UofT Faculty of Law / JD Admissions Office

ROUND 3 ADMISSION DECISIONS ON WEDNESDAY MARCH 19, 2025

We recognize how tough waiting can be, and once more, thank you for your patience during the admission cycle.

On March 19th, we’ll email nearly all of the final Round of admission decisions. 

99% of the remaining admission decisions will be emailed by the end of day, on March 19th.  

Files that were complete prior to, and on, March 19th, were considered and reviewed. .

The last 1% will comprise of the applicants for whom WES evaluations are in-progress, and those for whom we have permitted a late arrival of data from OLSAS. Should their files become complete by March 31, we will review as soon as we can for an admission decision.

PLEASE WAIT FOR OUR NOTIFICATION EMAIL

By 10:00 pm (Toronto time) on March 19th, we are aiming to email 99% of the remaining decisions. If you phone or email to inquire before you receive an email, your results may not yet be ready, and it does not expedite the process.

Therefore please await your email notification. The email address listed in your OLSAS account at the start of notifications will be used.

After Wednesday March 26th, if your file is COMPLETE at OLSAS and you are not seeing the decision email, then by all means contact us.

Keep an eye on your spam/junk folder especially if you did not add [email protected] to your email address book/contact list, or as a trusted sender.  

THE FOUR POSSIBLE DECISIONS

Based on the current status of the application file, the decision will be one of four outcomes:

Offered admission (admit)

Placed on a Wait List

Not competitive for admission (file closed)

Incomplete File (no decision, will be closed after an appreciable time)

Please refer to the email notification for details on your application decision. In the interim, please note the following:  

1. Offered Admission

Congratulations to the newest admitted candidates! Your notification email will direct you to your next steps including how and when to respond to the offer. In addition, an official offer of admission package will be provided as soon as possible since your response at OLSAS will be due by April 1st.

2. Placed on an un-ranked Wait List

Your application is competitive, and if we had the space we would have offered it to you, gladly. You are deserving, and need to await a possible space becoming available.

Wait List promotion cannot be predicted by anyone In order to determine if a space will become available to promote from the wait list, we first need to obtain the responses to offers from those who have accepted their admission offers.  Since promotion can only occur after an admit who accepted informs us that they can no longer attend, no one, including the law school, can predict if or when a space may become available. Since promotion only occurs from the action of individual admits in the current cycle, the wait list behaviour from a prior admission cycle provides no predictive information.

Therefore, while on the wait list, it is prudent to consider responding to any offers that you have received from other law schools.

With a PROVISIONAL acceptance at another Ontario law school via OLSAS, you can choose to keep the consideration at UofT alive, and will not affect the chances of promotion from our wait list.   

A firm acceptance at another Ontario law school via OLSAS ends further consideration at UofT, and closes your UofT file.  

An acceptance of any kind of any law school outside of Ontario, has zero impact on the chances for promotion from our wait list. 

WAIT LISTED? Be Considerate of Others At any point in time, if you do not wish to be on the wait list then as a courtesy to the rest of the list please inform us immediately. Otherwise you will prevent someone being promoted from the wait list. Email us immediately to remove yourself from the wait list via [email protected].

The earliest deadline for our Round 1, 2 and 3 admitted students to provide their responses is April 1st. Again, there is no guarantee that any spaces will be available immediately thereafter since that is determined by the admitted students’ responses received, and not by the law school. If a space becomes available, we will contact the entire wait list to fill the spot. Wait list positions are not ranked or disclosed, so please save yourself the effort in asking us where you are on the list, or in expressing your continued interest in the law school. If you did not email us to remove you from the wait list, or did not respond with a firm acceptance to another Ontario law school, then we will assume that you are still interested. Naturally, we assume the best - not the worst - of your intentions, without your need to express them.

3. Not competitive for admission

There are far more applicants than there are spaces, and after careful review, and despite the strength of the applications, we simply cannot admit or wait list every candidate. As a result, the application is declined this time around and the file will be closed. Unless there is an actual, clearly egregious and significant ERROR in - rather than unfortunate circumstances, or a lack of action to have a completed file, affecting - the academic record or the LSAT report submitted for your file, please refrain from sending unrequested additional documents or information in the hope that it will result in a change of the decision. Personal profile information updates are not permitted by OLSAS, after they have been submitted for the application, therefore do not attempt to send us updated sketch entries. Once again, please await our email notification regarding your admission decision, and check your spam/junk folder.

4. Incomplete File 

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their files are complete at OLSAS. As a courtesy, earlier in March, we notified some applicants that their files were incomplete in the hopes that they will act promptly to submit their remaining permissible items to OLSAS, such as in-progress WES evaluations. We are still aiming for such files, should they become complete by March 31 to be assessed. We caution that we expect the class to be full once the Round 3 notifications are made, so it is not reasonable to expect spaces to be available for any files that becomes complete after March 18, even if they may be competitive. In the interim, it is prudent to proceed with responding to any offers that you have received from other law schools.

With a PROVISIONAL acceptance at another Ontario law school via OLSAS you can choose to keep the consideration at UofT alive, and in so doing, not affect the UofT admission decision.  

A FIRM acceptance at another Ontario law school via OLSAS ends further consideration at UofT, and closes your UofT file.    

An acceptance of any kind of any law school outside of Ontario, has zero impact on any aspect of the UofT application and UofT admission decision.  

ROUND 2 NOTIFICATIONS COMPLETED

By 7:00 pm today (Toronto time), February 14th, the complete set of notifications for Round 2 offers for admission to the 2025 first year JD were sent. Congrats to our newest admitted applicants!

With Round 2 now complete, we will be moving on to the third and final round of decisions, with notifications expected to be sent in mid to late March (likely during March 18-28).  

I did not receive notification of any decision

Only those admitted were notified. Everyone admitted will receive an email notice by 7:00 pm (Toronto time) on February 14th.

Everyone with a file that is complete by March 1 (i.e. all required application components received at OLSAS) will be considered automatically for Round 3 later in March. The responsibility is yours to check your OLSAS account for the receipt of application components required by UofT.

Onward to the final Round 3

As stated in our earlier blogs, no refusals are made in Rounds 1 and 2. In Round 3, the final admission decisions will be one of:

Offered admission

Not offered admission

Placed on a wait list

There is no benefit from contacting us to indicate your desire to be admitted, since we assume everyone who applied would like to be admitted.  

In accordance with the OLSAS application instructions, and in fairness to all applicants, updates to autobiographical sketches (e.g. achievements, employment and activities), personal statements and optional essays already submitted will not be permitted, and will be ignored. Do not send any updates.  

If you obtained grades for courses completed in the fall 2024 semester, then you are required to submit them directly to OLSAS, as per the OLSAS instructions. This includes undergraduate courses, graduate courses or exchange courses. If you missed the Feb 1st deadline, then still arrange for their submission to OLSAS without delay.  Please refer to our Jan 7th blog for details on what to provide for us.

