Life of students at NLUs – Know complete details here

Is law school a dream you have been starry-eyed about for a while? Are you planning to get into one of the prestigious National Law Universities (NLUs)? Are you employing all your time and resources into the dream? Congratulations! You’re one of the serious candidates for 2023. Let us make your dream into a more strong founded aspiration by introducing you to the life of students at NLUs. We, at Oliveboard, have taken this opportunity to deliver on your ambitions. In this blog, we will discuss what the life of students at NLUs is like.

Let’s discuss some perks (many perks out of which we are discussing a selected few) of the life of students at NLUs.

Life of students at NLUs – Top-class academics at NLUs

NLUs are considered to be the premier law schools in India. The academics are supposed to be top-notch and they are. Tier I NLUs like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Bhopal can easily boast of having some of the best legal academicians in the country as their professors. 

Additionally, NLUs provide international visiting faculty to their students. The country’s best attorneys and intellectuals frequently visit these universities. 

The NLUs aim for quality legal education with the objective of contributing to national development by instilling a sense of responsibility among their students, while simultaneously cultivating a spirit of intellectual freedom, qualities of leadership, imaginative power, and clarity. This, in turn, accounts for top-class academics at NLUs.

Get a sense of your preferred NLUs here. Knowing what you want will definitely help you build a life like the life of students at NLUs.

Placements at NLUs

You must have heard this time and again, but this point can’t be repeated enough times. At the sake of re-iterating, we’d like to draw your attention to the most splendid fact about life of students at NLUs. From the NLUs, even the entry-level hirings are made by the “big seven” of the law industry – Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM), Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), AZB & Partners, Khaitan & Co., Trilegal, J. Sagar Associates (JSA), and Luthra & Luthra (L&L) Partners. Another hot piece of that pie is the global career prospects provided by recruiters and overseas law firms. The best recruiters in this category are – Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters, and Allen & Overy. Know more about placements in NLUs here.

Building an enviable CV

You do know there is a difference between a resume and a CV, right? A resume is a one-page summary of your work experience and background relevant to the job you are applying to. A CV is a longer academic diary that includes all your experience, certificates, and publications. At an NLU, building the most enviable CV would be a cakewalk for you. Your cherries will be

• National and international moot court opportunities – Moot Courts are a core exercise in legal academics. How much impetus a law school provides to its mooting culture should be a decisive factor. In 1999, the NLSIU became the first Indian team to win the prestigious Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition and have gone on to secure more such wins. Teams from NLSIU have won several moot competitions at the national and international levels including the Manfred Lachs Space Law International Moot and the Oxford Price Moot.
• In-house journals, co-authorship with colleagues, exposure to national and international law journals – Publications are also extremely important for a law student. These remain the top exhibits of one’s expertise and mastery over the nuances of any legal topic. Several NLUs have their own publications, like the 
  • National University of Juridical Sciences Law Review (NUJS LR)
  • National Law School of India Review (NLSIR)
  • Chanakya National Law University Journal (CNLU J).
• Opportunity to TA (teaching assistant) and RA (Research Assistant) for professors of great mettle and note,
• MUN (Model United Nation) opportunity,
• Resources for enviable and coveted internship positions like Trilegal, Khaitan, etc. You also get semester breaks and referrals for undertaking internships. This helps equip you with the necessary industry know-how.
• Exposure to great legal aid cells and community projects like NLU-Ds Project 39A,
• Great referrals for government positions, judicial clerkship or even international internships like with the UN, and
• Participation and managerial opportunities for the country’s best fests like NLSIUs strawberry fields, etc.

These are just some of the opportunities off the top of our heads. There are many more lying to be just noticed and exploited to your best interests and ambitions.

Now that we know the several perks of the life of students at NLUs, let us discuss the ways of getting into one.

Gateways to the life of students at NLUs

National Legal Universities, or NLUs, are the most sought-after law schools. There are now 23 NLUs in the entire nation. The NLUs are recognized by the University Grants Commission and are affiliated with the Bar Council of India (BCI) (UGC). National Law Universities are single-discipline institutions that give students both combined honors and law degrees. And there are two ways in which you can ensure life in an NLU at the undergraduate level for a legal career.

1. CLAT – Common Law Admission Test, or CLAT, is a centralized national level entrance test for admissions to an integrated (5 years) undergraduate degree in Law (BA LLB, BBA LLB, BSc LLB, etc) in twenty-two national law universities (NLU) in India. CLAT scores are also utilized by most private, like Nirma and NMIMS, and self-financed law schools in India. The test is taken after the Higher Secondary Examination or the 12th grade and is conducted by the Consortium of NLUs nationally, every year. 
2. AILET – All India Law Entrance Test, or AILET is the examination conducted for admission into NLU Delhi. The scores are accepted at some other colleges as well, not of particularly great significance, however. 

The syllabus mostly remains the same for both examinations. There are slight alterations to the exam pattern, however. 

Exam	English Language	Quants	GK including Current Affairs	Legal Reasoning	Reasoning	(-)ve	FM
CLAT	28-32	13-17	35-39	35-39	28-32	0.25	150
AILET	50	0	50	0	50	0.25	150

Moreover, you can also enter NLUs at the PG and Doctorate levels. Separate examinations are conducted for entrance to such courses.

• CLAT PG (Post Graduate) – Prior knowledge of the law is the core essence of the CLAT PG paper. Since the eligibility (next section) is UG in law, the paper extracts comprehension paragraphs from primary legal materials such as important court decisions in various fields of law, statutes, or regulations. The entire paper is based on the mandatory subjects of the undergraduate program and includes Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence, Administrative Law, Law of Contract, Torts, Family Law, Criminal Law, Property Law, Company Law, Public International Law, Tax Law, Environmental Law, and Labour & Industrial Law.
• For Ph.D. – NLUs admit students to their Ph.D. programs based on achievement in an entrance exam coupled with an evaluation of their research proposal and technique. In addition to these phases of application, some universities undertake a personal interview round to narrow down applicants for admission.

Life of students at NLUs looks pretty decent, eh? Indeed. However, remember that, as sweet as life after NLU may seem, getting into one is equally arduous. It requires dedicated preparation, exact study sources, study techniques, and sheer willpower. Nevertheless, it isn’t something unachievable. So wherever you are in the preparation stage – whether starting it or concluding your journey with the upcoming examinations – decide quickly and decide now.  If you have already decided in favor of a law career and a life at NLUs, you can start by figuring out which stage of preparation you are currently in. 

Here are some other blogs you can refer to, to get a solid understanding –

1. https://www.oliveboard.in/clat/syllabus
2. https://www.oliveboard.in/blog/mistakes-to-avoid-clat-2023/
3. https://www.oliveboard.in/blog/how-to-prepare-for-the-legal-reasoning-section-of-clat/
4. https://www.oliveboard.in/blog/how-to-prepare-for-the-general-knowledge-section-of-clat/
5. https://www.oliveboard.in/blog/how-to-analyze-the-scores-of-mock-tests-for-clat/
6. https://www.oliveboard.in/blog/preference-list-of-nlus/
7. https://www.oliveboard.in/blog/differences-between-clat-ug-pg/

More has been discussed on the Oliveboard Website.

FAQs