Hi

I am currently in second year engineering, and I want to pursue law later on

(specifically into patent law) . What is the minimum GPA required to get me into a

decent Canadian law school and how much does the LCAT matter in

comparison to the GPA. I also heard they assess your GPA in comparison to the

difficulty of your program? Is this true?

Any input from people who have applied or are in the process of doing so would

be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I am not a wealth of information on this subject, but if you go to Career Services, GH 110, they are typically a great source of info. They know a lot of places to look for information.

The minimum GPA depends on the school, but it is usually B+ to an A-. However, consider that applicants usually have higher GPA's.

The LSAT is very important, and is usually considered on the same level as your GPA. It really doesn't matter what program you're coming from, they honestly don't really care about that, so they won't compare your GPA to it.

You'll also need reference letters, volunteer hours, and a personal letter.

How I know all of that, I once went to a meeting where an admissions/professor from Osgoode came to Mac.

Law schools are unique in that there isn't a specific roadmap to get into law school. They generally look at your final 4 semesters and your LSATs. Some law schools allow your LSAT score to replace your GPA on one of the semesters if the score is above a certain percentile.

Generally speaking you need a wealth of extracurricular involvement and leadership involvement. You also need to have excellent writing skills.

If recommend taking courses with a lot of essay writing. Also, go take Poli Sci classes so that you can take the law classes offered at Mac to better understand what you are getting into.

Edit: Okay I just read feona's post and need to comment on it.

Yes, you can get references but they aren't essential. However, the LSAT score is a hit or miss. A bad LSAT score will keep you out of law school but a good one isn't necessarily going to get you into law school. It's all weighted in different ways according to the schools.

It all depends on the school you're applying to, but here's the general idea:

GPA and LSAT are usually weighted about equal. Some schools use a more "holistic approach", incorporating extracurriculars, etc., and some schools use a more strict formulaic approach (ie. 60% GPA, 40% LSAT). For simplicity's sake, I'd treat them as being approximately equal.

To be competitive at a good Canadian school, I'd shoot for a GPA of 3.7 (I'll get to this later) and an LSAT above the 80th percentile (~160). GPA is calculated with the OLSAS formula (THIS IS IMPORTANT!). Instead of just scaling your average (ie. if your cGPA is a 10 (A-) at mac, you can't just say that you have a 3.7 (A-) in OLSAS. You need to scale every grade you have down to OLSAS, and then average that. Unfortunately, your GPA will likely drop. I thought I had a GPA of ~3.8, but when I calculated it with OLSAS, it ended up being 3.67.

From what I understand, law schools do not take into consideration your school or program when considering GPA. You could be going to (insert crappy school here) and taking (insert easy major here), or you could be in the toughest program at the toughest school - it doesn't matter. It all comes down to the numbers.

You'll also usually need 2 reference letters from professors, as well as a personal statement. Unlike medical school, you don't need to have an interview.

I don't know the admissions averages for all of the schools, but here are a couple that I'm interested in:

UofT (the toughest to get into, and often considered best law school in canada) = GPA: ~3.8, LSAT: ~165-170+

Oz = GPA: 3.7ish, LSAT: 160

(sorry if the numbers aren't totally correct - it's been a while since I've looked at admissions requirements).

Most law schools say that you only need 3 years of undergrad to be admitted, but the application pool is so strong that you almost certainly need an undergrad degree to get admitted.

Hopefully I could help. Good luck in your legal endeavours!

PS:

I recommend taking Poli Sci 3NN6. There's no prereq (although I feel there should be), and the prof said he is aiming to make the course as similar to first year law school as he can. You can get an idea of whether or not you actually want to go into law. This course has definitely changed my perspectives, and has definitely made me rethink my career path. It's important to make sure you want to go to law school as a means to become a lawyer (or whatever else you want to do with it), and not just to say you go to law school. Hope that made sense.

Also, deadpool's advice is good. Listen to him - he seems like a smart cookie.

Thank you guys for your responses they really helped a lot

I'll definately take pol sci 3nn6 to get a taste of what's in store lol

first I need a 3.7 lol but thanks for your input guys appriciate it

Whoa.
You can get into Law school no matter what your undergrad is?

Sick.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

Whoa.
You can get into Law school no matter what your undergrad is?

Sick.

Yeah, but people who want to go to law school go down the route of History+Philosophy Majors or Polisci+Economics major because it kind of helps them build their writing/thinking/analytical skills more so then say Chem Bio Major. Chem Bio majors probably do learn alot of analytical/thinking skills as well but they are in a slightly different field.

Some even argue that LSAT is easier for some people in Arts because they are better at reading/comprehension then someone who was always apprehensive of writing/reading and hence chose to be an engineer.Like for example I've always considered my writing/analytical skills much better then my ability to understand Chemistry, Accounting or even higher level maths, and in the few practice LSATS I've done on my own I've done decently well because of the the above reasons. But don't take my word for any of this.

In other words there is a general sentiment that the Humanities or SocSci majors will have a slightly easier time adapting to law school because they are already used to reading walls of text and have developed good writing skills yada yada because of their major.

On the other hand Commerce people with a background in Finance feel they want to be corporate lawyers(which has some elements of what they do in commerce) hence go down that route.

People with Enviro Sci or Geography degrees might go to law school to become environmental lawyers because they can apply some of their prior knowledge there.

I personally wanted to go to law school after getting my engineering degree, but soon realized that doing engineering as an undergrad would make it alot more difficult for me.

From what I had heard, law school requires alot of writing and sort of abstract thinking skills, something they dont train you a whole lot on in engineering. Law school also requires high marks and enough free time to do extra-curriculars, also things which are alot harder to do in engineering.

So I personally decided to switch out of engineering. Hopefully by taking econ and poli sci Ill be able to get the skills, the grades, and the extra-curriculars to make it in.

Not to say you couldn't do it in engineering. From what Ive heard, if you can do an engineering degree along with the grades and LSAT score requirements, law schools will look very highly on it.

Originally Posted by J-Met

I personally wanted to go to law school after getting my engineering degree, but soon realized that doing engineering as an undergrad would make it alot more difficult for me.

From what I had heard, law school requires alot of writing and sort of abstract thinking skills, something they dont train you a whole lot on in engineering. Law school also requires high marks and enough free time to do extra-curriculars, also things which are alot harder to do in engineering.

So I personally decided to switch out of engineering. Hopefully by taking econ and poli sci Ill be able to get the skills, the grades, and the extra-curriculars to make it in.

Not to say you couldn't do it in engineering. From what Ive heard, if you can do an engineering degree along with the grades and LSAT score requirements, law schools will look very highly on it.

Jean im in the same dilemma to go to law school with or without an engineering degree. After much deliberation, argument and reading up I thought it would be wiser to stay in engineering and give law school a shot. The reason I say this is because in engineering at the end of four years a job is waiting for you, especially if you do something that is in demand(like nano or nuclear engineering). You could work a couple of years and then go to law school when the criteria of admission becomes more lenient. Plus patent law which is what I want to do requires a great deal of technical background and knowledge which I feel can easily be derived from a solid engineering education. Having said that I do agree that grades is a problem, i.e in engineering maintaining a 5 or a 6 is no less than a miracle, and those kind of grades are safely inadequate for any decent law school.So its kind of a gamble both ways but with engineering in my opinion its less risky cause you have a stable job to fall back on and then go to law school later on.

Criticisms and counter arguments are always welcome

Aamir