I can’t. It’s early. What does it stand for?
The London School of Economics (LSE) ranks pretty high for law students in the UK. It has a more eclectic atmosphere than Oxbridge and (I guess) the fees will be lower. The downside is the cost of living in and around London.
South Africa, Ireland and Pakistan.
Does it have to be Oxford or Cambridge? I appreciate the ambition but these are two of the world’s most challenging universities - if you say her grades were good but not stellar, then I don’t think she’ll get a sniff. I think stellar grades are pretty much the baseline for these two places.
There’s plenty of other great universities in the UK where you can study law.
And have a hope of making a career as a foreigner…yeah no. Chances of her getting into the Bar and a pupilage or a training contact after the LPC at a top firm as a foreigner are already slim sans Oxbridge or LSE/UCL or prior professional experience.
Without these, forget it.
The central part of central London.
Queen Marys University is also highly rated, since they i) are very thorough and ii)accept everybody and iii) are in a cheaper part of London.
Two things. The prestige course of English lawyers is the Bar Course and thats very hard to get into. Lots of people go to Oxbridge as a stepping stone to the Bar. (Seriously outside of Oxbridge and the more prestigious London University schools, it was rare finding anyone else, unless the had something from a foreign Unoversity or good work experience. My class had one girl direct from University of Exeter iundergrad, information that usually led to questions of “how” when it was revealed.
Secondly, American Ivy Leagues and top schools are hard to get into, but very difficult to fail. Oxbridge, LSE and the Bar are very easy to fail.
My BiL went to Harvard after Oxbridge and he said the difficulty was much harder in the later. The top American schools are like talent agencies, they select the best but once they have, they expect you to get through. The top English Universities are highly selective as well, but they make you really hard to get by.
(I am not saying one system is better or worse, just that they follow different philosphies).
I had a thought about how much this all might cost:
The UCL website suggests around £15k for general living costs plus fees of £28k, per 39-week academic year. Add in flights between Canada and the uk, and you could well be looking at a total cost of around £50k a year.
I dunno. Both my parents went to Oxford. My stepmother snidely remarked the only reason my mother got in was because all the smart men were off fighting the Germans. I tried the Oxford entrance exams (in Canada) and found them pretty difficult. My dad remarked (from his professorial perspective) that high-school courses are more intense in Britain and university fairly relaxed, while North American high schools teach you almost nothing and then you make up for it by some fairly intensive specialty courses in undergraduate university.
I assume what applied 45 years ago is less applicable today.
I’m sure AK84 is aware of this, but for the benefit of the OP it’s worth being aware of the peculiarities of the British legal system. Britain maintains two types of lawyers - barristers, as AK84 discusses, and solicitors. This link from a British law firm gives what seems to my non-lawyerly eyes a fair summary of the differences.
My experience agrees with AK84’s, that barristers definitely get the prestige and that it’s extremely competitive to get there. I only know one barrister, but despite spectacular academic credentials the only offer from a chambers (organisation of barristers) that he got was at the opposite end of the country when he wasn’t willing to leave London. He’s made a successful career in the law, but it’s been hard work.
Most high school students from any country who want to be lawyers I assume do so because of courtroom drama - i.e. they want to be in court making their case, not doing Land Registry searches to identify the precise boundary of a house being purchased, so they’ll want to be barristers.
But if the OP’s daughter is keen on working with the law in Britain rather than litigating, being a solicitor would make her life a lot easier.
She definitely wants to be in court. She wants to be a prosecutor. So that’s interesting. Thanks!
Despite being more prestigious, many barristers struggle to make a living (and solicitors have more rights of audience in the higher courts than they used to). The criminal bar in particular is poorly paid and the courts service is poorly financed and organised.
I don’t think it is about money for her. It is simply a passion for her. It is like me, I could go into industry and make a lot more money than being in academia, but I like doing the kind of science that I’m doing more so than I would in industry.
Criminal Bar can be very lucrative. If you get established. If. Lots of people struggle a few years and then quit. Tax, Corporate, commercial types do very well. But the places for those are few. Employment law is a good place to go.