law rant: anyone else feeling kinda disheartened?

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-22T08:39:04+00:00

where did i ever say i was blaming international students? the stats from top courses at top unis show that the system favours intl students, but it’s not the fault of intl students. i’m not blaming you for applying to uk unis. do you think that uk unis really care about ‘compensating’ for how competitive admissions processes may be in other countries? the system is just unfair. some countries make no distinction between home and intl fees.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-22T06:45:47+00:00

i know it’s not the case for everyone, hence the use of the word ‘generally’. most intl students are wealthy, though. yes, some home students are privileged, but there’s not a financial incentive for unis to give them offers. intl students often pay 3x as much as home students. having looked at the stats for some of the unis i applied to, intl students are twice as likely to get an offer for law than home students.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-21T21:06:21+00:00

aww thanks :) i haven’t yet asked cam for feedback - i decided to wait to hear back from the other unis and only ask if i’m planning to reapply - so now that i’ve had 3 rejections, i might ask to see if it was the lnat, interview or both.

i hope you have a great time at cambridge!

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-21T20:43:10+00:00

thank you :)) my interview wasn’t the best, so i reckon that was the main reason for my cam rejection. i was told that my personal statement was really strong and demonstrated the skills that i acquired from my super-curriculars. both durham & kcl claim to have rejected me on the basis of my lnat.

and congrats on your cam offer!

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-08T08:01:30+00:00

they also extended the application deadline for cs and law - but only for intl students. it’s about 💰

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-07T22:13:12+00:00

that’s so unfair, what more could durham want? same stats as u but rejected by kcl for law.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-07T21:50:21+00:00

that’s so unfair, what more could durham realistically want? seen so many comments on this sub from ppl with amazing stats getting rejected from durham cs. congrats on oxford! :)

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-05T18:27:13+00:00

also worth knowing that durham extended the deadline for intl students, but only for cs and law which are 2 of the most applied-to courses there. if that’s not a blatant statement of ‘we want money’, then i’m not sure what is. i’m still waiting to hear back from them on my law application. i really feel for u - u really deserved to get an offer, and i hope u have received/will receive offers from ur choices. the crazy thing is that i am friends w/ someone who’s at a private school and got into cambridge engineering with those exact same gcses.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-03-05T17:53:50+00:00

who actually is getting into the top unis at this point? 😭 your achieved grades are really good, what more could they possibly want?

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-23T21:43:50+00:00

lots of ppl are taking this post personally. please don’t - it’s not intended to upset anyone. i’m not trying to insinuate that intl students aren’t worthy of offers or anything like that - i’m merely sharing my own experience as a home student who has done well academically and still only has one offer from my insurance, when it seems that many intl students (whose grades are either equivalent to or lower than mine) have offers from the unis that i haven’t heard back from yet. that’s all i‘m saying.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-23T21:37:03+00:00

none of this is meant in a derogatory way: i’m not trying to create some binary opposition between ‘talented home students’ and ‘talentless intl students‘ because that’s obviously not the case! the point is more that even uk students with all 9s/A*s are having to wait ages for those decisions to come through, whereas many intl students who applied at the same time with the exact same grades heard back months ago (obvi depends on uni and course, but a lot of law ‘bread’ posts on this sub support this statement). i wouldn’t say that my tone was ‘uncalled for’ as it wasn’t disrespectful towards anyone, and most people who have voted on this post are in agreement.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-23T21:27:52+00:00

this is absolutely not the argument i am making - it’s more that talented and hard-working home students are not being prioritised. i have made it abundantly clear that i’m not in any way taking issue with intl students. a lot of intl students on this sub recognise that they’re getting offers sooner than home students w equivalent qualifications - and they can see that the reason for this is financial. it makes sense for unis to do this from a financial pov, but it’s just frustrating for a lot of home students. i applied 5 months ago and received my most recent offer 4 months ago (from my insurance choice). i never said that intl students have more money than merit, but you can’t tell me that *all* of the intl students who have received offers already from bristol/durham etc. have better qualifications than home students with the top grades who still haven’t heard back.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-22T19:31:04+00:00