The acceptable LSAT scores for entry into Year 1 in 2025 are those from tests taken from June 2019 to January 2025 inclusively, as we’ve stated all along in the application instructions at our website and at OLSAS.   > If you will not have an acceptable LSAT score for your file then we will mark your file as incomplete and close it. > If you have an acceptable LSAT score, then, regardless of its value, it will be used for file review.   > We can only use scores that were attained from acceptable tests and not speculative scores that may/could have been obtained were it not for some mishap/circumstance.  

Always check first at OLSAS that your file is complete, since all application documents are to be sent to OLSAS directly. DO NOT send us documents directly.  

If it’s not at OLSAS, we will never receive it. Documents received at OLSAS are not distributed to us immediately. It can take a few business days for us to receive it. What is important is that it is received at OLSAS.  

Ensure that your email address at OLSAS is correct since we will send final notifications by email.  

If you don’t recall receiving an email from the UofT JD Admissions Office acknowledging that you applied via OLSAS, then first check your spam/junk folder for that acknowledgment email. If you do not locate it then please check with us immediately to ensure that your emailer can receive our emails properly.

  I’ve been admitted to another Ontario law school

No response to that Ontario offer at OLSAS by its response deadline keeps your UofT consideration open, and it has no effect on our decision  

A Provisional Acceptance of that Ontario offer at OLSAS, will ask whether to keep your UofT consideration open, and it has no effect on our decision  

A Firm Acceptance of that Ontario offer at OLSAS ends your UofT consideration immediately, we will close your file.  

Regardless, DO NOT withdraw/cancel your UofT JD application choice at OLSAS.  

I’ve been admitted to a non-Ontario law school

If you’ve received an offer of admission from any NON-ONTARIO law school at any time, then your response to that offer has no effect on your UofT admission consideration.  

Therefore DO NOT withdraw/cancel your UofT JD application choice at OLSAS.  

We’ve already indicated when we expect to make the final set of decisions i.e. in mid to late March. Until then, it’s entirely in your hands how to handle your response deadlines for offers from other law schools, including making any acceptance deposits.

I’ve been offered admission to another law school, can you expedite my file review before that school’s response deadline?

Response deadlines for accepting at other law schools will not hasten our file review, since we need the time to conduct a full and proper review of all of the remaining completed files. For some files, this necessitates awaiting WES documents, LSAT Writing, or scores from the January LSAT.

Please therefore, do not request decisions before we are ready with them. At this point in time we will not be able to provide an exact date for notifications. As per usual, we will update this blog once we have a better sense of the timing of March notifications.   Good luck!

As always, your patience is appreciated.

ROUND 2 NOTIFICATIONS BEGIN FEBRUARY 14

We thank you for your patience while we read, reviewed and assessed your application materials. It takes time to complete, since selection is more comprehensive and holistic than simply calculating GPAs and checking LSAT scores. The review included January LSAT scores that were received at OLSAS by February 12th.

As per custom, we will also update this blog on when the notifications are completed.  

We remind you that only offers of admission are made in Rounds 1 and 2.  Refusals and wait lists are not determined until the 3rd and final round in March.

Everyone not yet offered, is re-considered automatically through all rounds.

THE FIRST TO-DO FOR 2025: YOUR TRANSCRIPT CHECK-UP

Happy New Year!!

The start of the new year is the ideal time to perform a check on your transcript submissions to OLSAS, in advance of the final two rounds of admission decisions which are anticipated for mid February, and mid-to-late March.

In accordance with the standard OLSAS application instructions, which have been available since late August 2024, please note the following critical transcript checks for JD first year applications.

YOU HAD COURSES IN PROGRESS WHEN YOU APPLIED

You are to arrange for an official updated transcript with completed first/fall semester grades from the source school to OLSAS. This is a standard OLSAS instruction, regardless of the Ontario law school(s) to which you applied.

At the OLSAS transcript webpage please read the section Current Academic Transcripts for First-year Applicants at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript 

BEFORE ordering the transcript, ensure with the source school that the new grades will be visible on the official transcript, since the purpose is to provide those grades.  

Order the transcript as you would normally, based on the source of the transcript, as per the OLSAS instructions at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript   

It is to be RECEIVED at OLSAS by Feb 1st, 2025. Time your submission arrangements accordingly. Do not submit to the law school, submit to OLSAS only. We will only accept official transcripts submitted directly by the source school to OLSAS.    

Yes, candidates offered admission in Round 1, who had undergraduate courses in progress must still provide the updated transcript to OLSAS by the deadline.

For UofT specifically, regarding courses in progress when you applied

If you were enrolled in a graduate degree program (master’s or doctorate), then we do not require the updated graduate program transcript, unless it will include new grades. 

However, if you applied to other Ontario law schools, they may still require it, please check with them directly.  

If a WES Canada evaluation was required, and you provided/arranged for, one to OLSAS already, then an updated WES evaluation with first/fall semester grades is NOT also required. Instead, arrange for an new official transcript with the new grade information to be sent from your school directly to OLSAS.  

If a WES Canada evaluation was required, and the evaluation is in progress, then do not arrange for another WES evaluation with the new grade information. Please ensure that the in-progress evaluation is RECEIVED at OLSAS no later than March 1st, 2025.

CAUTION We cannot review your file for admission until it is complete and we expect to make all decisions by the end of Round 3 decisions in mid to late March.  

EXCHANGE/STUDY ABROAD/VISITING STUDENT TRANSCRIPTS (COMPLETED or IN PROGRESS)

The standard OLSAS instructions state quite clearly that official transcripts from exchange/study abroad/visiting student HOST schools are to be provided to OLSAS. See the very first transcript instructions at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript  

How the HOME school treats the exchange/study abroad/visiting student grades is irrelevant to your requirement to provide an official transcript from the HOST school to OLSAS directly. Since OLSAS is the initial recipient, please check with OLSAS directly regarding how the HOST school may provide the official transcript electronically to OLSAS.   

Again, as per the OLSAS instructions, if your HOME school, on its transcript, gave/will give CREDIT (regardless of whether grades are showing for the host courses), for the exchange/study abroad/visiting study, then the HOST school’s transcript does not need to be evaluated by WES Canada.

Please take the time to read carefully and thoroughly the section Transcripts from International Institutions (Excluding the US) for the sub-section on Assessment of International Academic Credentials at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript

  CHECKING THE RECEIPT OF TRANSCRIPTS

As per our email which acknowledged receipt of your OLSAS application, your FIRST STEP is to check for the receipt of application materials at OLSAS via your OLSAS account.  

Since we get the documents from OLSAS, always check OLSAS first. If they are present at OLSAS then there is no need to also check with us.  

