Science/Law

[Eriny]

24 people in a tute?!?! That's insane!

I think, if you think you might be interested in law, there's is no harm in trying it out as an undergrad. You can always drop it later on if you hate it or if you feel it isn't worth your time.

I'm curious as to why some of you are pushing the JD. Is Melbourne paying you or something? Or are you just trying to validate your own decisions? A JD is great for someone who isn't sure they want to go into law, but in this case it does sound as though its a fairly immediate potential career.

Also, Science and Law together can be more complementary than you might think in terms of patenting as well as medical ethics and that kind of thing.

[Fyrefly]

My accounting tute has bout 24 people in it, and there's a 10% tute participation mark.

I noticed the tutor jotting down names of students who he seemed to think made a valuable point or contribution... out of 24 people, I think he only wrote down 6 names.

[AzureBlue]

Wow, these tutes are quite large, in commerce my cousin said that the max tute size was like 18 for her subjects. Law is definitely a potential career for me, along with actuarial (ie. I'm going to end up doing one or the other) and I don't see why the JD contradicts that. Ideally, I'd like to do a Bcomm/LLB at Melbourne but now... what difference does a Bcomm/JD make anyway (apart from the fact that it takes a year longer)?

Or if the LLB is that good, then I can maybe transfer to another uni at the end of my Bcomm. I thought that employers judged the JD and LLB generally the same?

[Russ]

I'm curious as to why some of you are pushing the JD. Is Melbourne paying you or something? Or are you just trying to validate your own decisions? A JD is great for someone who isn't sure they want to go into law, but in this case it does sound as though its a fairly immediate potential career.

I'm paying them

I'm recommending the Melbourne model pathway because the OP said that he'd prefer a course that let him focus on science and choose a few law subjects to go along with it. Then it leads into graduate study in either area, depending on what was more enjoyable.

[sxcalexc]

I'm currently completing a BSc(Physics Major)/LLB at Monash. I'm a second year and I quite enjoy it so far. Whilst the only substantive law subject I've completed has been contract A (and I'm currently studying contract B) I quite liked it. I don't know whether that's indicative of what's to come but I'd definitely say I had a similar mindset to you coming into it. Being a man of science, I love solving problems using logic and I have an appetite for learning.

Science, particularly physics, and law are both concerned with problem solving. There may not be a direct crossover between the two endeavours but I think that rationality and good logic are both appreciated in each.

I'm not too sure where my future lies but I'm definitely interested in bringing a technical perspective to a law firm. Intellectual Property/patent law are areas I'm considering for this reason. I also figure that as technology progresses and more ethical issues come into play the legal system will have to regulate carefully.

Feel free to ask me any questions but bear in mind that I still have a long way to go before completing my law degree.

[Eriny]

I'm curious as to why some of you are pushing the JD. Is Melbourne paying you or something? Or are you just trying to validate your own decisions? A JD is great for someone who isn't sure they want to go into law, but in this case it does sound as though its a fairly immediate potential career.

I'm paying them

I'm recommending the Melbourne model pathway because the OP said that he'd prefer a course that let him focus on science and choose a few law subjects to go along with it. Then it leads into graduate study in either area, depending on what was more enjoyable.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I gather the relatively few law courses you can do as an undergrad at Melbourne wouldn't go towards being an accredited lawyer? As in, you'd have to start all over again with law subjects in the JD?

[AzureBlue]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I gather the relatively few law courses you can do as an undergrad at Melbourne wouldn't go towards being an accredited lawyer? As in, you'd have to start all over again with law subjects in the JD?

No, they are breadth subjects and count towards your undergraduate degree. Yes, but I think the law subjects are different in the JD (refer http://jd.law.unimelb.edu.au/go/the-course/subject-pages).

[Russ]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I gather the relatively few law courses you can do as an undergrad at Melbourne wouldn't go towards being an accredited lawyer? As in, you'd have to start all over again with law subjects in the JD?

No, that's right. He can't do an accredited law degree as an undergrad at UoM, but he can take law subjects to get a feel for what it's like and decide whether doing the JD would be a good idea/should continue with science.

Or do the double degree at Monash, depends on how he feels about it.

[appianway]

*she

Hmm, it's a bit confusing, because up until recently I was set on doing PhB at ANU, but now I'm questioning whether I should incorporate law...

[Eriny]

I guess it really depends on where your interests are... which I know isn't very useful. If you know that you aren't going to do law in the long run, or if you think you need a little more time to decide, a single degree is probably a better option, especially when you consider that you can concentrate on your scientific/intellectual interests before doing a JD (and its not just the Melbourne JD out there, many places offer it). However, if being a lawyer is something you want to do, or if you know you would like to work in a law-related area at some point, you should do it as an undergrad.

I considered Law. I didn't do it because I wasn't ready to commit to that many years of study, especially given that I wasn't sure I wanted to be a lawyer and especially given that I was given the opportunity to focus on subjects I knew I was interested in. It was always just a possibility to me, rather than something I felt I should do. But, if you can commit to it, and if you think you won't be able to handle full-time Science or whatever, it could be really helpful to you. Remembering, it's also possible to transfer out of Law too!

I know it's a hard choice! My favourite way out of making said choice is following the pretty scholarships (in which case, you're more likely to get one for not-Law), but I don't recommend this highly. Maybe if you know someone who is relatively unbiased and a lawyer, have a talk to them? Or a careers adviser? Also, remember that if you work either as a lawyer or a scientist, it'll be for over 40 hours a week for years of your life - which sounds less like something that would trigger some kind of descent into madness for you?

[ninwa]

Will it help at all if I paste you some of my constitutional law notes and you see if it interests you or puts you to sleep?

[appianway]

Possibly. I spoke to my careers counsellor today who suggested I do science/law today as well - she says that I can always just drop the law if I don't like it. I'm still confused, but I'm giving law a lot more thought than I was previously.

[tram]

Will it help at all if I paste you some of my constitutional law notes and you see if it interests you or puts you to sleep?

i would like them too

[ninwa]

Possibly. I spoke to my careers counsellor today who suggested I do science/law today as well - she says that I can always just drop the law if I don't like it. I'm still confused, but I'm giving law a lot more thought than I was previously.

Yeah. What have you really got to lose? Except maybe one semester, or at most one year...

[ninwa]

On second thoughts my notes are probably not a great indication of what the subject is like. They're rather disjointed and may contain abbreviations/shorthand which is only comprehensible to me.

But here you go anyway - this is one of the topics we studied.