Clifford Chance ALevel +GCSE

[l789]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I'd appreciate any advice and support for my journey

By way of background, I am a State school educated BME student, currently studying LLB at a top London university. However my academic journey is quite unconventional, I achieved ABC at ALevel and ABBBBCCC at GCSE (GCSE had mitigating circumstances)

I have achieved high firsts (73+) at university in all my modules (incl. Contract +EU) for first year but am worried that with my poor secondary school grades this will hinder my chances of making it past the application stage, especially considering firms like CC (my desired firm) are recruiting penultimate years, so I will only have the first year set of grades to go by. My WE and EC are quite diverse and I made sure to explore my interests and participate in activities.

The other firms I am interested in applying to after CC were Linklaters/Freshfields /Slaughter and May and Ashurst, I have had to be realistic with the entry requirements for ALevel and with International firms such as Norton Rose/Hogan Lovells with AAB requirements, I felt this would not be worth an application. My current firms listed so far, whilst extremely competitive, have no academic filters but also align with my passion and interests.

I'm really struggling with the confidence to make applications as I understand I will be competing with applicants who have A* across the board and a first at university. If anyone has any advice and would be willing to support me with my applications I really would appreciate it. I've been suffering from imposter syndrome a lot lately and have found my university experience to be extremely lonely on top of trying to outperform my bad grades in the past, I'm not quite sure where I stand anymore.

 

[Alice G]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I'd appreciate any advice and support for my journey

By way of background, I am a State school educated BME student, currently studying LLB at a top London university. However my academic journey is quite unconventional, I achieved ABC at ALevel and ABBBBCCC at GCSE (GCSE had mitigating circumstances)

I have achieved high firsts (73+) at university in all my modules (incl. Contract +EU) for first year but am worried that with my poor secondary school grades this will hinder my chances of making it past the application stage, especially considering firms like CC (my desired firm) are recruiting penultimate years, so I will only have the first year set of grades to go by. My WE and EC are quite diverse and I made sure to explore my interests and participate in activities.

The other firms I am interested in applying to after CC were Linklaters/Freshfields /Slaughter and May and Ashurst, I have had to be realistic with the entry requirements for ALevel and with International firms such as Norton Rose/Hogan Lovells with AAB requirements, I felt this would not be worth an application. My current firms listed so far, whilst extremely competitive, have no academic filters but also align with my passion and interests.

I'm really struggling with the confidence to make applications as I understand I will be competing with applicants who have A* across the board and a first at university. If anyone has any advice and would be willing to support me with my applications I really would appreciate it. I've been suffering from imposter syndrome a lot lately and have found my university experience to be extremely lonely on top of trying to outperform my bad grades in the past, I'm not quite sure where I stand anymore.

Hello there,

I’m sorry to hear this is causing you some worry but believe me when I say, recruitment is far more contextualised now than it once was which means achievements can be assessed and appraised more fairly. Your grades are still good grades and so long as a firm doesn’t have minimum requirements, applications tend to be reviewed holistically. Many candidates have mitigating circumstances or had to work during their academic careers so these factors are all contextually looked at with the application as a whole.

I think firms are making some great headway now in terms of understanding that not everyone has had the same access to opportunities and that may reflect in their attainment to a degree.

If firms don’t have a minimum requirement don’t be put off from applying, your grades are not in any way bad and it’s just important to really celebrate and highlight your other achievements and the other elements to your candidacy which make you a well rounded and strong candidate for a firm.

I hope this helps you in some way and offers you some encouragement. The only other advice I can give is to entreat you to engage with your too firms and maybe speak to HR about these concerns because they tend to be incredibly reassuring and might be able to give you some peace of mind by explaining their processes better. I’m tagging @Jessica Booker here too as a former magic circle recruiter whose advice on these matters is always very encouraging

 

[Romiras]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I'd appreciate any advice and support for my journey

By way of background, I am a State school educated BME student, currently studying LLB at a top London university. However my academic journey is quite unconventional, I achieved ABC at ALevel and ABBBBCCC at GCSE (GCSE had mitigating circumstances)

I have achieved high firsts (73+) at university in all my modules (incl. Contract +EU) for first year but am worried that with my poor secondary school grades this will hinder my chances of making it past the application stage, especially considering firms like CC (my desired firm) are recruiting penultimate years, so I will only have the first year set of grades to go by. My WE and EC are quite diverse and I made sure to explore my interests and participate in activities.

The other firms I am interested in applying to after CC were Linklaters/Freshfields /Slaughter and May and Ashurst, I have had to be realistic with the entry requirements for ALevel and with International firms such as Norton Rose/Hogan Lovells with AAB requirements, I felt this would not be worth an application. My current firms listed so far, whilst extremely competitive, have no academic filters but also align with my passion and interests.

I'm really struggling with the confidence to make applications as I understand I will be competing with applicants who have A* across the board and a first at university. If anyone has any advice and would be willing to support me with my applications I really would appreciate it. I've been suffering from imposter syndrome a lot lately and have found my university experience to be extremely lonely on top of trying to outperform my bad grades in the past, I'm not quite sure where I stand anymore.

You'll be fine. Your first year grades matter a lot more than your A levels. I'd recommend applying to Spark if you're eligible. Your diverse background, work experience and strong grades will put you in a strong position. Just write great application answers.

 

[aacesa]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I'd appreciate any advice and support for my journey

By way of background, I am a State school educated BME student, currently studying LLB at a top London university. However my academic journey is quite unconventional, I achieved ABC at ALevel and ABBBBCCC at GCSE (GCSE had mitigating circumstances)

I have achieved high firsts (73+) at university in all my modules (incl. Contract +EU) for first year but am worried that with my poor secondary school grades this will hinder my chances of making it past the application stage, especially considering firms like CC (my desired firm) are recruiting penultimate years, so I will only have the first year set of grades to go by. My WE and EC are quite diverse and I made sure to explore my interests and participate in activities.

The other firms I am interested in applying to after CC were Linklaters/Freshfields /Slaughter and May and Ashurst, I have had to be realistic with the entry requirements for ALevel and with International firms such as Norton Rose/Hogan Lovells with AAB requirements, I felt this would not be worth an application. My current firms listed so far, whilst extremely competitive, have no academic filters but also align with my passion and interests.

I'm really struggling with the confidence to make applications as I understand I will be competing with applicants who have A* across the board and a first at university. If anyone has any advice and would be willing to support me with my applications I really would appreciate it. I've been suffering from imposter syndrome a lot lately and have found my university experience to be extremely lonely on top of trying to outperform my bad grades in the past, I'm not quite sure where I stand anymore.

Hi, as a future trainee at CC, I strongly encourage you to shift your focus from what you think you're lacking to what you think your selling points are. The firm will not discriminate against you because you don't have stellar grades if you have a strong application. So, while I understand the impostor syndrome is a challenge, the only think you can do is really focus those efforts into the application. Believe me, it counts significantly more than the grades.