<p>Is it common for applicants to write that they want to be judges in their personal statements when applying for law in the UK?</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is common but it sounds like a ridiculous thing to put down.</p>
<p>I am a lawyer in the United States.</p>
<p>Being a judge would be a very long term goal, you don’t become a judge straight out of law school. You may want to talk more in detail about what you plan to do right out of law school. Then maybe briefly mention two or three different options you might have for long term goals; don’t make it look like you have put all your eggs in one basket, not every person who wants to be a judge gets to be a judge. So try to give the impression you have thought about other long term goals as well, and that at the moment you haven’t really picked one over the others.</p>
<p>That’s what I would do, at least.</p>
<p>No, you should not put that down at all, especially if you applying to the top schools. In the top unis, law is not a vocational subject - you are taught the law from a purely theoretical perspective (e.g. mostly jurisprudence). Law schools don’t care why you want to be a lawyer (or judge); they want to know why you want to STUDY law.</p>
<p>MeIsHM is correct - you’re applying for the academic study of law, not for a career in the law, let alone to be a judge. You need to reflect this in your PS. </p>
<p>Incidentally, you don’t need a law degree to be a judge in the UK, if you wish to be a magistrate (a type of judge that deals with relatively low-level crimes). <a href=“https://www.gov.uk/become-magistrate[/url]”>https://www.gov.uk/become-magistrate</a></p>
<p>Magistrates aren’t paid though - its not a job.</p>
<p>OP: I don’t know if it’s common, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing to say or aspire to. Just back it up with some reasoning behind it.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot</p>