I anticipate a 2:1 for my LLB and I am very sure that I am not a top 2:1 in school, most probably around the middle.

Since I am not from a very prestigious law school in my region, I would like to 'rebrand' myself and my qualification.

I would like to seek advice for the following matters:
1. Which universities would be suitable for my situation (without outstanding academic result)

2. how's my chance?

3. If I apply for, like, UCL, KCL, LSE, would it be impossible? What if I choose to specialise in some less popular fields?

4. I understand that my chance would be slim if I ask for a good school due to my academic result. What else do they take into account? Scholarships? Activities outside school?etc.

Thank you very much!

It's hard to say where you should apply to, but I'd say without any additional information regarding your background that with a 2:1 you should apply to at least UCL, LSE, KCL and QM. I know LSE's website say that a first class is one of the requirements, but I've seen people without first classes get offers. Of course they had something else to offset it against, like published articles, scholarships, work experience, teaching experience... amongst other things. Heedlessly of the chances, I'd also apply to Oxbridge. You've got aim high... I have a 2:1 also and I've applied to 11 universities... got kicked in the ass by some, but I've managed to get into others. For ease of reference, I've been offered places at UCL, KCL, QM, Aberdeen and I'm still to hear from Oxbridge. And LSE, Edinburgh and Nottingham have told me to get lost (and I've applied to Dundee and Glasgow too, but considering they hadn't answered when I received my UCL letter, I withdrew my application). My point is, as I've written before on other posts, apply away... Except for LSE and Oxbridge, if you do it online it's for free and worst case scenario you'll get rejected by some and accepted to at least one university. To write a master piece of personal statement and send off solid recommendations is the key to being accepted... in my humble opinion at least

Hi beicon
Thank you so much for your advice and sharing! It helps a lot! It encourages me to stay optimistic! Best luck to your Oxbridge applications!

I am going to graduate in 2011.
So, I guess I still have time to do some more things to make my application look better, like trying to move to the top of 2:1 and to get a paper published. :)

There are some more things I am not clear about

1. Do UK universities emphasise community services? I have taken up posts and duties for a number of community service projects...wondering if this can increase my chance

2. Does mooting experience help?

3. Would my referees 'powerful' enough if they got PhD from top 10 law schools in UK/Canada?

4. Courses required for the completion of my LLB not solely consist of law subjects. Around 10% of courses are language courses and sports classes. I am wondering if the uni would only take into account of the result of law subjects only or the overall result? I realize that those language and sports courses are quite irrelevant to laws.....the programme structure sounds weird but it's my uni's policy :(

Thank you very much!

I really cant answer your questions, but I can give you my profile and the one of the most recent person that I know of being accepted into Oxbridge. It might help you and also might answer some of your questions...

There goes:

Im 26 years old and I graduated at the end of 2007 from one of the best law schools in my country (Brazil). Despite being a great school here, its got zero international projection. Ive been working at law firms since the beginning of the second year of my undergraduate programme and I have luckily participated in some very important transactions in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Therefore I have quite a significant working experience (about 7 years). I havent got anything published neither have I got any community service to back me up. I did ok during my undergraduate programme and I could probably compare my score (7.5 out of 10.0) with a 2:1 in the UK class system. My referees were rather anonymous people from my university in Brazil. Neither one of them have PhDs they have only masters from Brazilian universities. As to IELTS, Ive taken the exam only once and got an overall 8.0.

Ive applied to a total of 11 universities in the UK (Edinburgh, Nottingham, Aberdeen, Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow, Dundee, LSE, Queen Mary, KCL and UCL). I was so anxious about it that I applied to Edinburgh, Nottingham and Aberdeen in July. Now that I come to think of it, I see that my personal statement for Edinburgh and Nottingham was rather poor and no wonder theyve told me to get lost However, for some reason I managed to write a good personal statement for Aberdeen, based on the Oil and Gas stuff, and got an unconditional offer from them. After getting kicked in the ass by Edinburgh and Nottingham, I threw away my personal statement and wrote a totally different one that I used in my applications to Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow, Dundee, LSE, Queen Mary, KCL and UCL. And I must say that then I saw how important the personal statement is Queen Mary, KCL and UCL accepted me. On the other hand, LSE rejected my application. I withdrew my Glasgow and Dundees applications after hearing from UCL and Im still awaiting Oxbridge.

As you can see, Im not really an exceptional person Im quite far from it actually. But anyhow Ive been accepted to great school if you allow me to say so. To what I accredit these offers? I think my personal statement and my coherent professional experience have played the most important part! And I did fairly ok in my undergraduate programme. If I was the one reading my own profile, Id say my chances werent that great, but Ive written my personal statement in such a way that the little things that I had to brag about gained a lot more importance. And given that Ive read my letters of reference, what my referees have said about me added significantly and it was all consistent with my plans for the LLM.

Now, the profile of the guy who got into Oxbridge in 2007.

Same school as me. Almost the same working experience (he started working little after me). But better grades (8.5 out of 10.0) and some teaching experience. But do bear in mind that his teaching experience is close to zero, but he wrote it in such a way that it seemed far better than it really was.

Main point to consider after this gigantic post: Youve got to know how to make every little good characteristic that you have stand out!!! You mustnt lie but if you can manage to make whatever it is that you have look good and coherent, youll probably get offers from universities such as LSE, QM, UCL or KCL - which in my opinion are great schools!!!

Write you personal statement well and if possible talk to your referees to make their letters and your personal statement match up

Regards and sorry for taking so long to reply.

I hope this helps...