Congratulations to everyone who was lucky enough to be offered a place on the Oxford BCL. Getting into Oxford is very impressive, and even more when you are accepted to do Law. I have no doubt that each and every one of you truly deserved it.

Moving on to the million dollar question: (I have read all the BCL pages on the website, but I would like to hear it from the people themselves) What does it take?

Any response would be of so much help to many of the people who are looking to apply, such as myself.

So, could you be kind enough to tell us a little bit about the following:

- your degree classification
- number of placements that you have done
- work experience, if any?
- anything that you believe has enhanced your application

Not much can be said about the statement and the references, really, but any information regarding the above would be absolutely great.

I know I, as well as many other people in this discussion board, would be thrilled to see some responses.

Cheers!

I am sure there is someone out there who could tell us something

Can tell you as far as Cam LLM is concerned but the requirements should be similar/same for Oxford.
1. Academics = 1st class, GPA of at least 3.8 out of 4, mostly A grades for undegrad
2. Recognisable university (basically one of the best universities in a respective country)
3. Better to have 1-5 years of work experience in a law firm (the better name of the firm the better)
4. Participation in noticeable cases and publications will also help
5. Good references - i think it is always better to give one good academic and one professional reference

At private equity, in other words the very best of the best? Are Oxford and Cambridge very strict on the 1st class requirement/absolutely not willing to take anyone with a 2.1?

You can try but I have doubts....The thing is they do not need to drop their standards. They have the top candidates from all over the world applying to them. I think the ratio is at least 10 suitably qualified applicants per 1 place...Why would they consider 2.1 if they do not have enough places for people with 1st? However, if you are planning to specialise, say, in IP and have a track record of achievements in this field despite lower grades elsewhere, maybe this can change things a bit...

This is also for Cambridge LLM, and just based on my personal experience:

1. Academics: I was top 15 percent in my law school class. Not from the UK, so that wasn't ranked as 1st class vs. 2:1. I was at the very top (~ 1-2%) of my undergrad class, but I don't recall to what extent they asked for that on the Cam application.

2. I went to one of the top two universities in my country.

3. I had two years of work experience at a private law firm, and two years of experience working for the judiciary.

4. I had ~ 1300 hours of pro bono experience. However, I did not have any publications (one of my reasons for seeking admission to the LLM program was/is to change this).

5. I had strong references - two law school professors and one of the judges that I worked for.

Hope this helps...

I'm doing BCL at the moment so studying very very hard for exams - it's torture!

My qualifications:
- I went to one of the top law schools in Australia and finished with a 1st class average (although to be honest probably at the border between 1st and 2A).
- I worked in various law firms for 3 years prior to applying.
- No publications, no token 'I want to save the world' internships and only some pro bono work.
- I believe the referees are very important - I got 3 of my law professors at Melbourne Uni to give me a reference and all had connections with Oxford Law School.

My advice is just apply and see what happens. There are plenty of talented people who do the BCL but I've also noticed that there are plenty of people who I wonder how on earth they got in. Dont believe that everyone doing BCL is supposed to be amazing in some kind of way because that's not true.

Thanks to everyone who replied. And The_Nagle, I cannot thank you enough.