BCL/Maitrise

shaneob96

Can anyone give me some solid advice on this degree? would it be better for me to do just Law and French, I havent really decided whether I want to go into corporate law or advocacy and kind of stuck in the middle as I have heard alot of negatives on the prosepect of jobs in adocacy, How good does a BCL/Maitrise look on a CV and does in really limit my education of law compared to a pure law degree. Any help would be much appreciated.

wolfgirl

Heya, So I only saw this post now but as since there were no replies I figured I would give it a go. So I'm a first year maitrise student in UCD and I will attempt to give you a coherent answer! So maitrise is different from law with french law(LwFL) in that it is a dual law degree. LwFL will give you an Irish law degree but in practical terms you won't receive any french diploma. Maitrise on the other hand will give you a french law degree as well as an Irish one meaning that you can then go on to study to become an avocat in france if you wish. The maitrise is an extremely intense course because you essentially have to take all the core law modules of a 4 year law degree in two years. So this year I'm doing 2nd year modules and next year I'll be doing 3rd and 4th year modules. The french aspect is also very challenging and you have to bear in mind that with LwFL, the year in France won't count towards your degree but in maitrise the 2 years in France obviously will.
So why take maitrise? Well to be perfectly honest (and as unsnobby as possible!) it is regarded as a very prestigious degree, it's a good way of distinguishing yourself , especially if you want to work internationally
If however, you don't have any such interest in working for the EU or in France etc I would think very hard about choosing to do this course because it is a lot of pressure and there are plenty of ways to distinguish yourself in a normal law degree.
You also don't get electives if you do maitrise! And half your class will be from France by the way!
If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask

shaneob96

wolfgirl wrote: »

Heya, So I only saw this post now but as since there were no replies I figured I would give it a go. So I'm a first year maitrise student in UCD and I will attempt to give you a coherent answer! So maitrise is different from law with french law(LwFL) in that it is a dual law degree. LwFL will give you an Irish law degree but in practical terms you won't receive any french diploma. Maitrise on the other hand will give you a french law degree as well as an Irish one meaning that you can then go on to study to become an avocat in france if you wish. The maitrise is an extremely intense course because you essentially have to take all the core law modules of a 4 year law degree in two years. So this year I'm doing 2nd year modules and next year I'll be doing 3rd and 4th year modules. The french aspect is also very challenging and you have to bear in mind that with LwFL, the year in France won't count towards your degree but in maitrise the 2 years in France obviously will.
So why take maitrise? Well to be perfectly honest (and as unsnobby as possible!) it is regarded as a very prestigious degree, it's a good way of distinguishing yourself , especially if you want to work internationally
If however, you don't have any such interest in working for the EU or in France etc I would think very hard about choosing to do this course because it is a lot of pressure and there are plenty of ways to distinguish yourself in a normal law degree.
You also don't get electives if you do maitrise! And half your class will be from France by the way!
If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask

I was kind of worried about the work load though I researched it a little, Is the drop out rate really that high and the workload in France I heard is crippling. I want to have enough time to do extra-curricular activities in college as well would the Maitrise limit me in that regard?

Phyrexian

Note: I do law and I minor in Politics. I didn't go abroad during my degree but I am the queen of extra-curricular.

Tbh I too have heard drop out in the Maitrise is very very high (obviously UCD won't exactly advertise numbers so these are rumours) - through some people don't drop out they just switch into Law with French. I even heard rumours they were going to axe the course cos all the Irish people were dropping out(!!!) but this was in 2011.

Also a lot of the students seem to be Francophones and those who are not native speakers tend to be the ones who drop out. I would take more heed from students who aren't native speakers of French as obviously those students have the worst workload over the Francophones. You would have to be very very good and willing to study before college starts your French? Do you get very good grades in French now? If you just want to learn French, Law with French makes much more sense.

It's a bit untrue to say that a year abroad in a normal law degree doesn't count... it does count as in you must pass / learn different law things than you wouldn't learn in UCD and you would have a BCL International degree (as opposed to the BCL degree which I have as I didn't go abroad). It would obviously be a talking point in interviews / shows your interest / ability to understand French etc. Going abroad is the norm in law these days.

I find the Maitrise students are very overworked because they are doing classes which are too advanced for them with no background to the areas they are studying (which wastes so much time in class for everyone else... but I digress). There's 1st years in my 4th year classes!!!

The school (as far as I can tell from speaking to two Maitrises perhaps they just are masochists) also encourages them to take extra modules which shocks me as very unfair as 1) that's so expensive!!! 2) not really seeing the whole point that education has to be holistic.

As someone who is very involved with extra-curricular stuff, I think it would most definitely limit your extra-curricular activities which wouldn't be the case in normal BCL courses. You could show up here and there but you couldn't be on a society committee and really give proper time to it.

The EU doesn't care too much about where / specific law degree you've studied or where (heard this from EPSO myself - they are working to make EU stuff less elitist and trying to get those English speakers). Obviously to work in the EU you need a good standard of French though.

No electives would suck - but Business and Law has that problem too. Actually, would B and L suit you? It would be relevant to both of the areas you are interested in.

Tbh you're still a leaving cert I don't think you can honestly know what area of law you want to go in when you graduate (I don't know myself)... Or even just Commerce alone could be of interest.

But if you do the 4 year course you'll have more a chance to try many areas of law to see which you like!

Btw loads of people study law and go on to do non-law stuff or law stuff but not specifically advocate, corporate solicitor or barrister e.g. legal journalism, civil service, EU, consultancy, hedge funds etc etc you get the gist.

But if you don't like legal things generally and find them endlessly dry you may not like studying law at all. If you are in Dublin sometime soon try to sneak into a law lecture (no one will notice you're new) and think about whether you could see yourself doing this for years, it's the best way.

Daniel1804

Hi! I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on studying the BCL Maîtrise dual law degree at UCD? I understand that to get into the degree you first go into the Law with French Law degree and then the students who get the highest grades at the end of the year have the option to apply for the Maîtrise. My main concern is whether the Maîtrise is difficult to get into? Would anyone be able to explain to me what the process is of applying to the dual law degree programme. I've heard that the programme itself is very difficult but I havnt yet heard anyone talk about whether its difficult to get into the the Maîtrise degree in the first place? What grade average do you need to be eligible? Do you have to do an interview?

I did my leaving cert last summer and I got law with French at UCD through the CAO. While I was doing the leaving cert my family moved from Dublin to the UAE so I decided to defer my place and I plan to come to UCD this September. I heard that this degree is really demanding and a high level of French is needed. I'm a really motivated student and I've been interested in studying the Maîtrise since 4th year. So far this year, I've moved with my family to Abu Dhabi and I got into a one year French law course at the Sorbonne Abu Dhabi campus. By this summer I'll get a b2 in the DELF French exam. After the summer I plan to come back to Dublin and start the law with French course in September.Do you think that this would help my chances of applying to the Maîtrise in UCD after the end of my first year in law with French?

I would really appreciate any feedback to my questions or any experiences or advice on law with French and the dual Maîtrise programme at UCD.