Please be aware that items submitted to OLSAS are never received instantaneously by the Ontario law schools. It can take a few business days after arrival at OLSAS before being distributed to the law school(s). Therefore, once more, check OLSAS first, always, and await for the item(s) to be displayed at OLSAS. Do NOT send transcripts to us directly as a contingency, we will await the official transcripts sent from the source school directly to OLSAS. Transcripts self-uploaded by applicants at OLSAS are not official.

UPDATED GRADES & OUR ADMISSION GPA 

As you may be aware, our admission GPA is based on the best three academic years of full-time (not full-load) undergraduate study. 

We consider the academic year to comprise of both the traditional fall and winter terms. Therefore, one term only (e.g. the fall term), does not constitute an academic year, and thus a single term of grades - on its own - is insufficient for use in a year-based GPA calculation. 

This does not mean that the new first semester/fall grades have no value. They will be considered. It is not necessary for us to perform a calculation in order to ascertain an academic performance, since the transcript(s) will display the grades attained.

ALL of the courses in the post-secondary academic record (e.g. undergrad, graduate, summer, exchange/study abroad etc.) have value and are considered, regardless of which may be used for our GPA calculation.

Ultimately, what is pertinent is not a calculation - which is a convenient tool - but the strength of the performance on courses, whenever they were taken. 

If you have not already done so, please take the time to read the entire section on Standards for Admission at our website.

ROUND 1 COMPLETED AHEAD OF SCHEDULE, ROUND 2 LIKELY IN MID-FEBRUARY 2025

Congratulations to everyone who was admitted in Round 1. Their notification emails were sent by 8:00 pm (Toronto time) on December 11th.

NOT OFFERED ADMISSION IN ROUND 1?

Additional offers will be made in Rounds 2 and 3, therefore it is erroneous to think that if you weren’t admitted in Round 1, then you will not be admitted at all.

Only in March at Round 3 will refusals and wait lists be determined. Until then, everyone with a completed file who has not been notified, will be kept viable through all rounds automatically.

Therefore there is absolutely:

No need to contact us to check if you were admitted, check your spam/junk folder, but know that we’ll get a hold of you one way or the other if you were admitted, and your OLSAS account will display an offer after three business days following our email notification.  

No need to contact us with updates to your autobiographical sketch activities, in fairness to all applicants really, don’t do this, and moreover, the OLSAS instructions do not permit it.  

No need to contact us to check if your file is complete, as long as the documents are at OLSAS, they’ll be sent to us, so check with OLSAS if unsure.  

No need to contact us to express your desire to be a new law student, you’ve applied, therefore you’ve already demonstrated your desire. Please do not provide unrequested documents including letters/emails of continued interest.  

No need to contact us about changes to your LSAT test dates, instead update the LSAT test date information on your OLSAS account, as we will get the update from OLSAS. Please read our November 26th blog.  

No need to speculate whether the November LSAT score was considered, since we stated in our last post that scores received at OLSAS by December 9th were considered. Nevertheless, with the score, an offer of admission may not have been made at this point in the cycle. Once again, we remind you that (re)consideration is automatic for the next rounds.

Your admission is based on the strength of your file among the applicant pool at the time of review, so please be patient until the very last round in March.

IMPORTANT: UPDATED TRANSCRIPT REMINDER

If you had courses in progress at the Nov 1 OLSAS application deadline, then the OLSAS application instructions require you to arrange for an updated official transcript with the final grades for the current semester to be submitted to OLSAS directly from the issuing school. FOR THE UPDATED OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT

The deadline for OLSAS to receive the transcript is February 1, 2025.  

Before ordering, please ensure that the transcript will actually include the final grades for all newly completed courses.   

Official transcripts from a student exchange/study abroad are required to be submitted directly from the HOST school to OLSAS. It is easier to make the arrangements (now) with the host school while you are still attending the school, rather than after you return to your home school. A WES Canada evaluation is not required if your home school, on its own transcript, will grant credit for the exchange/study abroad. Typically, the home school does not include on its transcript, the performance grade from the host school.  

Applicants whose WES Canada evaluations are currently in-progress,  should also arrange for an updated official transcript to be sent to OLSAS directly, while they await the WES evaluation. Do not arrange for another WES evaluation with the new grades. .

Please take the time to read and follow the OLSAS information on current transcripts in-progress, which details the standard requirements for all of the Ontario law schools. at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript/#current-transcripts

HOLIDAY BREAK

The JD Admissions Office will be closed for the UofT holiday break starting on December 19th. We will re-open on January 6th.

In late January we will update the blog with more precise dates for when Round 2 notifications may be expected, since the timing will be affected by the February 2nd score release date of the January LSAT.

ROUND 1 OFFER OF ADMISSION NOTIFICATIONS BEGIN ON DEC 11th

Starting on December 11th 2024, we will begin to send notifications of offers of admission for entry to the first year JD program for the 2025-2026 academic year.  Congratulations to our new admits!  

Applicants are considered automatically for each of the three Rounds. In each Round offers of admission are made. Refusals and wait list decisions are not determined until Round 3 in March.

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ROUND 1 NOTIFICATION PERIOD

We are aiming to send all of the Round 1 notifications by December 13th. During this period, notifications will be made sporadically, rather than daily.  We will update this blog when the Round 1 notifications have ended.

NOV 2024 LSAT CONSIDERATION

Test scores received via OLSAS by December 9th were considered for Round 1.

If warranted, refer to our November 26th blog post on having multiple LSATs, and how to assess whether the LSAT should be re-taken in January 2025.

NOTIFICATION BY EMAIL

On a day when there will be notifications, we will send an official email confirming the offer of admission. The email will be sent in the evening of the notification day, likely after 8:00 pm (Toronto time).  

Please DO NOT phone or email us to find out if you were offered admission. Instead, simply check your email address (that you provided on your OLSAS account), no more than once each weekday evening until we update this blog that Round 1 has been completed.

We trust that your email is operational i.e. you received our email that acknowledged our receipt of your initial application data from OLSAS. If you did not receive our acknowledgement email, please first check your spam/junk folder, since that email was sent as many as three times if our emailer suspected that it was never viewed. Also refer to our November 22nd blog post regarding how to help prevent our emails from going into your spam/junk folder.

OFFER OF ADMISSION SHOWING AT OLSAS

The offer should be visible on OLSAS accounts within 3 business days from the date of email notification by UofT. Your patience is appreciated. Once again, checking once per day is sufficient.

HAVE MULTIPLE LSAT SCORES? (RE) TOOK IN NOVEMBER?(RE) TAKING IN JANUARY?

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR JD FIRST YEAR ADMISSION

For entry in 2025, an acceptable LSAT is a test taken during the period of June 2019 to January 2025 inclusively, that produced a test score. A cancelled test, regardless of reason/circumstance, does not result in a score.    

As you should be aware, the LSAT is mandatory. If from all of the acceptable LSATs, you will not obtain any test score, then your file will be incomplete, therefore, regardless of the strength of the remainder of your applicant file, you will not be considered for admission in 2025.    

