Requirements to Be Lawyer: Should Your Children Take IB or AP?

Parents only want the best for their children, and part of that is making sure they choose a career path that will lead them to a happy and successful life. To help accomplish this goal, it‚Äôs the hope for many parents that their children will pursue a career as a lawyer. 

But how do you best help your children access this highly competitive and sought after field of study? And what tests and programs, specifically between AP or IB, should they take to ensure they get into the best law schools?

To learn more about what path high school students should take to be a lawyer and what tests to focus on, we spoke to Julian Chow, a Concordia Shanghai alumnus currently studying Law at Kings College London.

Concordia Shanghai Provides Tools to Succeed in Competitive Fields

For Chow, his interest to become a lawyer stemmed from the unique challenges such a career could offer him, something he felt was lacking from others.

“Lawyers are often forced to deal with problems that arise in grey areas, more so than other fields, generating problems that are also linked to ethics and morality. Law creates a set of challenges that I find more appealing than what other occupations might offer,” he said.

Chow expressed how his time at Concordia Shanghai prepared him for the challenges of university and encouraged him to choose a field that was he was passionate about, in this case, that happened to be law.  

“I think the competitive nature at Concordia Shanghai, and specifically in my grade, really helped prepare me for university. Students at Concordia Shanghai are constantly striving to do better, which creates an atmosphere where everyone is trying to perfect their existing skills and achieve better results in everything from sports competitions to academic results.”

At Concordia Shanghai, our students are driven, passionate, responsible, and so many more admirable traits. Click here to learn more about the profile of an AP student and how we foster these characteristics in our learners.

When choosing between AP or IB tests, Chow decided AP classes would benefit him most. While he did not take IB and cannot directly compare the two, he noted that his university classmates who did take IB over AP seemed to be at a disadvantage in major areas, that being entry standards and previous knowledge of course content.

“I do think it gave me an advantage over a lot of my peers who went through the IB system. In the U.K., a lot of universities aren’t really aware of how difficult the AP is when compared with the IB and consider the two as equals. While my friends were struggling with understanding the concepts of parliamentary sovereignty, devolution, and the legal sources of the U.K.’s unwritten constitution, I was able to understand everything that was going on.”

Even better, Chow feels that the relationships he formed with staff at Concordia Shanghai surpass those of his university classmates, who are often surprised by the fact that he visits the school regularly and stays in touch with many of his teachers. 

“Relationships formed at Concordia Shanghai go far beyond a level of comfort and are more accurately described as close friendships, something that keeps our school separate and distinct from other schools in a positive way.”

Want to discover the difference between AP and IB? Click the link below!