Studying Law in college

redout

I would appreciate if someone could give an insight into what studying law in college is really like. I have heard that it is quite different to normal undergraduate courses. I have read on some American websites about the socratic method being used to teach and also the lack of exams throughout the year compared to a standard undergraduate course. Is the course in someways comparable to studying History as in a vast quantity of information is thought and required to be retained.

Thx

American courses would be taught quite differently to Irish ones to be fair.

There is a LOT of independent study and the amount of knowledge to be digested is vast but it's law you're looking to do, not Arts! (I have both an Arts and Law degrees before some Arts undergrad goes mad at me)

Aprilsunshine

There are exams at Christmas in most Unis now so that makes it easier I think - less information to be retained for a whole year - more manageable chunks to digest by exam time.

If you like reading you can cope with law - Some areas will appeal to you more than others I'm sure but its interesting.

Rabeile31

studying law is a decision you have to think about before you decide...

It is 10% lectures and 90% independent study and if your not really serious about it or dont really like reading a lot and learning stuff by heart it can be a waste of time and money

Exams get very hard after your 1st year and the work load increases...having said that it is very rewarding if you love it

If you were not sure if you wanted to study law i would advise you to look at doing an Arts degree first and having legal studies as one of your 1st year subjects to give you an idea of what its like, NUIG is a good place to do this

evercloserunion

the main thing to consider is what others have pointed out, ie it requires a lot of independent study. Your course pretty much takes place in the library, studying in TCD I had 8 hours of lectures per week for the first two years. You need to have a lot of self-discipline to actually tell yourself that non-lecture time is for study and not for ****ing around.

Also, the exam thing can be a pain, because there is a lot of pressure all at once as opposed to other courses which have more continuous assessment. It really depends on how you deal with exams.

Another point to note is that law is very varied in what you learn and how interesting or otherwise it can be. You might love criminal law but hate commercial law, or vice versa.

walrusgumble

some I.T.'s like Letterkenny I.T. and Waterford I.T. provide Legal Studies courses. They have change around the course a bit and now call it "Law".

In those courses and before "semesters" were brought in, like in Letterkenny, it was lecture intensive with about 23 hours or so of lecturing per week, bascially like being in school, classess 1 hour. it comprised of all 8 FE1 subjects (separate classes for "land law", "succession & probate", "conveyancing" & "landlord & tenant law" each done in different years of the course) plus accountancy, Taxation, IT, family law, communications, irish legal system (1st year) and employment law. Not sure what it is like now

Notes were taken by studnets and given by lecturer, text book & journals were to be read before classes (well, suppose to, lol), and a couple of tutorials at end of each term. regular exams along with christmas and easter and end of year, and plenty of essays/projects etc which lecturer corrected and points go towards continous assesssments. Practical classes as seen in conveyance and l&t law time would be spent going through a copy of a standard sale of contract and lease (zzzzz) Continous assessments were a life saver. its good to see Uni's are now doing them

Students were spoon fed compared to Uni, no complaints there, but students were also expected to do individual study and work, class lecturers were there to make sure you were on the right track.

Of course, it remains to be seen in the future if the courses were of the same standard as UCC, TCD, UCD & NUI Galway (were top lectures/authors are based in Uni's) The good points, after speaking to law students in various Uni's was that the IT classes were nice and small, less intimidating, students knew each other (and plagued each other for missed notes lol), there was assess to all the law reports, journals, law sites (ok as to be expected) The one for me was the fact that the vast area of "property law" was broken done into 4 separate one year classes and getting opportunity to do for the full year subjects like family and employment (of course many courses provide that)

Regardless of were you go, like any course, when we want to excell, the library is home from home, your office. despite the long classes, you were still expected to be in the library til late. like all courses, studying law requires work and most import, self discpline. work hard play hard.

tomcosgrave

I'm coming to the end of my law degree, done part time while working full time.
Do NOT go down this route, it is an absolute killer and deprives you of study time. If you must work, work part-time.

Lockstep

I'm studying history and legal studies, the history background is a massive help; I find the analytical skills and background in heavy reading come in handy.

If you still want to do law at the end of the degree, you can do an additional 1year add to get an LLB as well as your LLM and then go for Kings Inn or Blackhall.