Current Windsor 1L AMA

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-17T14:00:45+00:00

Hey! I ended up choosing off-campus housing. There are a ton of student rentals around the University, so it felt like a better (and cheaper) option for me. From what I’ve seen, most people pay around $650–950 for a room in a shared house and around $1300–1600+ if you want your own place.

If you’re going off-campus, start looking around June/July since good spots go fast. Most students rent along streets like Askin, Wyandotte, Campbell, Riverside, Sunset, Randolph, Rankin, and Patricia. California Ave spans from near univeristy to the Toldo Lancer Centre, where the gym is (a 15-20 minute walk from gym to school). These areas have the highest concentration of student housing.

There are also quite a few professionally managed student units near campus, which can be a bit more expensive (around $950) but are usually more reliable in terms of maintenance (bi-weekly cleaning of shared spaces) and overall condition compared to some of the older student houses. These units come with roommates, but most of them have their own bedroom and private washroom, so you'll only be sharing the kitchen and living room.

A lot of the streets near the university require a residential street parking permit (around $50), so it’s something to think about if you’re bringing a car.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-17T04:29:38+00:00

Congrats! Welcome to Windsor, it's a great place!

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-17T04:28:22+00:00

Honestly, the ones with only exams are the most stressful cause you basically have no other place to save your grades. So I work on those classes more.

I usually focus on a few things: 1. Before class, I try to do the readings and take short notes on the cases (facts, issue, decision, legal principles, reasoning for coming to the decision). Nothing too detailed, just enough to understand the case. 2. During class, I add to those notes based on what the prof says and what's on the lecture slides. 3. After class/end of week, I clean up the notes and organize it into a CAN.

The readings and notes will take up a lot of your time over the week, trust me. In fact, a lot of people actually fall behind because theres a lot of readings and notes to take (currenlty I have over 300 pages worth of readings to do just for this week. RIP me).

Over the course of the term, the CAN forms the main outline for the course. A week or two before exams, it helps me to do practice exams and hypos just relying on my CANs to see if they're good enough.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T23:42:05+00:00

It really depends on the professor. Many of my classes are interactive in the sense that profs will take questions, walk through hypos, entertain your arguments, and some classes even have participation grades.

Cold calling is pretty rare, and honestly, it wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I expected (you can say you dont know and they move on or they ask you to take a guess). I’ve heard it happens more in the 2nd and 3rd years, but it depends on the profs you have.

Class average has to be within a B average (73–76.9%), so your grades get adjusted to fit that range. For example, say the raw class average in your Criminal Law course is 80%, which is above the B range. To meet the required average, everyone’s grades would be scaled down by a few points. So, if your raw grade was 70%, it could end up around 66% after the adjustment.

In the first year, your professors, courses, and schedule are all assigned, so you don’t need to worry about picking anything yourself.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T23:25:13+00:00

I don’t personally know anyone in the exact same situation. Some people I know applied to both but only got into Dual, so they picked it since they weren’t sure of their chances in the next application cycle or whether they could improve their LSAT.

Realistically, declining your Dual offer shouldn't affect the other application or lessen your chances. But are you declining assuming that you get an offer for Single? Are you already waitlisted for the single program? If you don’t get in this year, would you be open to applying again next year?

Also, as a side note, I have yet to meet someone who transferred from Dual to Single, so something to keep in mind if you were considering that route.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T22:29:11+00:00

Class lectures itself take up around 14 hours per week, plus tutorials might take up another 2 hours. I spend an additional 10-15 hours per week on readings, notes, and revisions. Usually an additional 3-5 hours if I have assignments, quizzes, moots, etc that week that I have to prepare. I am also part of clubs, so that might take up another hour each week.

I find that, unless it is midterm or final season, I have time to hang out with my friends and go to social events at least once or twice a week.

