Hi guys, I have recently received offers (both CSP) to do a JD at Usyd and UNSW and I facing a very difficult choice between two excellent law schools. I recently graduated from UNSW with BCom and have enjoyed my time at UNSW however I am aware that USyd is more internationally recognised and established law school which will be better for my desire to work overseas in the future.
To help make a more informed decision, I would appreciate it if anyone (particularly law students from these unis) could shed some light on these questions
1. Marking: After looking at course outlines, I noticed UNSW has a MUCH heavier focus on class participation and group assignments. Further i have heard that all law finals are open book. How does this generally impact on grades and scaling? Is it difficult to get ds or hds? As a commerce student, it was a pretty straight forward process of getting hds or ds...
Usyd on the other hand puts alot more focus on the individual and alot of the finals are like 80% of the grade and there are no group assignments. I did hear that HDs were capped and are pretty much unheard from a law student at Usyd open day.
2. Exchange opportunities: Usyd has some fantastic US exchange partners such as Cornell, NYU and Emory however i believe last year only one place was offered for each of these universities. UNSW less variety in US partners but has good European partners. Adding to the fact of the extremely high-achieving cohort, what would be considered a competitive wam to get a place an exchange place?
3. Social aspects: I guess as a ex-UNSW student i am familiar with the social scene at UNSW, but I have no clue about what it would be like to a JD student at Usyd. I have heard that Usyd can be somewhat 'cliquey' and a pretty exclusive crowd but I'm not sure how much this would extend to Juris doctor students who would be a bit more of a mature cohort.
4. FOOD: As silly as this sounds, the availability of good food on campus is pretty important to me especially since i will be have 20 odd contact hours. Im particularly interested in Usyd's food because i had a look around Usyd and they only seemed to have a couple of cafes and an outdated cafeteria at the basement of a building. I am a fan of asian food but was told that it was quite far to go to thai restaurants etc. Can anyone from usyd help me out on this question in particular?
Cheers, Layna
To help make a more informed decision, I would appreciate it if anyone (particularly law students from these unis) could shed some light on these questions
1. Marking: After looking at course outlines, I noticed UNSW has a MUCH heavier focus on class participation and group assignments. Further i have heard that all law finals are open book. How does this generally impact on grades and scaling? Is it difficult to get ds or hds? As a commerce student, it was a pretty straight forward process of getting hds or ds...
Usyd on the other hand puts alot more focus on the individual and alot of the finals are like 80% of the grade and there are no group assignments. I did hear that HDs were capped and are pretty much unheard from a law student at Usyd open day.
2. Exchange opportunities: Usyd has some fantastic US exchange partners such as Cornell, NYU and Emory however i believe last year only one place was offered for each of these universities. UNSW less variety in US partners but has good European partners. Adding to the fact of the extremely high-achieving cohort, what would be considered a competitive wam to get a place an exchange place?
3. Social aspects: I guess as a ex-UNSW student i am familiar with the social scene at UNSW, but I have no clue about what it would be like to a JD student at Usyd. I have heard that Usyd can be somewhat 'cliquey' and a pretty exclusive crowd but I'm not sure how much this would extend to Juris doctor students who would be a bit more of a mature cohort.
4. FOOD: As silly as this sounds, the availability of good food on campus is pretty important to me especially since i will be have 20 odd contact hours. Im particularly interested in Usyd's food because i had a look around Usyd and they only seemed to have a couple of cafes and an outdated cafeteria at the basement of a building. I am a fan of asian food but was told that it was quite far to go to thai restaurants etc. Can anyone from usyd help me out on this question in particular?
Cheers, Layna