TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25
- Thread starter Jessica Booker
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Does anyone know how much weight is placed on your performance during Stephenson Harwood's placement scheme? I know they do an assessment centre after the scheme, but since the scheme is 2 weeks long I'm assuming your performance would be taken into account as well?
any1 who applied to SH for summer not heard back post app?
Yes I am still waiting, I thought I put a good app in but now I think it’s gonna be a pfo😢
Congrats to everyone with offers😍✨
I think all the offers are for spring, don't think they have sent out tests for summer yet
Thank you for this and congrats again! I'm worried about my scores but all I can do is hope my VI was enough.Of course, my score was 25/36 with high in both numerical and verbal. What I will say is that they are looking at the vi responses as they mentioned they were impressed with mine
Hopefully we make it
I only applied on the deadline day and opted for all schemes because I couldn’t pick one😭Stephenson harwood spring VS offer!! So surprised considering my SJT score but so excited!
I believe I can also share that I received an offer from Farrer & Co for their summer VS! My summer will therefore be super hectic as I am also completing a VS at Travers Smith the two weeks after as well 😭
Can’t quite believe I am in this position as a non-Russell group student who got rejected from CC’s SPARK scheme post-AC in my second year of uni due to my lack of commercial awareness. Perseverance is so key!
I believe I can also share that I received an offer from Farrer & Co for their summer VS! My summer will therefore be super hectic as I am also completing a VS at Travers Smith the two weeks after as well 😭
Can’t quite believe I am in this position as a non-Russell group student who got rejected from CC’s SPARK scheme post-AC in my second year of uni due to my lack of commercial awareness. Perseverance is so key!
I applied 1st of Jan and think I selected just summer. tbh if they are giving out offers for spring now, hopefully they will move onto summer shortly.Hopefully we make it
I clicked both summer options, but not spring, and did get a test invite last Tuesday
I hope so too!!
Jheeze 3 VS offers??!! That’s some GOATed stuff right there! Huge congrats! 🥳
Thank you Chris!! Likewise to you - congratulations on your offers this year! 😁
any1 have the Orrick AC next Monday, confused because there's no interview.. how r we meant to prepare?
Absolute legends, congratulations to you both! 🫶🏾
It might be worth clarifying that it is likely to be called a "PGDL", but that PGDL and GDL are the same thing in theory - both were once the Common Professional Examination to allow qualification to both solicitor and barrister.
BPP, one of the two main private universities supplying most law firms have long called their conversion course a "PGDL", while Ulaw called theirs a "GDL".
The CPE/GDL/PGDL as it then was, consisted of:
- Equity & Trusts
- Tort
- Contract Law
- Criminal Law
- EU Law
- Public Law
- Land Law
as the foundation to become a solicitor or barrister.
Now the SRA says "you don't need to a conversion course to become a solicitor: we're widening access, just pass SQE".
However, Ulaw, which, like BPP, is owned by Private Equity, didn't like that, and wanted to continue to sell conversion courses AND SQE courses, to get more money out of students than ever before.
So BPP and Ulaw as the profit-seeking entities that they are updated their course to be more "SQE-friendly", by:
- adding in company law, as a supposedly a new "core module" of SQE. While company law is indeed a module of SQE, and its own discipline, they only teach part of it on the PGDL, and you'll still need to learn lots of extra material in preparation for SQE (e.g., criminal procedure, civil procedure, wills, property procedure, lots more company law).
- changing their assessment methods to include a large MCQ component, as is used on SQE1, whereas typically PGDL/GDL previously would be assessed using coursework and written exams.
- Ulaw rebranded GDL to PGDL to show how new and SQE-friendly it was.
The profit-making-uni's-PGDL-followed-by-SQE-prep-course approach is slightly more flexible for the candidate, in that they have then passed the academic stage of becoming a barrister, and for elite law firms they perhaps don't care so much about the cost inflation that BPP/Ulaw/SRA have caused.
However, there's still massive financial gatekeeping because the SQE exams are expensive, and the profit-seeking law schools are obviously motivated to show that candidates who have not been taught at great expense , and have simply learned the entire SQE out of textbooks and then passed the exams are less employable than those who have. And some firms insist on a PGDL but won't pay for it, even for candidates who've passed SQE with flying colours.....
But anyway, as you say the providers (BPP & ULaw) are in it for the money, they won't sell out, and you will be able to sign up until the last moment (and probably even beyond that).
you're collecting these vs offers like pokémon! Congrats, totally deserved
Bevan Brittan ? Sent me a PFO at 16:57!
congratulations maestro have thoroughly enjoyed getting your updates recently
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