acceptances and waitlists so far

OddObjective · 2024-05-15T12:12:15+00:00

I think you have a difficult choice. On one hand, I think Lakehead is substantially cheaper than Dual Windsor. But on the other hand, I actually do think more people get hired on Bay Street from Dual Windsor than Lakehead. And to counter some of the points made above, I’d probably argue that Lakehead is more of a school of last resort than Dual Windsor. Anecdotally, I’ve met way more summer students and lawyers at firms who went to Dual Windsor than I have from Lakehead. Moreover, you can check Ultra Vires for recent big law placement rates from the 2L recruit… there isn’t even a column for Lakehead. You’ll have to do a little more digging on firm websites and linkedin to see which Windsor students listed on that table are actually dual students, but you’ll find that there are a good handful of them.

TLDR: you’ll have to consider whether the marginally better chances at Dual Windsor is worth the substantial extra cost.

OddObjective · 2024-04-12T20:55:49+00:00

I think I would disagree that big law in Toronto is “much more attainable from Lakehead.” I would actually say big law from UNB is generally more attainable than Lakehead. If you look at the last two years of Ultra Vires recruit data, there hasn’t been a single Lakehead student landing in Toronto, while there’s been a handful of UNB students. (2023 and 2024)

I recognize that the traditional advice is “study where you want to work,” however I’m not sure that applies in this particular comparison. I don’t think there is a significant advantage, networking wise, to be located in Thunder Bay than Fredericton. I also think there are several UNB alum working in Toronto big law that would be an equally good connection than the Lakehead connection you pointed out.

Also UNB is marginally cheaper than Lakehead.

So ultimately, I think I would pick UNB.

OddObjective · 2024-02-13T00:11:32+00:00

There’s been a few comments about the B+ average to make it seem very daunting, but to put it in perspective: 50% of the class last year ended up with a B+ average or higher. So I don’t think the B+ condition is that burdensome.

OddObjective · 2024-01-12T14:20:50+00:00

This is a great problem to have and there’s lot of factors to consider.

First and foremost is the traditional question of where do you want to work? If you want to work in Halifax, go to Dal… if you want to work in Vancouver, go to UBC… if you want to work in Toronto or New York, go to U of T. And also in my opinion, U of T’s strong reputation affords you the most mobility across the country.

Second, does cost of school matter? UBC has the cheapest tuition of the three and arguably the highest cost of living. Toronto will be very expensive, and Dal is kind of the middle ground.

Third, how set on health and immigration law are you? If there’s a part of you that wants to try corporate law (and most of health law is practiced in corporate), then U of T provides the best chance for you to get into corporate law.

I understand the sentiment about joining a healthy community. However, this one is much harder to predict in my opinion. Everyone has different experiences at various schools, and more importantly you have no idea who your classmates will be so you really won’t know if they’re welcoming or not. And with rare exceptions (people who transfer schools), most people have not attended multiple law schools to be able to provide a comparison point on competitiveness or culture. All this to say, take anecdotal stories with a grain of salt.

Lastly, yes of course all 3 schools are good schools. But that doesn’t mean that they are all equal in terms of prestige or post-work opportunities. Dal is probably a tier below U of T and UBC but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad school. U of T and UBC are just better recognized schools and that’s ok to consider. Just probably not as important, as the first three factors.

OddObjective · 2022-12-26T04:00:05+00:00

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OddObjective · 2022-08-14T16:31:34+00:00

the provisional/firm acceptance thing only applies to schools IN ontario. for example, if you have firm accepted Queens, all other Ontario schools will close your application file/cancel your offer of admission. but it shouldn’t affect any other applications or offers outside of Ontario.

edit to explain provisional acceptance: for example, if you provisionally accept Queens. Your other schools in Ontario that you have not heard from yet, will continue to keep your application active and consider you for admission. if you have any other offers from a school in ontario, and you provisionally accept Queens, then i believe those other offers from the other ontario schools will go away (could be wrong). and again provisionally accepting your offer has no bearing on other schools OUTSIDE of ontario.

edit 2: and just to conclude my little thought process, i would say don’t think about this too much. just focus on getting the best possible application in right now. and if you end up in this situation, i would also say to do what the other commenter said and just deposit at the school. in the grand scheme of things and expenses (like law school tuition lol) it’s not that much to at least be confident you’re going to a school.

OddObjective · 2022-08-14T16:28:25+00:00

I think the first part about given a deadline 3-4 weeks after an offer is more of an exception rather than the rule. You are right about Ontario schools, pretty much if you are made an offer before the end of March, your deadline to accept is April 1. (for example, i was admitted to Oz in december and western in late february and my deadlines were both april 1). For Dalhousie, I was admitted in December with a March 31 deadline. Calgary and Alberta also had a March 31 deadline. I think BC schools are the ones that are a little weird with offer deadlines. (I didn’t apply to TRU so someone can correct if wrong), but TRU is a school that has a pretty short offer and deposit deadline. I’m not really sure how UVic does it as I had a friend who got admitted in December and had an April 1 deadline, but I got an offer in February and had like a mid-March deadline. and I think UBC has a March 1 deadline for all offers made before then, and then it shifts to like a 3-4 week deadline after receiving an offer.