OLSAS is our source for LSAT scores, and not the LSAC directly. In order for OLSAS to retrieve your scores from LSAC, in your OLSAS account you must provide your LSAC account number (Lnumber). For tests you intend to take after your OLSAS application was submitted, you must also keep your OLSAS account updated with the dates of your future tests occurring during the current admission cycle.

To ascertain whether OLSAS retrieved your scores from the LSAC, check your OLSAS account and not with the law school.  

Scores are not retrievable by OLSAS at the same time they are released to test takers. Please allow 3-6 business days for your scores to be visible on your OLSAS account.     

If you are not seeing your scores at your OLSAS account, then inquire with OLSAS regarding its retrieval of scores. If OLSAS doesn’t have them, then no Ontario law school will have them.  

#1) LSAT WRITING

Your official LSAT Report requires both the Multiple Choice score and one LSAT Writing. Remember to complete BOTH otherwise your score will not be released at all, whether to you, OLSAS or any law school. Refer to the LSAC website for details and FAQ.

#2) RE-TAKING IN NOV 2024 OR JAN 2025, DO I INFORM THE LAW SCHOOL?

>>> NO, INSTEAD YOU MUST INFORM OLSAS << Since OLSAS is retrieving the scores for the law school, informing us is meaningless. Simply update your LSAT future test date in your OLSAS account, please do not email/phone the law school to inform us.

As per the instructions on the online OLSAS Application, you must provide the most recent LSAT date and/or the date on which you plan to write the LSAT. Ensure that you update your OLSAS application every time that your test dates change.

1.    Log into your OLSAS account

2.    In left sidebar menu of Application Links, select LSAT

3.    Select the action to either Add or Edit, and update your Future LSAT Test Dates.

4.    In left sidebar menu of Application Links, select Review and Submit; review and correct as warranted, then at the very bottom of that web page, Agree and Verify the change.

There is no need to inform us with the reason(s) for re-taking the test. Updating the future test date online at OLSAS is sufficient.  

#3) MULTIPLE SCORES & CANCELLATIONS

Which will you use? Can you hold off and wait for my new score?

As long as your application file is complete, i.e. all required documents have been received, including scores from an acceptable LSAT (i.e. taken from June 2019 to January 2025 inclusively), then it can proceed for review. Again, since OLSAS retrieves the LSAT score, check with OLSAS for its receipt. ARRIVAL OF NOV 2024 SCORES The results of the Nov 2024 LSAT are scheduled to be released on Nov 27, to test takers who have their LSAT Writing successfully processed by LSAC, by that date.

The scores will not arrive at the law school that day since they must first be retrieved by OLSAS, then matched with your file, then finally distributed to the respective Ontario law schools to which you applied. This can take 3-5 business days. Therefore, since we must await the scores via OLSAS, it is not possible for us to know in advance or predict, how likely might the Nov 2024 results be available for our first round of decision-making. Please do not ask us. When we update the blog with the timing of the release of offer notifications, we will specify whether the Nov scores were used for the file review. So again, please do not ask us.

MAIN CONSIDERATIONS

Prior to a re-take, if your entire file is already competitive with your current score(s) Then we need not await the new score to make an admission decision. Otherwise, if it is not already competitive, we will re-assess automatically with the new score after it has been received via OLSAS. As we’ve stated quite clearly on our website we do not average scores and we give emphasis to the highest score.

A cancelled test does not produce a score or any indication of why the test was cancelled. There is no information from the cancellation for use in file review. Therefore, a cancelled test only impacts selection if it results in your not having any score from the acceptable test periods, for use in the admission cycle, thus rendering your file as incomplete for the cycle.  

There is no need to contact us to (re)consider with a future acceptable score Simply update the future LSAT test date on your OLSAS application. That’s our way of knowing to expect a new score and therefore, to re-assess automatically with the forthcoming score.  

We remind you that reviews occur only after a file is complete Please ensure that your LSAT results are visible on your OLSAS account. The results being visible at LSAC are meaningless if it they not visible at OLSAS, since we get the results from OLSAS only.    Notifications of the admission decisions are expected at three times in the cycle: early-mid December, mid-February and mid-to-late March. Applicants with completed files are considered for each round of decisions automatically.  

Refusals and wait lists are determined at Round 3 only, in March. Your focus should not be on gaining admission in the first round, rather, at ANY round, since offers of admission are made at each of the three rounds. Once your file is complete, it will be considered automatically up to, and including, the last round of decision-making. There is no need to ask us to be considered in a subsequent round.

#4) WHAT’S NEXT?

Once your file is complete, please allow the process to unfold which includes awaiting the decision patiently. We will update this blog to indicate when in December we expect to send Round 1 notifications.

APPLICATION RECEIPT EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS BEGAN OCT 7

DID YOU GET OUR EMAIL WITH NOTIFICATION THAT WE RECEIVED YOUR OLSAS FILE INFO?

Since October 7, we have been sending emails to candidates whose initial application data for entry in 2025 was received at the law school via OLSAS.

IT’S IMPORTANT TO CHECK THAT YOU RECEIVED OUR EMAIL, SINCE:

Some applicants provided inoperable email addresses (e.g. mistyped, inbox full, out of storage etc.). If so, please update your OLSAS account with another email address.  

Your emailer may have been placed our message in your spam/junk folder If you did not receive the email, please check your spam/junk folder.   We encourage you to add our JD Admissions email address ([email protected]) to your email contact list/address book to help prevent future messages from going into your junk folder.  

You want to ensure that you don’t miss our future messages This includes key updates throughout the the application cycle and the admission decision.

   YES, YOU RECEIVED OUR INITIAL EMAIL

Please take the time to read the entire email Do not skim the message since it contains tips and essential reminders for ensuring the completion of your application file. This is crucial since our file review began after the OLSAS application deadline.  

We trust that you followed the instructions in that email to click on the link in the message to acknowledge your receipt of our email. If you didn’t acknowledge properly then we’ll re-send the email up to two more times. Check your junk/spam folder if you're not seeing any of the acknowledgment emails.

   IS YOUR APPLICATION FILE COMPLETE? 

Your receipt of that initial email does not mean that your file is complete. We are simply acknowledging that we have begun to receive your application materials via OLSAS.

We do not have our own applicant portal, as OLSAS already tracks the application materials it receives.

Therefore, since ALL application materials, including official exchange transcripts from the host schools, allowable changes (e.g. updating LSAT test dates), are to be provided to OLSAS directly, please FIRST check your OLSAS account for its receipt of the required items for your UofT JD application. 

If it’s not at OLSAS, then it will not be at the law school.  

If it’s at OLSAS, then there is no need to also check whether it’s at the law school.  

Applicant information and documents received at OLSAS are not distributed instantaneously to the law school. Generally, it may take 3-5 business days from arrival at OLSAS to receipt at the law school, please allow for the processing time.

