare
themselves for the test and are familiar it structure before attempting a sitting. You can only sit the
LNAT once in any given year so you do need to get it right first time.
Millenium Education offers a one day LNAT Preparation course run by experienced tutors. The
courses are designed to give students a full insight into LNAT test, to prepare students for the
LNAT examination and to give guidance on university requirements.
The following universities require candidates to sit the LNAT as part of the application process:
University
Course Code
University of Birmingham
M100, MR11, MR12,
M1N1, M2L6
University of Bristol
M100, MR11, MR12
Durham University
M101, M102
University of Glasgow
M114, M1R7, M1R1, M121,
M1R2, M122, M1R3, M1M9,
M1RR, M1R4, M123, MN11,
MN12, MV13, ML11, MQ13,
MQ15, ML17, MV11, MV15,
ML12, MR17
Kings College London
M100, M121, M122, M190
The University of Nottingham
M100, M101, M1R1, M1R2
University of Oxford
M100, M190, M191, M192,
M193, M194
University College London ( UCL)
M100, M101, M102, M141,
M142, M144, M145, M146
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From the list above you can see that most universities do not ask for the LNAT. Millenium education
advises students to make sure they include in their university choices a small number that do not
require the LNAT.
Key Dates
1) July 2014 – UCAS opens for student wishing to apply for university entrance in September
2015
2) 1st August 2014 – LNAT Registration open. You can go onto www.lnat.ac.uk to register for
the LNAT and book your preferred date and venue
3) 1St September 2014 – you can start to sit the LNAT from this date
4) 5th October - you must have registered to sit an LNAT test by this date if you are applying to
Oxford. Be Warned – they will not accept late applications
5) October 15th 2014 – Applications must be submitted to Oxford or Cambridge
6) October 20th 2014 – You must have sat the LNAT by this date if you are applying for Oxford
7) January 15th 2015 – All UCAS applications for undergraduate courses should be submitted. It
is possible to submit applications after this date but there is the real chance that your
application will not be considered
8) January 20th 2015 – you must have sat your LNAT by this date.
9) March 30th – Most universities will have made you their offers by this time but do see below
for late decisions
10) May 7th – You need to have made your mind about which universities you set as your First
and Insurance choices unless you have not heard from all of your universities, see below for
further information. After this date your offers will be automatically declined
11) May 8th – All the universities you have applied to need to have told you whether they will be
making an offer to you. Whilst most universities will have told you by the end of March
whether they are going to make you an offer some very popular universities will scrutinise
every application and may make a very late offer but they must have done so by the 8th May.
The London School of Economics, University College London and Imperial College often
make late offers because of the number of applications they receive.
12) June 5th – This is the very last date to select your First and Insurance choice universities if
you received offers after the 7th May.
Before You Apply for the LNAT
You must have registered with UCAS before applying for the LNAT. You will need your UCAS
reference number when applying to sit the LNAT. The result of your LNAT test is automatically sent
to your universities.
Booking your LNAT Test
Once you have registered with LNAT you can go ahead and book your test. Costs for 2014/2015
have not been announced at the time of writing but will be in the region of £50. You should reserve
your place for a test as early as possible to ensure you get the date and venue you prefer. This is
particularly important if you applying to Oxford as it must be taken by the 20th October and places
run out quickly. For all other universities you have until January 20th to take your LNAT.
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Remember; you can only sit the LNAT once in any year. If you do sit the LNAT twice the second
sitting will automatically be disqualified. Make sure you are fully prepared for the LNAT before you
sit the exam.
Choosing Your Law Course
Most UK universities will offer Law. With such a wide choice available some research really pays off.
Researching Your Course

