Law at La Trobe (1 Viewer)

[bjh68]

I was just wondering if anyone here is doing or has done Law at La Trobe and what they think of the course/campus/lecturers/theatres etc.

I was also wondering what the reputation of La Trobe was for Law and whether it is looked at positively by employers? Im assuming its 3rd ranked behind Melbourne and Monash but I was wondering what other people thought.

Thanks

 

[je2obrien]

Hi bjh68,
I'm currently a second year science/laws student at La Trobe University Bendigo. Have to say I love the degree. Our lectures are via video conference from the Bundoora campus (so obviously we get exactly the same content as the bundoora students) and our tutors/seminar leaders are living in Bendigo.

The lecturers are all great. I'm yet to have a lecturer who doesnt have a clue or anything like that. The course can be as intellectually stimulating as you want it to be or as easy as you want it to be! One benefit of doing the course for the first two years in Bendigo is that i think our results tend to be higher than the Bundoora students simply due to the student- tutor ratio.

Personally, I also like knowing that my tutors know my name and my capabilities! A lot better than being stuck in the 'interactive seminars' (i.e a psuedo-lecture with 100 other people) they offer for commercial and consumer contracts students in Bundoora.

Another thing I love about the degree in bendigo is the access to the legal profession. We, the students, are regularly attended to small functions (read: real networking oppourtunities) such as judge's welcomes etc that simply wouldnt be availiable to melbourne students. I know that I have scored clerking/instructing work from these events. Furthermore, there is the Community legal centre which operates every wednesday and allows law students to interview REAL clients (solicitors just supervise, but rarely interupt! awesome experience)!

I have been to the bundoora campus and checked it out also. The law building has a horrible interior, but is pretty massive. The lectures are carried out mostly in the West Lecture theatres which are great, modern lecture theatres.

Another handy feature of the La Trobe program is that lectures are audio taped and loaded onto the net... So if you miss a lecture, you can just catch it online!

Recognising that Uni is not all about the work, i thought i would touch on the social side of things. In bendigo, we have a law club which runs heaps of awesome events attended by great people! We're not a bunch of pretentious wankers who are all best friends from high school! Going out is really cheap in bendigo and pretty similar in Bundoora!

To conclude, i would give the La Trobe program 5/5. Heaps of fun, and great people to study with!

-jim

P.s Can't really comment on reputation etc, but to be honest i think all that crap is meaningless..... its all the extra curricular stuff that really counts! Availiability of that is in no shortage in places like bendigo....

Any more Q's I can help with?

 

[bjh68]

Ok thanks alot for that. I'm going to the Open Day in a couple of weeks to I will probably have a few more things to ask afterwards. I'll make sure to check out the huge but crappy building

 

[turtleface]

The problem is if you want to get in as a solicitor at a large firm, a lot of them are elitist and often demand only monash or melb.

Although education wise there is little difference btw the institutions, unfortunately in the market a degree from melbourne or monash will be much more advantageous.

just go to melb or monash

i'm sure la trobe is a very good uni, unfortunately a lot of them recruiting ppl are biased, however the pro melb/monash bias has appeared to decrease in recent yrs, so latrobe is starting to become a better option

 

[velox]

Do well in your degree and top it up with a LLM from Melb/Monash.

 

[marezmac]

Hey Jimmy!!
Thought I'd pop by just to see if the thread had anything about Bendigo...
I think you summed it up in a nice package, the low drop out rate of like 1... also shows how tops the course and people are around campus.

As for degrees and big firms- Once upon a time Monash wasn't recognised as being well esteemed to justify giving a graduate a job, Latrobe is certainly on the way up... and after seeing life in a regional firm, making partner sooner and having a variety of jobs- who needs the city firms anyway!

 

[Arabique]

Do well in your degree and top it up with a LLM from Melb/Monash.

Yep I agree with this!

Or get Masters in your other field, if you're doing a double degree.

 

[RogueAcademic]

Yep I agree with this!

Or get Masters in your other field, if you're doing a double degree.

Law firms don't really look at your masters degree though, unless you have PAE + LLM. They would still look to your first degree and your academic results from your first degree.

 

[taxed]

I think reputation does play a factor in the recruitment process, so obviously going to melb/monash will give you the edge over LTU etc.

That said however if you do a LLB at LTU and achieve really good marks you can get into the big law firms.

While I did not do a LLB, I did a double degree BCom and BFin at LTU and my extracurricular activities and my good academic record got me a really good accounting role. I know many people from LTU who got into the big 4 accounting firms too.

You need to be well rounded... having a LLB from Melb with no interpersonal skills, mediocre marks and no extracurricular activities gets you nowhere.