Apologies in advance for this long post. I hope this helps and gives you the motivation you are looking for
@lawyersum. 😅
I completely empathise with how you feel right now honestly. I have a similar journey. I too had originally applied for a different course during sixth form. During the COVID pandemic, I had the realisation that I wanted to study law. I took a risk and decided that I would go down that path for my university course. Coming from a socially mobile background, I struggled so much with imposter syndrome at uni. I felt so out of place in first year. I had some MC during first year as well which made things harder. 🫤
I only properly settled into my course when I got to 2nd year. It wasn’t until my 3rd and final year that I started to think about the possibility of pursuing a career as a city lawyer. Prior to this, I was leaning more to the bar, in particular criminal or chancery.
As a result, I too was so focused on academics and grades that I didn’t apply for insight schemes, open days, VS or TC during my time at university. I remember being concerned that I had left things too late and it would be impossible to get a VS or TC once I finished university. 🥲
I ultimately made the decision to focus on my final year grades, mainly to compensate for my grades in first year. I began applying to firms in this cycle. I had no idea where to start. My aim was to have some kind of clear strategy to try secure VS and TC, but it wasn’t clear how that would look.
As a result, every single one of my WVS applications was rejected. At that point, I did start to lose faith honestly. I decided to take a pause on VS applications to focus on my strategy for Spring and Summer VS applications. 😃
I prioritised attending virtual events, such as application workshops, practice area sessions, commercial awareness masterclasses and also in-person open days. By doing so, I managed to get past a few application stages. Around Xmas time, a friend of mine who has also been applying this cycle, suggested TCLA. I didn’t know what it was at that point. He offered me his account that he wasn’t using. That is this account here.
I honestly think it’s this platform that had the biggest impact on my overall success this cycle! 😅
Fast forward to now, I have received several VS offers from firms I would never have imagined would consider me when I first started working on my applications. This is despite the above circumstances I have mentioned.
My point in this post is, you can and will make it! There is always light at the end of the tunnel. I started with constant rejections for WVS to now being someone with 5 VS offers (from 20 overall VS applications). It has been a difficult process in my experience this cycle. 🥲
It’s a tough journey. Securing a TC is very hard, with most city law firms having a 0.5 - 3% success rate. However, it is always possible to be in that top 3%. Best of luck with all of your applications my friend. 🙂
