Making the leap between school and university can be a stretch at the best of times, but for UK law students it can be a real struggle. As there is no requirement to study law at school before beginning an undergraduate programme, many new law students have a very limited knowledge of how the law works and what they can expect from their studies.
We asked a group of 77 law students from around the UK about how they prepared for their courses. It turns out, only a third of them did any reading before starting, but a vast majority would have done, if only their university had given them a bit of advice.
The post Challenges facing UK law students appeared first on OUPblog.
Maybe I’m never supposed to admit this in public, but here goes:
When I was in high school, there was a soap opera called Ryan’s Hope. And on that soap opera was a beautiful, smart, tough, sexy, overdramatic character that a LOT of things happened to, because it was a soap opera, and she had awesome hair and she was beautiful and smart and she was a lawyer.
I went to college and majored in English. Then Philosophy, then Management Information Systems (the old-fashioned name for Computer Science), then Secondary Education, then Elementary Education, back to English, then Accounting very briefly (it was close to my senior year, and I knew very soon I’d have to support myself and needed a practical degree), then back to English (because forget being practical, this is ME! I love books! I might be an English professor! Shut up! I just want to read!), and by then I just needed to graduate, so I stuck with English.
And because I still needed to support myself, I thought what the hey, let’s take the LSAT (the admissions test for law school) just for fun, and then I scored really high, and my course was set.
But really it was because of that character on Ryan’s Hope. She made it all seem so cool and glamorous. I’m really impressionable that way.
And now today I saw this. And I’m telling you, if I’d seen that back when I was in high school or college, there’s no doubt in my mind I still would have become a lawyer. Because Amy Poehler nails it:
And also this:
By Nancy Levit and Douglas O. Linder
So you’re going to law school this fall. Congratulations! Getting in wasn’t easy. Last year 155,000 people took the LSAT. The 201 ABA accredited law schools across the country received about 88,000 applications. Only 49,700 students matriculated.
Obviously you’re a hard worker (or you wouldn’t be coming to law school and you wouldn’t have read past the first paragraph), so you may be wondering what you can do the summer before to prepare yourself for law school.
First, let’s get the legal disclaimers out of the way. There are no guarantees, warranties, or promises of any kind; there is no magic bullet for preparation. There are, however, a few tips toward a happier and more productive beginning that we will offer you.
1. Get Situated
More than one-third of you will be going to law school in some place other than your home or college town. It is important to have housing set up so you can move in at least several weeks in advance. Find the stores you’ll need, arrange your banking, stock up on supplies and grocery staples. Students struggle when they land suddenly in a new town and promptly start law school. Law school requires more focus than other forms of education. It starts immediately, and is difficult at first because students may be called on to speak in class or have writing assignments due. If you get behind in the first few foundational weeks, it will take a lot of work to catch up later. In undergraduate lectures, you were free to fall asleep perusing Facebook. Not anymore.
A colleague of ours, Dean Barbara Glesner Fines, has posted her wonderful Orientation speech online, emphasizing that there are better and worse times to begin law school, and the worst time to start law school is at the same time that you start (or end) a marriage, or have a new baby, or are newly diagnosed with a chronic illness. In other words, any time you’re facing significant personal challenges. Arrange for your law school computer or any upgrade at the beginning of the summer, so you have plenty of time to become familiar with it. In short, get the distractions out of the way.
Don't wait if you need an upgrade. (Image: Legally Blonde)
Related to the issue of getting situated is the idea of establishing residency for both bar and tuition purposes, depending on your state’s and your school’s rules. Top-Law-Schools.com has posted a guide to “Law School Residency Issues by State,” covering 23 states.
2. Mental Preparation
Two of the major law school stressors are a fear of failure and fear of the unknown. We’ll tackle fear of failure first, since it’s the one most often voiced by students. Nationwide, very few students are dismissed for academic deficiency. Professor Michael Olivas, who specializes in higher education law, says “In most law schools, only a small number of students fail because of poor academic performance.” It is not like the Kingsfieldian sort of imprecation, “Look to your left, look to your right, one of you won’t be here next year.” (In fact, at our law school, we say, “Look to your left, look to your right . . . you are looking at people who will be friends and professional colleagues for the next thirty years if you treat them right.”)
When students “fear failure