Best regards, JD Admissions Office

READ THIS BEFORE YOU APPLY FOR 2025 ENTRY TO THE JD

The online OLSAS application for Fall 2025 entry into the UofT Law JD program opens on August 22nd, 2024

Naturally, at the OLSAS 2024-2025 website we expect you to take the time to read the application instructions and details, before and also while viewing, the different sections of the application form.

BEGIN with the OLSAS Application Guide, read thoroughly - DO NOT SKIM - all of the:

General Requirements with the common instructions for applicants to any Ontario law school, then onward to ...

The University Requirements for the UofT specific instructions.

At the OLSAS website, after creating an applicant account (username and password), you can access the application form.

Chances are, the answers to your questions are already in the Application Guide, OLSAS website menus and school-specific instructions. However, as you complete each section of the application, for guidance on what to submit, select the help buttons (question mark icons) that appear.

For assistance with ALL technical issues with the online application form, please contact OLSAS directly.   

BEFORE submitting the OLSAS application form, please pay close attention to all of the following:

(#1)   OLSAS vs CAS vs LSAC vs LSAT

OLSAS Ontario Law School Application Service This is the only application service for obtaining and completing the JD application form for any of the 8 law schools in Ontario. OLSAS collects all application materials for Ontario law schools, then provides it to them. ALL application materials must be submitted directly to OLSAS only, do NOT submit them the Ontario law schools. OLSAS is a unit within the Ontario Universities' Application Centre (OUAC).  

Non-Ontario Law School Applications For non-Ontario law schools follow the application procedures specified by each non-Ontario law school.  

CAS Credential Assembly Service The Credential Assembly Service is used for applying to many American law schools. CAS is not to be used in any aspect for applying to Ontario law schools. CAS is a service offered by the LSAC (Law School Admission Council).  

LSAC Law School Admission Council A private American company which provides CAS. The LSAC is also the creator and administrator of the standardized LSAT (Law School Admission Test).  

LSAT Law School Admission Test A standardized test designed specifically to assess the reading, comprehension and reasoning skills crucial for a legal education and the legal profession. For an OLSAS applicant, do not arrange with the LSAC for your scores. Instead, OLSAS will retrieve LSAT reports directly from LSAC and distributes them to the Ontario law schools selected on the OLSAS application form. Official LSAT tests results are equally valid, from all versions of the standard test, with no preference for the mode of testing (remote, in-person, Flex).     

(#2)   ALWAYS APPLY BY THE OLSAS APPLICATION DEADLINE

First year entry End of day (Toronto time) on November 1st, 2024  

Upper year entry (transfers, letter of permission) End of day (Toronto time) on May 1st,  2025

    We have to say it thrice: ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS submit your application form and the supporting documents that you craft yourself (including personal statements, essay(s), autobiographical sketch) by the application deadline, regardless of how incomplete the remainder of the application may be.

We caution you that:

If you miss the deadline you will NOT be able to submit and/or access the online application to ANY Ontario law school.  

If missed, for EACH desired Ontario law school you will need to make a formal written request for permission to apply late, that includes the reason(s) for missing the deadline.  

There is NO guarantee that a late application will be permitted, so avoid that risk by applying on time.  

The online form is lengthy and cannot be submitted until ALL required fields have proper responses and the application fee payment is processed.  

Unfortunately, despite all warnings, candidates try to submit too close to the deadline.  Far too often they miss the deadline because they fail to anticipate that there would be multiple improper/missed form responses to remedy and/or their online payment may take more than 30 minutes to process due to the high volume of submissions on deadline day.  

Candidates should aim for submitting your application no later than 10 AM (Toronto time) on the deadline date, to allow time to troubleshoot any submission issues with OLSAS before it closes for the workday. Note that OLSAS is closed on weekends.    

(#3)   SUPPORTING DOCUMENT DEADLINES FOR UofT

Once again, ALL required application materials are to be provided to OLSAS directly.

Some of your supporting documents must arrive at OLSAS by the application deadline, while others may arrive at OLSAS shortly thereafter. Therefore there should be no reason to miss submitting the application form by the application deadline. Of course, we do not advise or recommend that you submit documents late intentionally.

For your UofT application at OLSAS there are supporting documents that:

You craft yourself and enter their text directly on the application form e.g. Personal & Contact information, Academic History, Autobiographical Sketch, Verifiers, Personal Statement, BSAP Essay, Optional Essay. YOU MUST SUBMIT THESE BY THE APPLICATION DEADLINE      

You arrange with external sources for their submission of documents directly to OLSAS e.g. official transcripts, official exchange program transcripts provided directly from the host schools, WES course-by-course evaluations, NCA reports, letters of permission/letter of good standing from your law school etc. YOU MUST ARRANGE FOR THEIR SUBMISSION TO OLSAS BY THE APPLICATION DEADLINE, BUT THE DOCUMENTS MAY ARRIVE AFTER THE DEADLINE  

We do NOT ask for e.g. letters of reference/recommendation, a test of English Language proficiency, non-LSAT standardized tests. DO NOT PROVIDE FOR UofT LAW, THEY WILL BE IGNORED

We will assess an applicant file after the application deadline, and only after all of the required documents have been received via OLSAS. Therefore, there is no selection advantage from submitting the application form well in advance of the deadline, just don’t miss the deadline. For supporting documents arriving after the application deadline, the sooner we receive them, the sooner we can proceed with your admission review.    

(#4)   LSAT DEADLINES

2025 First-Year Applications OLSAS Application deadline: evening of November 1st, 2024 Acceptable LSAT:  scores from the June 2019 to January 2025 tests, inclusively.    

2025 Transfer & Letter of Permission (Upper-Year) Applications OLSAS Application deadline: evening of May 1st, 2025 Acceptable LSAT: scores from the June 2019 to the April 2025 tests, inclusively. Note that, if admitted after June, course selection options will be limited.

HOW TO ARRANGE FOR YOUR LSAT RESULTS In ALL instances, you must, on the OLSAS online application form:

Provide your LSAT registration number (begins with the letter L), and also:  

Indicate any future tests that you intend to take during the CURRENT admission cycle i.e. tests to be taken during September 2024 to April 2025.  

At any point in time, including after you’ve submitted the application, you can return to the OLSAS application to update (add/drop/change) your intended test dates. Please update the application form with your intended test dates so that OLSAS will know whether to obtain and retrieve the scores for those tests.

TAKING THE LSAT AFTER THE OLSAS APPLICATION DEADLINE? Once again, for 2025 entry into the JD first-year, our last acceptable LSAT will be the January 2025 test. If any of the LSAT tests you intend to take occurs after the OLSAS application deadline, then return to the OLSAS application form and ADD the future test date(s).    

(#5)   THINKING OF A JD COMBINED PROGRAM?

