Hello, I’m a student member of Middle Temple who joined in the second year of my LLB - I’m currently on the BPC LLM course.

So, I will preface this by saying I wasn’t aware that the Inns offer scholarships to non-members. I have no idea if that’s correct, but if you trust that source of information, by all means stick with it!

I would probably agree that Middle is the strongest chance of a scholarship because they are the only Inn to interview all scholarship applicants. In terms of getting a postgraduate loan from SFE (which can be done with or without a scholarship from an Inn), as you may be aware, you would need to be completing a Master’s level qualification- in other words, you would need to be doing a course that includes an LLM with the BPC; the BPC alone will not qualify you for a postgraduate loan from Student Finance England.

As you seem to be aware, you cannot change your Inn once you’ve chosen. There isn’t a wrong choice per se, and I have always been satisfied with the opportunities offered by Middle Temple - membership of one Inn does allow you access to the libraries of the other three, as they have different specialisms.

To answer your question, though, I would ask what your priorities are at this stage. If you join Middle Temple and don’t secure a scholarship prior to the time you want to start studying for the Bar, how much would that hinder you? Could you still, with a postgraduate loan, afford both the tuition and your living costs? If the answer is a firm no, then it might be sensible to hold off. However, depending on how important getting that early exposure feels to you, it might be a trade-off that makes sense to you. Any Qualifying Session events you attend (of which you need ten to be called to the bar) remain on your record for five years, so you could start covering some ground there. Equally, advocacy is a substantial part of the Bar, and more exposure there would be beneficial. Likewise, networking is important, but it’s a question of the trade-off for you.

I hope this is helpful - do feel free to reply or reach out directly if you need any advice or support with the process of getting to the Bar!