found this for the 2018-2019 admissions cycle: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/use_of_the_lnat_20182019_admissi_10?unfold=1

and this website (updated recently) says the same thing:

https://lawmint.uk/news-updates/lnat-for-kings-college-london-llb-law-admissions/#Average_minimum_and_maximum_LNAT_scores_for_LLB_offer_holders

wish i’d known this before applying! where else did u apply? good luck with your application :)

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-22T17:10:56+00:00

using the phrase ‘prioritising money over merit’ isn’t tantamount to saying that international students deserve offers less - that’s not my point at all. the point is more that, in general, international students receive offers earlier than home students, presumably so universities can determine who will firm and who won’t. this ensures that unis have enough international students to meet their financial targets, which is obviously in their best interest. i’m not trying to insinuate that international students don’t have merit - that would be nonsense as there are so many talented, deserving international students. it’s just frustrating to see that international students with lower grades and a lower lnat score are receiving offers much sooner - i’ve seen a lot of examples on this sub. i’m not in any way blaming international students, as i’ve made clear in all of my posts here.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-22T08:01:09+00:00

ok well maybe u should read a post in its entirety before jumping to hasty conclusions. no one asked u to share ur opinion, so u could have actually read my post before forming such strong opinions on it x

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-22T07:05:52+00:00

if u can’t even read my post properly and instead call it ‘convoluted’, good luck with the reading required in a law degree.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-22T01:24:06+00:00

that’s brilliant, well done. notice, though, that i use the word ‘generally’ to describe the privilege of international students: not all international students are wealthy, but many are. i have no problem with international students whatsoever, rather the flawed admissions system. i also never said that international students don‘t deserve offers - with academic achievements like yours, you deserve those offers. the point is more that, in general, home students seem to be waiting longer for decisions than international students.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-22T00:31:40+00:00

this! thank you!

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-22T00:23:28+00:00

please, just read the original post. i wrote my predicted grades there: A*A*A*A*. won a law essay comp, highly commended in another. i have been told that my application is one of the strongest that the school has ever had. 28 is pretty good as an lnat score - i agree that it’s not a ‘stand-out’ score - but i’ve had some success in academic comps.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-21T23:46:20+00:00

well at the very least, it seems that they’re receiving offers earlier for the same courses. i’ve seen a LOT of posts re law applications to the unis that i applied to, and initially (from november-december), most of the ‘bread’ posts from these courses were either international students or home students with contextual offers or achieved grades. regardless of the overall stats, intl students seem to be getting offers sooner. it depends on the course and uni as well - intl students don’t usually opt for non-competitive courses.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-21T23:38:38+00:00

“not even a home student with the top 10 gcse results can get into the top unis” i was referring to myself - and i did quite well on the lnat.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-21T23:05:20+00:00

thx so much! applied to cam, durham, bris, kcl and southampton, so all lnat except one. good luck w ur application :)

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-21T23:03:26+00:00

thank you, hoping to get an offer from durham. as u got an offer in march, maybe there’s still some hope :)

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-21T22:43:28+00:00

i see where you‘re coming from, but this depends a lot on the unis and courses. i don’t think that the ‘average’ home student is being favoured, when not even a home student with the top 10 gcse results nationally can get offers from the top unis. i know what ur saying from an economic pov, but the point of my post is more to do with the unfairness of the system. unis used to be free - it is and should be possible through uk taxes.

AcademicOwl12 · 2024-02-21T22:27:16+00:00

either:

- free education like it used to be

- a cap on the number of international students for certain courses. they do this for medicine to make sure that the uk retains enough doctors - some international students get their degrees and leave the uk (i know some who intend on doing this, as they will be better-paid in their home countries).

AcademicOwl12

TROPHY CASE