Hi,

Quick question. What are the chances of a first class LSE student obtaining an offer for the Oxford BCL or Cam LLM?

Thanks.

I'd say that the chances are high. However, the deadlines this time around for both institutions have passed.

Thanks - I know, ive made the applications. Just a bit concerned about my chances.

I've read as much as I can find on this board or elsewhere regarding the admissions requirements for Oxford and Cambridge; I have yet to find an articulation of the admissions standard that would exclude someone with a first from LSE.

In fact, someone in your position worrying about his or her chances in public is a little cruel, as it makes the rest of us feel like maybe we aren't worrying as much as we should be, which only gives us something else to worry about.

So to give everyone a little morale boost, I'm prepared to say that you're probably a lock on an offer, and that you shouldn't stress over it.

Hi Bender,

Thank you for your comments. But I do have reason to worry. I have only applied to Oxbridge and there have been a few instances where first class students from the LSE have not obtained a place at Oxbridge.

I limited my applications to Oxbridge as well, in a fit of what can only be described as supreme overconfidence - and I didn't go anywhere as well-regarded as LSE. So again, if anyone should be worried here, it probably shouldn't be you.

I'm not 100% familiar with exactly how the grading system works in England, though: are there varying degrees of a "first"? Is it based on a raw score or on the percentage of your class in which you graduate? Because if it's the latter, and the range is wide enough, maybe that's a factor.

A first in England is 70%+. Each university has its own specific criteria for awarding a first [in terms of how many first class marks one needs to obtain an overall first class classification]. The LSE, awards a first class to approx 10% of the students.

That makes sense, and might start to explain how a "first" could still not be offered a place. The Cambridge website, for example, explains that:

"The minimum entry requirement for the LL.M. is normally a First class degree in law from a UK university, or the equivalent from an overseas institution. For overseas students this typically means they will have placed in the top 5-10% of their class."

So given that the minimum entry is a first, it stands to reason that a 'low' first (i.e., someone 'only' towards the lower end of a school's top 10%) is really only on the cusp.

So you're right; we might be doomed.

Just be glad that you aren't in the top 1 to 4 percent of an overseas class, though: apparently they're excluded from Cambridge's admissions calculations...

True. But it is also important to bear in mind that whilst 10% of LSE students are on a first, only a few of them apply for masters at Oxbridge.

And that would end the matter, too, if there weren't other law schools, some of which have graduates in the upper 10% who occasionally apply to Oxbridge.

I agree, though, that coming from LSE you have a leg up on someone like myself, who earned his LL.B. from the University of Southeastern Atlanta (with a minor in VCR repair).

Bender - please stop implying that I am smug. The aim of the thread was to discuss LSE students applying to Oxbridge.