Fiona Jardine
Independent school, York
Third-year student,
reading Law
Seen here with Bosley
I'm writing this as a
second year law student, just about to start Lent term (that's the
one after Christmas). I came to Clare from a fairly small (about
the same size as the undergraduate population at Clare!) independent
Quaker school in York. I'd been used to friendly staff who were
on the same level as the students, high quality music and acting
and not so high quality sport. Clare definitely reflects the first
two – I'm not so sure about the sport because I've never been very
sporty - although I know that whatever you fancy, it's happening
either in Clare or at the university wide level.
So, the staff first. Whether
it's the bedder who comes to clean your room and empty your bins,
the staff in the kitchen (go Coula!), the administrative staff,
the college nurse or the master, Tony Badger, everybody upholds
the Clare tradition of friendliness. Although I've never been shy
of those ‘in authority', everyone is so friendly that you are put
at ease straight away. They are all there to help – for example,
your bedder will get to know you by name and many of them take you
on as a surrogate child, but without the curfews! Everybody is assigned
a tutor who is there to look after your pastoral needs. Although
many people never need to see them other than at scheduled meetings,
if you have a serious problem, I know that they will do everything
in their power to help in any way they can. We also have a Director
of Studies who is a fellow of the subject that you take. For Law,
we have a meeting at the end of every term to have a chat about
how things are going and to get feedback from your other teachers.
These meetings are really useful and are another opportunity to
have a chat about anything that you might be finding a bit tricky.
More specifically law-related,
we have a Law Reading Room, which has all the books you will need
for the vast majority of undergraduate topics and is a great place
to go if you're stuck, because there'll always be someone in there
who can help. Plus, it's moved into the 21st Century before the
main library in Clare because we have wireless internet access –
essential for looking up all those cases and articles online. If
you're lucky to live on J staircase like I was last year, you can
even go there in your slippers!
The Law course at Cambridge
is hard work, I must say that. Even if you've worked hard during
your A levels, expect to work even harder here. Supervisors (the
people you have small group tuition with) always set more work than
I seem to be able to do, so even if I think I've finished, there's
always more to do. However, it's very rewarding and if you go to
the lectures (about 10 hours a week), which I highly recommend that
you do, a lot of the reading that you do will be the more in depth
stuff because the lectures are really good at getting you to understand
how the law works. After first year, you get quite a lot of choice
at the subjects that you take, although you have to do criminal,
constitutional, tort, contract, land, equity and EU law. I'm finding
that this year there is a lot more work than in the first year because
you do one extra subject (4 in the first year, 5 in the second and
third), but because I am doing three subjects I chose, it's even
more inspiring.
Although everyone expects
you to be a solicitor or a barrister after doing a Law degree, a
Cambridge degree allows you to be ready for more than those two
career options. For example, my Director of Studies told me about
one ex-law student who went on to start his own very successful
magazine! As for me, at the moment I am considering applying do
a Master's degree in Criminology, so the topic of ‘Sentencing and
the Penal System' was a fantastic opportunity to get my teeth stuck
into a similar topic already. There's also the chance to get a flavour
of law in the real world whilst you are studying – you will be expected
to do a vacation scheme in the holidays after your second year,
but there is also the Cambridge University Students' Pro Bono Society,
of which I'm currently President. As part of this society, you can
volunteer for a range of different community projects with legal
themes – it's good to meet people, get experience, but above all,
help those in the community.
As to getting into Clare,
I found my background (independent school) no problem at all – at
no point did I feel that this would be a problem, nor that I was
being favoured. As far as I can tell, Clare just wants the best
students out of those that apply, no matter what their background
– in fact there is fantastic diversity at Clare (I have one friend
who went to Eton and another who went to an inner city London state
school!). Since everybody who applies is interviewed (as far as
I know anyway), the selection process is done on far more than grades
alone – Clare definitely has its own personality and though it may
be that you are right for another college at Cambridge, you may
be perfect for Clare! Also, don't let finances worry you. I know
they are different now for new entrants, but the living costs at
Cambridge are comparable to other universities around the country
(plus you get to live in beautiful Cambridge) and the college and
university have many more grants and bursaries than most other universities
to help those who are less well off.
To sum up, Clare is a
uniquely fabulous place and anyone who is applying to read Law (or
anything else) at Clare will have the most amazing three years of
their life!
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