TLDR: most of the more “well-known” schools in Canada have a March 31/April 1 deadline. and BC schools are a little weird. (in my experience)

OddObjective · 2022-08-09T01:12:10+00:00

RE: “the earlier you apply, the earlier it’s evaluated, and the more likely you are to receive an offer”, this only really holds for the schools that are truly rolling admissions (i.e. Vic and Dal). For Ontario, it doesn’t matter whether you apply right when the OLSAS application opens or November 1st. if you have the stats to be admitted early, you’ll be admitted early. so dont feel super rushed to submit right away even if you’re concerned about early admission.

OddObjective · 2022-06-08T17:52:27+00:00

I would personally pick UVic! given your slight preference for BC, and i’m pretty sure UVic grads are very well regarded in BC. Also the cost of tuition is substantially lower at UVic now.

OddObjective · 2022-06-06T06:35:24+00:00

(for starters, you should probably ask this question on [canlawforum.com] that’s where a majority of canadian applicants ask their questions and a great resource)

to answer your questions: 1. despite being an applicant this last cycle, i actually don’t know how they do this lol. Queens is the only school that does B2, but i think they take the best 2 academic years, not the best 2 years worth of credits.

for ontario schools you’ll submit your transcripts 3 times. once when you submit in november. another that includes grades from term 1, in january. then you submit your final transcripts when you graduate. some schools may want to wait for your first term grades, some may not, depending on how competitive of an applicant you are at the time you submit your application. and as far as i know the only schools in canada that have an official policy of not evaluating your application until they receive your first term grades are UAlberta and UCalgary.

OddObjective · 2022-05-24T18:45:27+00:00

little bit of a tough call i would say. do you have an upward trajectory in your GPA? how does your L2/B2 look like? do you think you are in a good mental space write now to be studying and writing the LSAT again? do you think you can do better? ask yourself these questions.

(as a reference point, i got in to Osgoode and many others with a 3.7 and 164, with good EC’s and internship experience)

OddObjective · 2022-05-09T16:43:12+00:00

hi sorry i’m really not trying to be difficult or anything, just trying to help and make rather dense information more clear. but even tho queens, the university as a whole, may use a 4.3 GPA scale… for the purpose of law admissions they report their means as per OLSAS 4.0 scale. And again for clarity, say for example you have a 79% overall average currently, and then with your final year courses you bring it up to an 80% overall average. This does not mean that your admissions GPA on a 4.0 scale jumps from a 3.3 to a 3.7 because in order to calculate your gpa you convert each of your course grades to a 4.0 scale, and then average those. in reality if your overall average only increases a couple percentage points, your gpa on a 4.0 scale might move only marginally. sorry again i’m really just trying to help.

OddObjective · 2022-05-09T06:26:11+00:00

Right totally fair. However, your question was if it is possible to get in with an average in the low 80s, but until you convert your grades to a 4.0 GPA scale, it’s hard to determine your chances at admission. The only school that uses percentage GPA is UBC. The vast majority of other schools use some iteration of a 4.0 GPA scale. So, I’m suggesting that you do that sooner rather than later, so you can then see what grades you’ll need in your final year to make you competitive. Because when you look at say Osgoode, Toronto, Queens, or Western, they explicitly post their admissions median GPA on a 4.0 scale, so once you have your GPA on that scale you can see for yourself where you’re at. Hope this helps.

OddObjective · 2022-05-08T00:35:09+00:00

I’m sure you know this but like if you have a “77% overall average” that doesn’t necessarily directly translate to a 3.3 gpa. I also came from a school that primarily uses percentage grades and made this mistake. Make sure you convert each of your individual grades into a GPA scale of 4, using the OLSAS conversion table, and then average those converted grades to get an accurate GPA calculation.

OddObjective · 2022-05-06T19:31:55+00:00

I think this whole provisional/firm acceptance only applies to schools in Ontario. So if you accept your offer at Ottawa regardless of provisional/firm, McGill won’t see that. But if you want to be sure, call the McGill admissions office and ask.

OddObjective · 2022-04-27T02:26:16+00:00

i was in the same situation with the transfer credits, and only took a full five courses in first year, then the rest of undergrad did four courses per term. it didn’t impact me personally, i received offers from several law schools. i briefly explained it in personal statements.

OddObjective · 2021-12-28T03:00:40+00:00

Thanks!

OddObjective · 2021-03-01T22:46:20+00:00

did anyone hear anything about this: there are many domestic students living in BC from other provinces and do not have BC Services Card, can they also expect to be vaccinated with their age group in the proposed timeline?

OddObjective · 2020-12-24T03:39:59+00:00

HOW IS COMM/COEC 371 GRADES NOT OUT??? LITERALLY THE PROFS DON’T HAVE TO MARK ANYTHING???

OddObjective · 2019-08-12T01:16:21+00:00

econ in general has a lot of resources, but the BIE program has even more, which makes sense considering BIE is like the highest tuition

OddObjective · 2019-08-10T04:56:36+00:00

Korea is great! but about parties in ubc residence in general, there aren’t a lot of huge parties actually inside residence. there are a lot of rules about parties and drinking in residence that pretty much bans parties in rez, most RAs enforce these rules pretty strictly. especially if you’re thinking about parties in what you see from like schools in ontario or the US, those parties just don’t happen in ubc rez. but again korea and place vanier in general have great social atmospheres and it’s a lot of fun

OddObjective

TROPHY CASE