A Day In The Life of a Law Student (2 Viewers)

andyfg88

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Righhhhhhhtttt... let me know when your law degree helps you save $200k. Bookmark this page somewhere on your browser

If you ever become a lawyer when you graduate in 2015 or whenever you do and one day wonder what you're doing when you're 3 years in to the workforce in 2018 or whatever it is, open this page and realise "crap... this Omnidragon guy told me so in 2011".
Haha, can you give reasons as to why it's "useless"? And what does saving 200k have to do with? Why would I not be able to save 200k?
 

enoilgam

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Is law anything like legal studies at all?
In some ways yes, in other ways no. Most of what you learn in year 11 will be covered at the begining of a law degree. Also, what you cover in crime will be looked at in far greater depth when you do criminal law. The major point of difference between legal studies and a law degree relates to their aims. With legal studies, you focus on things like the effectiveness of the legal system, law reform etc, whereas in a law degree, your main focus is on what the law says (i.e. black letter law).
 

juliastegner

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ohhh thanks I can't rep you anymore! Where do you do law? :) Hmm is law mostly assignments or exams? And what would the 'difficulty' be in law ? Difficult as in - hard to udnerstand or a lot of content? Thank you :)
 

AussieVesti

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ohhh thanks I can't rep you anymore! Where do you do law? :) Hmm is law mostly assignments or exams? And what would the 'difficulty' be in law ? Difficult as in - hard to udnerstand or a lot of content? Thank you :)
I don't do Law myself but from what I have heard, there would be a lot of reading involved ranging from the laws itself to precedents and the like.
 

enoilgam

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ohhh thanks I can't rep you anymore! Where do you do law? :) Hmm is law mostly assignments or exams? And what would the 'difficulty' be in law ? Difficult as in - hard to udnerstand or a lot of content? Thank you :)
For most law courses, the consist of assignments followed by a final exam. The assignments are usually problem based questions (they give you a scenario and you discuss the law and how it applies to the scenario) and occaisionally essays. The problem questions are usually pretty straight forward, although sometimes it can be a little bit difficult especially if the lecturers are looking for a particular approach. Essays on the other hand can be extremely difficult and painful. The final exams usually always consist of problem questions, which are usually less detailed and slightly more straightforward than those you would encounter in an assignment. Overall, the course isnt extremely difficult if your willing to put in a fair amount of effort and time. The reading is manageable as it is often unnecessary for most units, but for some you will need to do them. It is a content heavy course, but most of the time in the final exams, they are open book, which saves you from memorising cases/legislation and the finer points of law. So this acts to somewhat minimise the impact which the content has on the difficulty of the degree.

As I am only in first year, I dont know how accurate my assessment will be of law, so maybe some other more experienced guys will be able to give you a better idea.
 

Proteus

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can I bump this degree and ask for more input from law students?

I am highly likely to become one myself, transferring from USYD B Economics to MQU B Com + B Law..
 

Omnidragon

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What about day in the life of a lawyer?

Wake up
Do boring and menial work
Go home
Think about boring and menial work
Repeat

Weekend
Sleep
Waste salary on bars

Weekdays
Repeat
 

SandMulls

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Essays, doing case digests and reading cases... lots and lots of cases makes studying law a tedious one. But as they say, you can never taste success (passing the bar exam) without going through all those pains. :)
 

acemusic415

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Life as a law student is boring as hell. As of now, I'm doing my contracts reading on what constitutes unconscionable conduct. Yay.
 

Azure

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It is pretty boring isn't it? :( I'm up preparing for a moot I have later today.
 

Proteus

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It is pretty boring isn't it? :( I'm up preparing for a moot I have later today.
Very time consuming, only 1st semester into it though. Wouldn't say it's particularly hard, takes some judgemental skills and a lot of time.

Doing something about a liability waiver

Liking it so far
 

theind1996

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Hey guys, I was considering doing law @ UNSW, but I don't think I'll get 99.65+, so I'll have to transfer.

I think that I can *hopefully* get a ~98.8-99.1-ish ATAR, so what sort of WAM would I need to transfer from UNSW Commerce?

Cheers. :)
 

deswa1

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I know I'm not a student at UNSW but I've sent them emails on this so I can actually answer this haha. At UNSW, they don't look at ATAR when looking at transferring into Comm/Law- its purely based on WAM. They guarantee 100 internal transfers into the entire law program from other degrees and this is based on WAM. Obviously it depends on the year in question but these were the marks for the internal program cut-offs from 2010-2012:

2010 – 1st rank 89.6, 100th rank 73 (total of 192 applicants)

2011 – 1st rank 88.25, 100th rank 72 (total of 248 applicants)

2012 – 1st rank 91.37, 100th rank 75.75 (total 253 applicants)

Note: Up until 2012, they considered ATAR as well so its possible that this year (being the first year where ATAR doesn't count) will have different numbers because say people with a 90 ATAR before might not have tried properly under the old system because they didn't have a chance but under the new system they do. Also say someone with a 99.5 ATAR wouldn't have had to aim high under the old system but under the new one they do so cut-offs could jump. Their email says that a 78 seems competitive based on previous cohorts but you can never really predict

Hope this helps
 

Omnipotence

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Hey guys, I was considering doing law @ UNSW, but I don't think I'll get 99.65+, so I'll have to transfer.

I think that I can *hopefully* get a ~98.8-99.1-ish ATAR, so what sort of WAM would I need to transfer from UNSW Commerce?

Cheers. :)
Should aim for ~80 WAM.
 

enoilgam

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I know I'm not a student at UNSW but I've sent them emails on this so I can actually answer this haha. At UNSW, they don't look at ATAR when looking at transferring into Comm/Law- its purely based on WAM. They guarantee 100 internal transfers into the entire law program from other degrees and this is based on WAM. Obviously it depends on the year in question but these were the marks for the internal program cut-offs from 2010-2012:

2010 – 1st rank 89.6, 100th rank 73 (total of 192 applicants)

2011 – 1st rank 88.25, 100th rank 72 (total of 248 applicants)

2012 – 1st rank 91.37, 100th rank 75.75 (total 253 applicants)

Note: Up until 2012, they considered ATAR as well so its possible that this year (being the first year where ATAR doesn't count) will have different numbers because say people with a 90 ATAR before might not have tried properly under the old system because they didn't have a chance but under the new system they do. Also say someone with a 99.5 ATAR wouldn't have had to aim high under the old system but under the new one they do so cut-offs could jump. Their email says that a 78 seems competitive based on previous cohorts but you can never really predict

Hope this helps
This pretty much covers it (I heard a few of my mates talking about this change). Overall, I think the cut-offs will probably rise further beyond this year, as more and more people become aware of the change and start applying. Also, since ATAR doesnt count, quite a few more applicants will go for it. So given all that, I think you should be aiming for a HD WAM (85) if you want a solid chance.
 

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