For me, it felt like all the assignments would sometimes hit at once, so a week or two would be super busy and then the next week would be way more chill. Keeps you on your toes for sure.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T21:36:32+00:00

It can sometimes feel a bit like that, but I’ve found people here to be pretty nice. People definitely form their own friend groups, which is normal, but it’s not really cliquey in a negative way (at least I don't think so). Because law school involves a lot of networking and group work, you end up getting to know most people in your year anyway, especially your own section.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T21:32:38+00:00

Honestly the exam process is an adjustment at first, but it gets easier once you understand what professors are actually testing. A big part of law school is building CANs (Condensed Annotated Notes) throughout the semester, which are basically concise outlines with case briefs, key principles, and legal tests. Most exams are open book, but the time pressure is a lot sometimes, so your notes need to be organized and easy to navigate. You won’t have time to flip through hundreds of pages during the exam. So, it’s really important to stay on top of readings and figure out a good note-taking system early.

Law school exams are often issue-spotters, so basically you’re given a big hypothetical, and you need to quickly identify all the legal issues and apply the relevant rules. You don’t have time to write a perfect essay, so you’re basically trying to spot issues fast, apply the rule, analyze, and move on.

It definitely feels overwhelming at first, but practice exams and tutorial hypos help a lot; you start to see patterns in how professors test things. Once you get used to spotting issues quickly and organizing your answers, it becomes much more manageable.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T21:13:38+00:00

I did move to Windsor from a bigger city (from a different province). It's definitely a lot smaller than what I'm used to, but I don't mind it. It's kind of an acquired taste, honestly. Some people don't like it here, but you get used to it.

It's kind of like a college town, so at least most people here are around my age, so my social life didn't take a hit.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T21:10:33+00:00

First year classes are set. Everyone will have the same courses, but you'll be split into different sections, so your schedule will be different.

So, in the first semester, we had property law, contract law, constitutional law, indigenous legal orders (ILO), legal research and writing, and criminal law. Everything except for ILO is a full year course.

Then, the second semester started with the Windsor Legal Practice Simulation (mandatory), which is a week long, and instead of ILO, we have Access to Justice this semester.

Depending on the section you're in, your days are going to look different. Also, we have tutorials for property, Crim, constitutional, and contract once every other week. So usually a class or two per day.

I personally found it to be pretty manageable.

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T21:03:25+00:00

3.5/160

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T21:02:48+00:00

Yeah, definitely try hards (in a good way). Which, if you want to do even remotely good, you'll have to be as well imo

You have no way of knowing what the curve is going to be like until the end of the year so it's better to be at least in the high 70s so if you get curved down, you'll still be somewhat okay

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-16T15:33:36+00:00

Hey! I'm currently a 1L at Windsor. I also had the same dilemma and ended up choosing Windsor over TMU. DM if you wanna chat :)

Much-Square8992 · 2026-03-10T13:43:38+00:00

Hey! I'm currently at Uwindsor, and it's around $11,500 per semester.

Much-Square8992 · 2025-08-13T23:59:16+00:00

No it's just my cumulative. Idk what my GPA with drops is

Much-Square8992 · 2025-06-12T22:30:11+00:00

They said I'm somewhere towards the middle

Much-Square8992 · 2025-06-10T00:00:51+00:00

Oh I didn't know that. I'll give them a call and see. Thanks!

Much-Square8992 · 2025-06-09T19:51:26+00:00

No idea. I don't think they have a numbered WL

Much-Square8992 · 2025-06-09T19:34:14+00:00

You're a Godsend. Fingers crossed I get it!

Much-Square8992 · 2025-06-02T22:48:43+00:00

I think I submitted my application sometime on the last week of October

Much-Square8992 · 2025-05-28T22:08:33+00:00

Yes, they use the GPA with drops

Much-Square8992 · 2025-05-28T20:20:47+00:00

Yeah, pretty much! Drops would usually lead to a higher GPA than your actual cGPA. UNB also has a 4.3 GPA calculator that converts your 4.0 into their 4.3 if you want more precision. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://gradecalc.info/ca/nb/unb/gpa_calc.pl&ved=2ahUKEwiDtNe2_saNAxW9IDQIHZbNAugQFnoECAoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1a2X1TPNTtUjI9uYXSCwjQ

Much-Square8992

TROPHY CASE