You must BOTH:

apply to the JD degree at OLSAS by OLSAS deadlines, and

apply separately to the partner graduate degree by its own process and deadlines

WHAT TO SELECT ON YOUR OLSAS APPLICATION As long as you’re contemplating enrolling one of our JD/Masters or JD/PhD combined programs, then before the OLSAS application deadline, on the OLSAS application form please select BOTH:

the JD program (first year or transfer, only), and also

your desired JD combined program(s)

There is no additional cost to select combined programs at OLSAS.

CAUTION: The selection at OLSAS of the partner program, is NOT an application to the partner program. It merely serves to alert the law school of your interest in pursuing a combined program.

(#6)   IS THERE A SELECTION ADVANTAGE TO SUBMITTING AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE BEFORE THE APPLICATION DEADLINE?

None at all.  We only review files for completion and selection after the application deadline. Admission decisions will not be made before the deadline. Which leads us to …    

(#7)   I’VE SUBMITTED MY OLSAS APPLICATION, WHEN DO I HEAR FROM UofT LAW?

Everyone who has submitted a OLSAS paid application form successfully, whether or not it is complete with all supporting documents, should receive a confirmation email from OLSAS. Information transfer from OLSAS to the Ontario law schools is never instantaneous, as it can take at least 2-4 business days, so please temper your expectations. Only after the law school receives application data from OLSAS can we begin our initial email correspondence with applicants, which is likely to begin in late-October.  We will update on this blog with the start date of our email correspondence about your application.

In preparation for that email, please do the following to prevent it from going into your spam/junk folder or from being undelivered:

Add our email address today to your email address book/contact list as a safe sender This should make it easier for your emailer will recognize us when we send the initial email. Add  [email protected]

As a good practice, monitor your spam/junk folder periodically for misplaced messages.

Best Regards, JD Admissions Office

Faculty of Law University of Toronto

ROUND 3 ADMISSION DECISIONS ON MONDAY MARCH 11, 2024

We recognize how tough waiting can be, and once more, thank you for your patience during the admission cycle.

On March 11th, we’ll email nearly all of the final Round of admission decisions. 

99% of the remaining admission decisions will be emailed by the end of day, on March 11th.  

Files that were complete prior to, and on, March 11th, were considered and reviewed. .

The last 1% will comprise of the applicants for whom WES evaluations are in-progress, and those for whom we have permitted a late arrival of data from OLSAS. After their files are complete we will review as soon as we can for an admission decision.

PLEASE WAIT FOR OUR NOTIFICATION EMAIL

By 9:30 pm (Toronto time) on March 11th, we are aiming to email 99% of the remaining decisions. If you phone or email to inquire before you receive an email, your results may not yet be ready, and it does not expedite the process.

Therefore please await your email notification. The email address listed in your OLSAS account at the start of notifications will be used.

After Tuesday March 19th, if your file is COMPLETE at OLSAS and you are not seeing the decision email, then by all means contact us.

Keep an eye on your spam/junk folder especially if you did not add [email protected] to your email address book/contact list, or as a trusted sender.  

THE FOUR POSSIBLE DECISIONS

Based on the current status of the application file, the decision will be one of four outcomes:

Offered admission (admit)

Placed on a Wait List

Not competitive for admission (file closed)

Incomplete (no decision, will be closed after an appreciable time)

Please refer to the email notification for details on your application decision. In the interim, please note the following:  

1. Offered Admission

Congratulations to the newest admitted candidates! Your notification email will direct you to your next steps including how and when to respond to the offer. In addition, an official offer of admission package will be mailed as soon as possible.

2. Placed on a Wait List

Your application is competitive, and if we had the space we would have offered it to you, gladly. You are deserving, and need to await a possible space becoming available.

Wait List promotion cannot be predicted by anyone In order to determine if a space will become available to promote from the wait list, we first need to obtain the responses to offers from those who have accepted their admission offers.  Since promotion can only occur after an admit who accepted informs us that they can no longer attend, no one, including the law school, can predict if or when a space may become available. Since promotion only occurs from the action of individual admits in the current cycle, the wait list behaviour from a prior admission cycle provides no predictive information.

Therefore, while on the wait list, it is prudent to consider responding to any offers that you have received from other law schools.

With a PROVISIONAL acceptance at another Ontario law school via OLSAS, you can choose to keep the consideration at UofT alive, and will not affect the chances of promotion from our wait list.   

A firm acceptance at another Ontario law school via OLSAS ends further consideration at UofT, and closes your UofT file.  

An acceptance of any kind of any law school outside of Ontario, has zero impact on the chances for promotion from our wait list. 

Waitlisted? Be Courteous At any point in time, if you do not wish to be on the wait list then as a courtesy to the rest of the list please inform us immediately. Otherwise you will prevent someone being promoted from the wait list. Email us immediately at [email protected].

The earliest deadline for our Round 1, 2 and 3 admitted students to provide their responses is April 1st. Again, there is no guarantee that any spaces will be available immediately thereafter since that is determined by the admitted students’ responses received, and not by the law school. If a space becomes available, we will contact the entire wait list to fill the spot. Wait list positions are not ranked or disclosed, so please save yourself the effort in asking us where you are on the list or in expressing your interest in obtaining a spot. If you did not email us to remove you from the wait list, or did not give a firm accept to another Ontario law school, then we will assume that you are still interested. Naturally, we assume the best - not the worst - of your intentions, without your need to express them.

3. Not competitive for admission

There are far more applicants than there are spaces, and after careful review, and despite the strength of the applications, we simply cannot admit or wait list every candidate. As a result, the application is declined this time around and the file will be closed. Unless there is an actual, clearly egregious and significant ERROR in - rather than unfortunate circumstances affecting - the academic record or the LSAT report submitted for your file, please refrain from sending unrequested additional documents or information in the hope that it will result in a change of the decision. Once again, please await our email notification regarding your admission decision, and check your spam/junk folder.

4. Incomplete 

A decision is made on completed files only.  

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their files are complete at OLSAS. As a courtesy, earlier in March, we notified some applicants that their files were incomplete in the hopes that they will act promptly to submit their remaining permissible items to OLSAS, such as in-progress WES evaluations. We are still aiming for completed files to be assessed by the end of March, or shortly thereafter based on when files become complete. After an appreciable time, an incomplete file will be closed. In the interim, it is prudent to proceed with responding to any offers that you have received from other law schools.

With a PROVISIONAL acceptance at another Ontario law school via OLSAS you can choose to keep the consideration at UofT alive, and in so doing, not affect the UofT admission decision.  

A FIRM acceptance at another Ontario law school via OLSAS ends further consideration at UofT, and closes your UofT file.    

An acceptance of any kind of any law school outside of Ontario, has zero impact on any aspect of the UofT application and UofT admission decision.  

ROUND 2 NOTIFICATIONS COMPLETED

By the end of today, February 13th, the complete set of notifications for Round 2 offers for admission to the 2024 first year JD will be sent. Congrats to our newest admitted applicants!

