CAO choices - Law & Politics or B&L?

insafehands

Hey,

Am wondering if anyone could give me any guidance on this issue. Since 4th year I've wanted to do B&L in UCD, but have just came across L&P and believe I would find it viel interessant as it both subjects are of interest to me.

Are there any current students of either course who could help me? I believe my future lies with law or business (enterprise), but feel that a business degree is somewhat unrequired for doing the latter.

Your thoughts are appeciated,
ish.

Stabshauptmann

My advise is to do B&L with politics electives.
My opinion is that B&L is a very good degree and if thats your career path then you should definitly study the relevant subjects. I did pure commerce and the knowledge and skills that Ive acquired are invaluable in my opinion. No matter what you choose to do in life it will be of some use. Its not as common sense as you might think, and its one of the best business courses in europe

And if politics is something that takes your interest you can choose to take some classes in politics subjects as part of your degree.

I cant answer too many specific law questions but there are many a B&L, Law and Politics student on these boards

Font22

i'm a final year B&Ler and would recommend it. brill course altho i am currently in full stress mode due to finals. great degree tho. exposes you to loads of stuff and with horizons i presume you can do electives in politics etc.

valor

Do B+L

besty

Final B&L myself too. I'd def. recommend it. Great flexibility to do subjects that interest you in 3rd and 4th year, coupled with the electives makes it a very attractive degree. It's also now a Business & Law degree. Convinced? Thought so.

GusherING

I study Politics as part of a BA. My other subject is history so I can't tell you about the law aspect. I chose doing a BA over doing law cos I thought I may as well spend 3 years doing something that will stay with me and inform my opinions for the rest of my life over doing something as practical as law. In otherwords I liked the whole philosophical side. I'm fairly sure Law doesn't explain in vast detail why laws are laws, and instead focuses on how they are applied etc.

Personally I think politics is a great subject, it really expands your mind and perspective on so many issues. It has all the benefits of doing a social science subject but with a focus on very many different parts of daily life which I think are far more interesting than doing sociology per se. The best bit is that after three years, you definitely feel far more enlightened and aware of how the world around you works and why it does. Not to disparage B&L but I think that is something we should all spend a part of our life examining. You can always become a lawyer or a businessman later.

skyhighflyer

I do Law in UCD. I hate myself for saying this but go for B+L.

Sangre

Do B&L if you want an easy degree.

Paul Tergat

BnL is the way forward!

Stabshauptmann

GusherING wrote:

I study Politics as part of a BA. My other subject is history so I can't tell you about the law aspect. I chose doing a BA over doing law cos I thought I may as well spend 3 years doing something that will stay with me and inform my opinions for the rest of my life over doing something as practical as law. In otherwords I liked the whole philosophical side. I'm fairly sure Law doesn't explain in vast detail why laws are laws, and instead focuses on how they are applied etc.

Personally I think politics is a great subject, it really expands your mind and perspective on so many issues. It has all the benefits of doing a social science subject but with a focus on very many different parts of daily life which I think are far more interesting than doing sociology per se. The best bit is that after three years, you definitely feel far more enlightened and aware of how the world around you works and why it does. Not to disparage B&L but I think that is something we should all spend a part of our life examining. You can always become a lawyer or a businessman later.

This opinion is misguided. A university education is very different from an IT. The focus is not on application.

I cant speak for law but Business in UCD is not thought from a strictly practical applications side. It is theory, history, paradigms. If you dont persue business later in life a B&L or Commerce degree will definitly expand your mind and your perceptions for the rest of your life.

The utter nonesense I hear people talking on a weekly basis that could be avoided if they'd done just a little business. From my experience it societies, sports club, the SU, and real life (TM) work is that most of what you will learn in a business course is NOT common sense.

Stabshauptmann

skyhighflyer wrote:

I do Law in UCD. I hate myself for saying this but go for B+L.

I do commerce and tbh, if I'd to do it all again, I'd prob do B&L (with an elective in either history, politics, english or computer science).

I had the points but I feel I got bad advise from my career guidence teacher. But maybe not. He said do commerce or law, but that BBLS wouldnt hold the same wight with an employer. Though I think thats why its being changed from Business and Legal Studies to Business and Law. That and its growing reputation (its new enough I think) will make it the degree of the future

singingstranger

Many a Comm student (like Kaptain Redeye, and technically myself although I'm Commerce Intl), and many a Law student (my g/f as it so happens, as well as skyhighflyer up above) wish they'd done B&L.

As a former SU President once put it - himself a Law student - in a class address: "You're doing the best degree programme in the best University in the country."

skyhighflyer

Maybe I'm being a little harsh on Law - it's still a great degree and you won't go hungry when you graduate but it's nice to have a little choice outside the somewhat narrow, 100% law course. I'm interested in business as well but chose law because I listened to misinformation to the effect that 'pure Law' was more recognised. Total BS, the fact that far more B and L students were accepted for vacation schemes in top Dublin law firms than Law students last year speaks volumes.