Go to www.ucas.com
On the front page you will see the green box entitled Search for Courses. This will then take you to
the course search pages. You will be asked to choose your nationality. You are asked this because it
may have an impact on the fees you are asked to pay and in some cases certain courses may have
been designed for overseas students only.
You will also be asked to choose which course you are interested in. Don’t worry about being too
specific. This works in a very similar way to an internet search. You can type in law and you will be
offered all courses related to law.
You can choose a provider but don’t have to. Our advice is to leave this blank at this stage.
You can choose a location at this stage as well. Our advice is to leave this blank at this stage.
When you press return you will be offered the full range of institutions which offer the law courses
you are looking for. From here you can go into more detail about which courses are on offer and
what the requirements are for each course.
Entrance Requirements
It is essential that you research the course requirements for your course. These will be different for
different courses and for different universities. You can check the course requirements from the
UCAS course pages.
As a general rule you will always be required to have GCSE Maths and English at grade C or above.
The majority of law courses tend not to be subject specific. This means you can do almost any
combination of A Levels but be warned, some A Level subjects are preferred over others (for more
information on this see A Word About the Russell Group below. However, you will be expected to
have some essay based A Levels amongst your choices. You should study at least one of the
following subjects ( if not two): History, English Literature, Government and Politics, Psychology,
Economics or other similar subjects. Surprisingly, taking Law at A Level is not recommended! It is
extremely important that you seek guidance on A Level choices before you start your A Levels. If you
find yourself in the position where you do not have the required A Levels for your chosen degree
course do contact us. There are a number of ways in which the wrong A Level choices can be
rectified.
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Universities will either ask for a specific set of grades e.g. ABB or ask you for a point score e.g. 340
UCAS Points.
UCAS Points are awarded as follows:
A level Grade
A*
A
B
C
D
E
U
UCAS Points
140
120
100
80
60
40
0
Once you have finished researching your course and the entrance requirements the next important
step is to write your Personal Statement
The Personal Statement
Your personal statement is used by universities to help them to select the most appropriate
candidates for their courses. Different universities will give different degree of importance to the
personal statement. However, it is true to say that a good personal statement is very likely to
improve your chances of receiving an offer. A poorly written personal statement can lose you a
place at a competitive university. It’s worth taking the time to do it properly!
Your personal statement can be 4000 characters long or about 47 lines of text. This is about the
same space as you would find on an A4 sheet of paper.
The Personal Statement has two purposes from a universities point of view:
a) To assess your interest to ensure you will be a motivated, committed, hardworking student
and unlikely to drop out half way through the courses and;
b) To assess you academic ability i.e. that you can write a well-structured , well-argued essay,
select relevant information, be concise and carry out research effectively
To help construct your personal statement it helps to break it down into paragraphs. We suggest
that you focus each paragraph on a specific area. We have highlighted the main areas below
Why You Chose the Course





State why you want to do the Law – what attracted you to do Law in the first place?
State why you enjoy the Law and which particular aspects and give evidence of your interest
Identify academic skills needed for the course and evidence showing you possess them
Any evidence of independent study or reading beyond your A Level course
Any future career aspirations
This section should make up 50% – 60% of your Personal Statement (and even more if you are
applying to Oxford or Cambridge. For more information see our How to Apply to Oxbridge Guide)
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Achievements and Work Experience
Do make sure you discuss your achievements and list any work experience you might have had.
Don’t forget that work experience can take many forms and does not only mean work for which you
have been paid. Try and identify the skills that you have learned from your achievements and work
experience. Typical skills developed by work experience can include any of the following:
Listening
Speaking to others
Punctuality
Helpful
Working independent
IT
Responsibility
Empathy
Teamwork
Managing a team
Organised
Approachable
Working to deadlines
Diplomacy
Sensitivity
Problem solving
Using initiative
Confidence
Be careful of claiming skills that you don’t have. You should always put your skills in context to how
you learned them.
Responsibilities
Give examples to show you are self-motivated, self-disciplined, sociable and independent.
These can come from involvement in drama, sports teams, concerts, voluntary work, organising
events etc.
Interests
Your interest shows another side to you. Remember that universities want well rounded individuals
who can cope with the demands of university life.
Interests can include:
Sports, hobbies, the Duke of Edinburgh Award etc. Outline what your interest involves and how it
might be relevance to the course/university life and any of the above skills.
Don’t say socialising or reading (unless its specifically relevant to your course e.g. English Literature)
Structure and Language
Remember the Personal Statement is used to assess your academic ability so the structure and
language you use are important.