With Round 2 now complete, we will be moving on to the third and final round of decisions, with notifications expected to be sent in mid to late March (likely during March 18-28).  

I did not receive notification of any decision

Only those admitted were notified. Everyone admitted will receive an email notice by 5:30 pm (Toronto time) on February 13th.

Everyone with a file that is complete by March 1 (i.e. all required application components received at OLSAS) will be considered automatically for Round 3 later in March. The responsibility is yours to check your OLSAS account for the receipt of application components required by UofT.

Onward to the final Round 3

As stated in our earlier blogs, no refusals are made in Rounds 1 and 2. In Round 3, the final admission decisions will be one of:

Offered admission

Not offered admission

Placed on a wait list

There is no benefit from contacting us to indicate your desire to be admitted, since we assume everyone who applied would like to be admitted.  

In accordance with the OLSAS application instructions, and in fairness to all applicants, updates to autobiographical sketches (e.g. achievements, employment and activities), personal statements and optional essays already submitted will not be permitted, and will be ignored. Do not send any updates.  

If you obtained grades for courses completed in the fall 2023 semester, then you are required to submit them directly to OLSAS, as per the OLSAS instructions. This includes undergraduate courses, graduate courses or exchange courses. If you missed the Feb 1st deadline, then still arrange for their submission to OLSAS without delay.  Please refer to our Jan 4th blog for details on what to provide for us.

The acceptable LSAT scores for entry into Year 1 in 2024 are those from tests taken from June 2019 to January 2024 inclusively, as we’ve stated all along in the application instructions at our website and at OLSAS.   > If you will not have an acceptable LSAT score for your file then we will mark your file as incomplete and close it. > If you have an acceptable LSAT score, then, regardless of its value, it will be used for file review.   > We can only use scores that were attained from acceptable tests and not speculative scores that may/could have been obtained were it not for some mishap/circumstance.  

Always check first at OLSAS that your file is complete, since all application documents are to be sent to OLSAS directly. DO NOT send us documents directly.  

If it’s not at OLSAS, we will never receive it. Documents received at OLSAS are not distributed to us immediately. It can take a few business days for us to receive it. What is important is that it is received at OLSAS.  

Ensure that your email address at OLSAS is correct since we will send final notifications by email.  

If you don’t recall receiving an email from the UofT JD Admissions Office acknowledging that you applied via OLSAS, then first check your spam/junk folder for that acknowledgment email. If you do not locate it then please check with us immediately to ensure that your emailer can receive our emails properly.

  I’ve been admitted to another Ontario law school

No response to that Ontario offer at OLSAS by its response deadline keeps your UofT consideration open, and it has no effect on our decision  

A Provisional Acceptance of that Ontario offer at OLSAS, will ask whether to keep your UofT consideration open, and it has no effect on our decision  

A Firm Acceptance of that Ontario offer at OLSAS ends your UofT consideration immediately, we will close your file.  

Regardless, DO NOT withdraw/cancel your UofT JD application choice at OLSAS.  

I’ve been admitted to a non-Ontario law school

If you’ve received an offer of admission from any NON-ONTARIO law school at any time, then your response to that offer has no effect on your UofT admission consideration.  

Therefore DO NOT withdraw/cancel your UofT JD application choice at OLSAS.  

We’ve already indicated when we expect to make the final set of decisions i.e. in mid to late March. Until then, it’s entirely in your hands how to handle your response deadlines for offers from other law schools, including making any acceptance deposits.

I’ve been offered admission to another law school, can you expedite my file review before that school’s response deadline?

Response deadlines for accepting at other law schools will not hasten our file review, since we need the time to conduct a full and proper review of all of the remaining completed files. For some files, this necessitates awaiting WES documents, LSAT Writing, or scores from the January LSAT.

Please therefore, do not request decisions before we are ready with them. At this point in time we will not be able to provide an exact date for notifications. As per usual, we will update this blog once we have a better sense of the timing of March notifications.   Good luck!

As always, your patience is appreciated.

ROUND 2 NOTIFICATIONS BEGIN FEBRUARY 12

We thank you for your patience while we read, reviewed and assessed your application materials. It takes time to complete, since selection is more comprehensive and holistic than simply calculating GPAs and checking LSAT scores. The review included January LSAT scores that were received at OLSAS by February 6th.

We expect to complete the notifications by February 14. As per custom, we will also update this blog on the day that notifications end.  

We remind you that only offers of admission are made in Rounds 1 and 2.  Refusals and wait lists are not determined until the 3rd and final round in March.

Everyone not yet offered, is re-considered automatically through all rounds.

THE FIRST TO-DO FOR 2024: YOUR TRANSCRIPT CHECK-UP

The start of the new year is the ideal time to perform a check on your transcript submissions to OLSAS, in advance of the final two rounds of admission decisions which are anticipated for mid February, and mid-to-late March.

In accordance with the standard OLSAS application instructions, which have been available since late August 2023, please note the following critical transcript checks for JD first year applications.

YOU HAD COURSES IN PROGRESS WHEN YOU APPLIED

You are to arrange for an official updated transcript with completed first/fall semester grades from the source school to OLSAS. This is a standard OLSAS instruction, regardless of the Ontario law school(s) to which you applied.

At the OLSAS transcript webpage please read the section Current Academic Transcripts for First-year Applicants at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript 

BEFORE ordering the transcript, ensure with the source school that the new grades will be visible on the official transcript, since the purpose is to provide those grades.  

Order the transcript as you would normally, based on the source of the transcript, as per the OLSAS instructions at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript   

It is to be RECEIVED at OLSAS by Feb 1st, 2024. Time your submission arrangements accordingly. Do not submit to the law school, submit to OLSAS only. We will only accept official transcripts submitted directly by the source school to OLSAS.    

Yes, candidates offered admission in Round 1, who had undergraduate courses in progress must still provide the updated transcript to OLSAS by the deadline.

For UofT specifically, regarding courses in progress when you applied

If you were enrolled in a graduate degree program (master’s or doctorate), then we do not require the updated graduate program transcript, unless it will include new grades. 

However, if you applied to other Ontario law schools, they may still require it, please check with them directly.  

If a WES Canada evaluation was required, and you provided/arranged for, one to OLSAS already, then an updated WES evaluation with first/fall semester grades is not also required. Instead, arrange for an new official transcript with the new grade information to be sent from your school directly to OLSAS.  

If a WES Canada  evaluation was required, and the evaluation is in progress, then do not arrange for another WES evaluation with the new grade information. Please ensure that the in-progress evaluation is RECEIVED at OLSAS no later than March 1st, 2024.

CAUTION We cannot review your file for admission until it is complete and we expect to make all decisions by the end of Round 3 decisions in mid to late March.  

