I received a 'weak' first from a Sandstone university

I am tossing up now between UCL/LSE, sticking with practice or trying for US universities next year.

Dear all,

I have been silently following your threads and until now I never felt the urge to voice my feelings, but it's now late March and I am going bonkers!

On one hand, not having been rejected yet gives me a glimmer of hope. On the other hand, mabye Cambridge is just contacting those people who:

A) Get an offer in the first place, or
B) Call the office to expedite learning the much dreaded news.

I have a good First Class degree from a not-so-good UK University (though my first and second year grades were not First class at all... I am not a native English speaker so it took me a while to hone my linguistic skills - particularly with regards to legal jargon) and I speak a few languages.

At present I am currently taking a gap year in China where I am learning Mandarin and teaching on the side. Being admitted to Cambridge would mean the world to me and I would be looking forward to meeting all of you next year...

Best of luck if you too are still waiting and remember: until you're rejected, you're admitted!

J.

On one hand, not having been rejected yet gives me a glimmer of hope. On the other hand, mabye Cambridge is just contacting those people who:

A) Get an offer in the first place, or
B) Call the office to expedite learning the much dreaded news.

On one hand, not having been rejected yet gives me a glimmer of hope. On the other hand, mabye Cambridge is just contacting those people who:

A) Get an offer in the first place, or
B) Call the office to expedite learning the much dreaded news.

Given the fact that successful applicants' self-service has yet to be updated, I wouldn't spend too much time checking. I suspect that Camsis will only be updated on 15 April.
For those of you still waiting, it may be good idea to call the Law department and ask them how many places remain. That's an indirect way of asking whether there remain any offers to be made...
Best of luck to you.

From what I have read on past threads, nobody's self-service page has been updated just yet. If I am not mistaken, not even offer holders' - many of who seem to be still waiting for the admission pack to be dispatched to them.

On this forum, the only candidate who has received a negative response (after calling the office a week earlier) did get an email. Consequently, from what I gather, the Board of Graduate Studies does email unsuccessful candidates. It is more likely to learn of rejection by email than on self-service page, which Cambridge does not seem to update that promptly - to say the least.

I dare to construe that the admission process should be roughly based on the following logic:

- Both outstanding and inadequate applications have probably received an offer/rejection at a much earlier stage i.e. December/January (though, frankly, I haven't read of many unsuccessful applicants, but that may be only a matter of pride - when everyone on LL.M. guide is getting offers, it's just not that easy to write 'I haven't.')

- Borderline applications are compared against each other AS WE TYPE. There is only a limited number of places on the LL.M. programme, and as I am sure, everyone's application has its merits, one way or the other.

There are now two key factors that I feel we are left to lit candles and give up chocolate for:

A) It is likely that a number of outstanding applicants have also received offers from Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU and so on. As incredibly as it is, Cambridge is somebody else's choice B or even C. When they decline their offer (which should be anytime between the time the offer was made and six weeks thereafter), Cambridge then pools less outstanding applicants. (And that would hypothetically be me since I am still waiting.)

B) It is my belief that all not-so-outstanding candidates have their appeal to Cambridge, otherwise it would have been easy for the Board of Graduate Studies to just push the 'reject' button and send everyone a polite automated email saying 'thanks but no thanks' in zero time.

I believe that what it really comes down to is the following. At present, the class of 2010 has already roughly formed. There must be a number of mature students, a number of international students, a number of european students and a so on (whichever the categories are). What it boils down to is: who is the class lacking of? Who is Cambridge looking for at this point? Which candidates do they have enough of? Are they looking for international students? Are they looking for home-students? Are they looking for qualified lawyers?

Whoever is the lucky candidate that matches the criteria we will never know about - not even through tarot I'm afraid, I sure wish it's you, and I sure wish it's me!

PS: Please don't take these speculations that seriously. These crazy patterns are what I come up with during the time I spend obsessing about Cambridge, which is dangerously increasing. It is not my intention to offend anyone or categorise. What I really want to say is: until we know, we don't. It is however a pleasure to share my worries and I wish I started earlier!

Good luck, Juliette!
in the meantime, if you have any Cam questions - ask. I am doing LLM there right now. What I noticed that the whole Cam group could be split into 2 parts: people with very typical background (the more classic - the better) and the unusual bunch. The first one consists of people with your top law school educational background: a top bachelor degree in a renown university and only 1-3 years of experience (most of them have none). I believe the professors consider them fresh and unspoiled material from which they can make something. The second bunch is much more fun - as people came to law/LLM through other professional experiences. We have guys who never studied law before but have a pretty outstanding career in finance, we have a retired local court judge, we have a guy who worked in human rights, we have a guy who runs a brewery with his father (by the way, this guy has some of the best legal brain I have ever seen), we had someone who was in the army for quite a while. Do not get me wrong - while these people are not planning to be lawyers, they have outstanding knowledge of a particular are of law they want to specialise in, much better than a typical guy from the first camp. Hence, if you belong to one of these camps, it will be better for you, if you are somewhere in the middle - will be tougher...

I received a 'weak' first from a Sandstone university

Given the previous discussions in this thread (and others) on what a 'first' means, I'm curious as to what you mean by this?

The faculty says they think decisions should be made by the end of this Thursday.

Im iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!!
just got email from Susan Wade. im still shocked........

Congratulations afrolaw! You must be absolutely stoked.

I hope they put the rest of us out of our misery by Thursday, as suggested above. It would be nice to have closure before the Easter long weekend...

Congrats afrolaw! Dear everyone, I know no one has receive an official letter of offer yet, but does anyone know who I can contact on this? My scholarship condition requires proof of me receiving and accepting an offer by this 30th April. Either I end up losing the scholarship or I have to take up an offer from another university..

Congratulations afrolaw! You must be absolutely stoked.

I hope they put the rest of us out of our misery by Thursday, as suggested above. It would be nice to have closure before the Easter long weekend...

Congrats afrolaw! Dear everyone, I know no one has receive an official letter of offer yet, but does anyone know who I can contact on this? My scholarship condition requires proof of me receiving and accepting an offer by this 30th April. Either I end up losing the scholarship or I have to take up an offer from another university..

Well Melbsolicitor we are among the few Australians waiting... who knows whether that is good or bad

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday as in... Today?

I emailed her twice, but no reply. Perhaps high time I should call her.. I'd better check the time difference here and in UK before I make that phone call..

Final decisions can't be made yet - they haven't even sent out the acceptance package, and before deadlines for enrolment are passed they cannot know how many replacements they are going to need...

Just received my rejection. I sent Mrs. Wade an e-mail two 2 ago, though. At least now I know for sure I am happily going to LSE! The waiting is over.

seriously..a reply would set me at peace too. the llm decisions are turning out to be pricier than my girlfriend who responded to my proposal after what seemed like an eternity