2.2 first year grade

[jamieclarke]

How will me getting a 2.2 (58%) at first year affect my chances of getting a vacation scheme at a commercial law firm?
Will I still be considered or will most firms not consider me?

 

[Lisa Lowe]

Ultimately, it’s your first year grade, so can be overshadowed with good second and third year grades.

I think it would be good to prioritise getting good second and third year grades, before worrying about applying for vac schemes. It will probably be harder to get a VS/TC without at 2.1 overall, so makes sense to spend time brining your grades up as oppose to spending time on applications.

 

[Jessica Booker]

How will me getting a 2.2 (58%) at first year affect my chances of getting a vacation scheme at a commercial law firm?
Will I still be considered or will most firms not consider me?

If the firm has a requirement of a 2.1, there is a strong chance you won't be considered until your grades are at a 2.1 level.

You may want to focus on opportunities with firms and other legal organisations/departments who don't have this 2.1 requirement.

As mentioned above, I'd also focus on getting your grades up and developing the rest of your CV. You can always do vacation schemes in your final year or after you have graduated.

 

[jamieclarke]

Yeah I mean specifically how it'll effect my chances of attaining a VC in first year. I know first year grades won't matter next year, and my grades will go up.

I think I may have extenuating circumstances also, in the form of a close family bereavement occurring during my assessment period. Will that make any difference? I don't want to talk about something personal on an app and I don't know if its valid enough, but with my grade being so close to a 2.1 it may be.
I've seen on a YouTube video from a solicitor that extenuating circumstances look bad though, as in if this happened when you were working for us you wouldn't be able to cope. I don't how much truth there is in that though.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Yeah I mean specifically how it'll effect my chances of attaining a VC in first year. I know first year grades won't matter next year, and my grades will go up.

I think I may have extenuating circumstances also, in the form of a close family bereavement occurring during my assessment period. Will that make any difference? I don't want to talk about something personal on an app and I don't know if its valid enough, but with my grade being so close to a 2.1 it may be.
I've seen on a YouTube video from a solicitor that extenuating circumstances look bad though, as in if this happened when you were working for us you wouldn't be able to cope. I don't how much truth there is in that though.

Did you make the university aware of the bereavement?

I don’t agree with what the YouTube video says - I don’t think you can put a blanket statement out that extenuating circumstances will not be considered. If very much depends what they are and how they impacted your life.

f you could send a link to the YouTube video, that would be useful. I’d be keen to watch it.

 

[jamieclarke]

No, and I can't bring it up to the university now to appeal my grade as you can't bring up extenuating circumstances after you have completed your assessment.
Will that matter if I put it down in an app to a firm? Will they know I didn't tell the university?

Here at 9.50,

 

[Jessica Booker]

No, and I can't bring it up to the university now to appeal my grade as you can't bring up extenuating circumstances after you have completed your assessment.
Will that matter if I put it down in an app to a firm? Will they know I didn't tell the university?

Here at 9.50,

I respect Chrissie a lot and think she has a lot of great advice. There are some points she is making that are accurate. Some mitigating circumstances are weaker (e.g. saying you had a cold) but I don't agree with her point about some bigger firms being tougher on this. In fact, from my experience, it's more of the smaller firms that can be pickier.

The firm will likely ask your university for a reference to verify the circumstances. They can't just take the claim that the circumstances happened because you said they did. And that's where Chrissie has got a point on the seriousness of the circumstances. Ultimately one of the clearest benchmarks of how serious the circumstances were are if you told your university of the circumstances or sought some form of support to help you with them (even if this is outside of the university - e.g. GPs/counsellors etc).

I understand this can be tricky - a lot of people don't want to seek support or worse don't know they can seek support, but again this can be part of how your circumstances are interpreted. It demonstrates self-awareness and an ability to seek advice/guidance/support to ensure the best possible outcome - that quality is needed by the bucket load as a lawyer.

Recruiters can find it difficult to take mitigating circumstances on board is when there is no ability to verify them. That's where I think Chrissie has interpreted it wrong - its not that they sit there and think "you couldn't cope with the pressures of working here", it comes down to more that they often have a limited interpretation of them, and unfortunately will side with a more cynical view. That's where how you describe your circumstances can help in situations where you don't have the ability to get someone else to verify them - being clear in how they impacted your studies/assessments and highlighting precise ways in which the circumstances disrupted your life is important in helping the recruiter interpret it.

It is ultimately rarely the mitigating circumstances themselves that are being considered, it is more about how they impacted you and that's what the recruiter has to try and understand.

 

[jamieclarke]

Ok, so do I still put down my mitigating circumstances and explain fully how they affected me.
If they do ask for verification, if I can't provide that, that won't disadvantage me will it? The worst that will happen is they may disregard the mitigating circumstances because of failure of verification?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Ok, so do I still put down my mitigating circumstances and explain fully how they affected me.
If they do ask for verification, if I can't provide that, that won't disadvantage me will it? The worst that will happen is they may disregard the mitigating circumstances because of failure of verification?

Of course, you are more than welcome to mention them. As you have no verification process, try to be clear in how they impacted your assessments.

 

[jamieclarke]

Thanks. Do you know of any firms that would consider me for a VC with a 2.2?

I'm thinking of still applying for firms that ask for a 2.1, but I don't want to apply to a firm that automatically filters out applicants with a 2.2.

Some firms also specify that I must be 'on track' for a 2.1, does that mean they want a 2.1 in first year or would a high 2.2 be classed as on track?