Edit - Just bear in mind that B and L has about twice the lecture hours law does - if you're looking for an easy degree choose Law

Stabshauptmann

Thats right, I should remember that B&L means more work than BCOMM which Im doing.

Also if Id done BBLS:
I wouldnt study all the business modules you do in Commerce:

Organisational Behaviour
Applied Business Competencies
Intermediate Microeconomics
Ireland in Europe

The first two being extremely useful.

And you do do the relevant law subjects:
Business Law (contracts, torts)
Company Law (accounting)

valor

We DO have to do OB which is the worst subject ever..until you come to Ops.

Stabshauptmann

There have been several changes to several degrees, the new Business and Law degree was the one I was comparing to the new Bcomm degree (though I didnt think ye ever did OB, what stage did you do it in?)

https://sisweb.ucd.ie/usis/w_sm_web_inf_browser.show_major?p_term_code=200600&p_major_code=594&p_show_prog_link=Y&p_crumb=%3CA%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fsisweb.ucd.ie%2Fusis%2Fw_sm_web_inf_browser.program_list%3F%22%3E%20UCD%20CAO%20Entry%20Routes%3C%2FA%3E

Oh, and you cannot choose an elective via horizons apparently for B&L, you can for commerce and law.

So if you wanna do politics OP then B&L plus an elective is not an option

valor

Yeah my bad, im in third B+L we had to do OB in first year.

The new first year subjects look much nicer

JustCoz

Sangre wrote:

Do B&L if you want an easy degree.

As opposed to law with your 3 hours a week?!

BnL ftw. It's really broad, you could go anywhere with it and there's an option to go on international erasmus in 4th year which is cool.

Stabshauptmann

whereas nearly every one else in the university has the option in 2nd year.

Just remember, you (apparently) cant take any electives via horizons in you are in B&L.

This seems a bit dodge to me, anyone doing B&L confirm/deny it.

Stirling

Did Law in UCC and now a Masters in UCD. I would go for B+L all the way - the opportunities coming out of it are absolutely exceptional and its a very broad course so you can go where you want with it be that Law, Banking or, scary moment, Accounting.

When I was doing my CAO form I thought about it and again the general consensus was that it wasn't the same as having a "pure" Law degree so decided on that and went with UCC as said sure what's the difference between that and UCD - end up with the same qualification at the end of the day.

Big mistake on both counts. Not meaning to sound in any way bitter because I still feel I got one of the best legal educations possible but in terms of employment I get the feeling that not coming out of UCD/TCD leaves you in a bit of a disadvantage vis a vis employment afterwards because there seems to be a bias on the part of employers towards Dublin graduates which is shown by the fact that most of the Irish Law firms, and all of the English ones, don't run any employer presentations in Cork.

As for the guy doing Politics and History fair play to you for deciding on that course but I don't get why a lot of people doing Arts have to denigrate pure Law degrees at every opportunity with comments like "I know how the world works so much better than if I had just done a Law Degree" as all you're going to learn is "how the Law is applied and nothing else". I have to disagree completely - read some Jurisprudence or Constitutional Law and acnowledge the extent to which so many other disciplines feed into Law such as History, Politics and Economics. I still think it is one of the best educations you can get and don't agree with the idea that thinking like a Lawyer "Is something you can learn easily afterwards - not that big a deal". Maybe the mechanics of it are possible but Academic Legal Eduaction forces you to think a little differently from someone who has been educated in a different way and I in no way think it to be any less valuable than the Humanities.

Well thats my rant over!

Sangre

JustCoz wrote:

As opposed to law with your 3 hours a week?!

BnL ftw. It's really broad, you could go anywhere with it and there's an option to go on international erasmus in 4th year which is cool.

A certain someone gave out to me for that comment last night, after she told me she had deferred an exam.

Get ourra that.

Stabshauptmann

Can someone clarify this if its wrong but my understanding is as follows
For a B&L student

• In the first 3 years they will study 90% of commerce subjects without choice
• In the first 3yrs they study considerably less law modules than a pure law student though they have a good deal of choice in 3rd year
• In the 4th and final year they pick either a commerce mode or a law mode, and 2 electives
• There is no option at any point during the degree to pick an elective via horizons

You do NOT end up with the equivalent of a Commerce degree and a Law degree.


You gain the advantage of waiting longer to choose what it is you want to do career wise, business or law
And you gain a broad understanding of your Minor* subject

The disadvantages are that

• You are confined to Business and Law modules, You do not have a choice of doing any electives via horizons.
• You spend an extra year in college (though this may not be a disadvantage to some)
• Your Major* is not as deep as someone who did pure law or pure commerce (and your minor is nowhere close!)
  

It is the last point which my career guidance councillor at school and the ppl at the UCD open day stressed. To what degree it plays a part none of us can quantifiably say since B&L is a new degree.



*Not sure Im using that term correctly