Make the space count. Prioritise what you put into your Personal Statement. Your first draft
will probably be too long. Read through your first draft and delete anything which is not
relevant

Use a formal structure… but you choose what it means to you. There is no specific way to
set out your Personal Statement but it does help to use paragraphs to focus on areas as we
have outlined above
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
It is vital to check spelling, punctuation and grammar. A Personal Statement with spelling
mistakes and poor grammar will not impress any admissions tutor. With the spell checker
programs available there is no excuse for poor spelling

Use positive language

Always use an example to give evidence of a skill or quality that you may have

Avoid using “ I am the captain of …” Instead try, “Being the captain of …”
Do’s and Don’ts of your Personal Statement
Do spell check your Personal Statement
Do make sure that your Personal statement will fit into the space provided by UCAS. You can copy
and paste your Personal Statement from whatever word processing programme you are using. You
can preview your Personal Statement before saving it.
Do ask someone else to read through your Personal Statement to check for grammatical errors and
to make sure it makes sense.
Don’t rush your Personal Statement. As a general rule you will have to rewrite your personal
statement a number of times before you get it just right.
Don’t be tempted to copy your Personal Statement. UCAS screens all Personal Statements to make
sure they are not plagiarised. By copying your Personal Statement you run the real risk of your
chosen universities rejecting your application.
Choosing Which Offer to Accept
If you have researched your course carefully, made sure you have read and understood the entrance
requirements and made sure you choices are realistically attainable you should have four or five
offers.
Take your time to think about each offer carefully. At this point you need to be honest with yourself
about how hard you are prepared to work to get the grades required. You will know how well you
are doing in your A Levels and how hard you work. If you are getting C grades now how likely is it
that you will get A grades in a few months’ time?
At the end of the day you can only accept two offers. One is a Firm Choice i.e. your preferred choice
and the other is your Insurance Choice. Typically your firm choice will demand higher grades than
your Insurance choice.
Other factors to take into account are the location of the university, the quality of student life, post
graduate employment opportunities and so on. At this stage, take some time to think your decision
through and talk to your UCAS advisor about what to do.
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A Word about the Russell Group
The Russell Group are a group of 24 universities. The Russell Group itself is a pressure group which
influences government decisions about research funding. Over recent years the Russell Group of
universities have become more important in terms of influencing government decision making and
have also become well known to the wider public.
You will recognise the universities which belong to the Russell Group. Some of its members are
amongst the most highly regarded in the world and all are consistently ranked high in any university
league table. Increasing numbers of students wish to study at a Russell Group university because of
the research facilities they offer and the advantages they can give to graduates in the jobs market.
Crucially they publish a list of preferred or ‘facilitating’ subjects. Ideally, they like to see candidates
taking at least one of the facilitating subjects if not two. The facilitating subjects are:
Maths, Further Maths, English Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Geography and
Languages.
Do make sure you carry out your research thoroughly to avoid wasting an application!
Good Luck!!
Millenium Education is an Education Consultancy dedicated to supporting students and
parents.
We offer private Tuition Support and University Advice as well as preparation for the
LNAT. If you would like to discuss how we might be able to help you or you would like to
organise a consultation please contact us at [email protected] or call 020
3637 1413. We also recommend signing up to our newsletter. We will then keep you up
to date with key dates and courses and make sure that you receive appropriate and timely
advice as you move through the UCAS Application Cycle.
Other Guides you might find useful include:
How to Write Your UCAS Application
How to Apply to Oxbridge
How to Apply for Medicine
How to Apply for Dentistry
How to Apply for Veterinary Science
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