EXCHANGE/STUDY ABROAD/VISITING STUDENT TRANSCRIPTS (COMPLETED or IN PROGRESS)

The standard OLSAS instructions state quite clearly that official transcripts from exchange/study abroad/visiting student HOST schools are to be provided to OLSAS. See the very first transcript instructions at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript  

How the HOME school treats the exchange/study abroad/visiting student  grades is irrelevant to your requirement to provide an official transcript from the HOST school to OLSAS directly. Since OLSAS is the initial recipient, please check with OLSAS directly regarding how the HOST school may provide the official transcript electronically to OLSAS.   

Again, as per the OLSAS instructions, if your HOME school, on its transcript, gave/will give CREDIT (regardless of whether grades are showing for the host courses), for the exchange/study abroad/visiting study, then the HOST school’s transcript does not need to be evaluated by WES Canada.

Please take the time to read carefully and thoroughly the section Transcripts from International Institutions (Excluding the US) for the sub-section on Assessment of International Academic Credentials at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript

  CHECKING THE RECEIPT OF TRANSCRIPTS

As per our email which acknowledged receipt of your OLSAS application, your FIRST STEP is to check for the receipt of application materials at OLSAS via your OLSAS account.  

Since we get the documents from OLSAS, always check OLSAS first. If they are present at OLSAS then there is no need to also check with us.  

Please be aware that items submitted to OLSAS are never received instantaneously by the Ontario law schools. It can take a few business days after arrival at OLSAS before being distributed to the law school(s). Therefore, once more, check OLSAS first, always, and await for the item(s) to be displayed at OLSAS. Do NOT send transcripts to us directly as a contingency, we will await the official transcripts sent from the source school directly to OLSAS. Transcripts self-uploaded by applicants at OLSAS are not official.

UPDATED GRADES & OUR ADMISSION GPA 

As you may be aware, our admission GPA is based on the best three academic years of full-time (not full-load) undergraduate study. 

We consider the academic year to comprise of both the traditional fall and winter terms. Therefore, one term only (e.g. the fall term), does not constitute an academic year, and thus a single term of grades - on its own - is insufficient for use in a year-based GPA calculation. 

This does not mean that the new first semester/fall grades have no value. They will be considered. It is not necessary to perform a calculation in order to ascertain an academic performance, since the transcript(s) will display the grades attained.

ALL of the courses in the post-secondary academic record (e.g. undergrad, graduate, summer, exchange/study abroad etc.) have value and are considered, regardless of which may be used for our GPA calculation.

Ultimately, what is pertinent is not a calculation - which is a convenient tool - but the strength of the performance on courses, whenever they were taken. 

If you have not already done so, please take the time to read the entire section on Standards for Admission at our website.

ENJOY THE HOLIDAY BREAK!

CLOSED FROM DECEMBER 18, WE REOPEN ON JANUARY 3

Starting on December 18, the JD Admissions Office will be closed for the end of term holiday break.

The staff will be happy to reconnect with you when the university reopens on January 3.

ROUND 1 COMPLETED AHEAD OF SCHEDULE, ROUND 2 LIKELY IN MID-FEBRUARY 2024

Congratulations to everyone who was admitted in Round 1. Their notification emails were sent by 8:00 pm (Toronto time) on December 13th.

NOT OFFERED ADMISSION IN ROUND 1?

Additional offers will be made in Rounds 2 and 3, therefore it is erroneous to think that if you weren’t admitted in Round 1, then you will not be admitted at all.

Only in March at Round 3 will refusals and wait lists be determined. Until then, everyone with a completed file who has not been notified, will be kept viable through all rounds automatically.

Therefore there is absolutely:

No need to contact us to check if you were admitted, check your spam/junk folder, but know that we’ll get a hold of you one way or the other if you were admitted, and your OLSAS account will display an offer after three business days following our email notification.  

No need to contact us with updates to your autobiographical sketch activities, in fairness to all applicants really, don’t do this, and moreover, the OLSAS instructions do not permit it.  

No need to contact us to check if your file is complete, as long as the documents are at OLSAS, they’ll be sent to us, so check with OLSAS if unsure.  

No need to contact us to express your desire to be a new law student, you’ve applied, therefore you’ve already demonstrated your desire. Please do not provide unrequested documents including letters/emails of continued interest.  

No need to contact us about changes to your LSAT test dates, instead update the LSAT test date information on your OLSAS account, as we will get the update from OLSAS. Please read our November 7th blog.  

No need to speculate whether the November LSAT score was considered, although it was actually, for this cycle. Nevertheless, with the score, an offer of admission may not have been made at this point in the cycle. Once again, we remind you that (re)consideration is automatic for the next rounds.

Your admission is based on the strength of your file among the applicant pool at the time of review, so please be patient until the very last round in March.

IMPORTANT: UPDATED TRANSCRIPT REMINDER

If you had courses in progress at the Nov 1 OLSAS application deadline, then the OLSAS application instructions require you to arrange for an updated official transcript with the final grades for the current semester to be submitted to OLSAS directly from the issuing school. FOR THE UPDATED OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT:

The deadline for OLSAS to receive the transcript is February 1, 2024  

Before ordering, please ensure that the transcript will actually include the final grades for all newly completed courses   

Official transcripts from a student exchange/study abroad are required to be submitted directly from the HOST school. It is easier to make the arrangements (now) with the host school while you are still attending the school, rather than after you return to your home school. A WES Canada evaluation is not required if your home school, on its own transcript, will grant credit for the exchange/study abroad. Typically, the home school does not list on its transcript, the performance grade from the host school.  

Applicants whose WES Canada evaluations are currently in-progress,  should also arrange for an updated official transcript to be sent to OLSAS directly, while they await the WES evaluation. .

Please take the time to read and follow the OLSAS information on current transcripts in-progress, which details the standard requirements for all of the Ontario law schools. at https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-transcript/#current-transcripts

HOLIDAY BREAK

The JD Admissions Office will be closed for the UofT holiday break starting on December 18th. We will re-open on January 3rd.

Later in January we will update the blog with more precise dates for when Round 2 notifications may be expected, since the timing will be affected by the January 31st score release date for the January LSAT.

ROUND 1 OFFER OF ADMISSION NOTIFICATIONS BEGIN ON DEC 12th

Starting on December 12th 2023, we will begin to send notifications of offers of admission for entry to the first year JD program for the 2024-2025 academic year.  Congratulations to our new admits!  

Applicants are considered automatically for each of the three Rounds. In each Round offers of admission are made. Refusals and wait list decisions are not determined until Round 3 in March.

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ROUND 1 NOTIFICATION PERIOD

We are aiming to send all of the Round 1 notifications by December 15th. During this period, notifications will be made sporadically, rather than daily.  We will update this blog when the Round 1 notifications have ended.

NOV 2023 LSAT CONSIDERATION

Test scores received by December 7 were considered for Round 1.

If warranted, refer to our November 7th blog post on having multiple LSATs, and how to assess whether the LSAT should be re-taken in January 2024.

NOTIFICATION BY EMAIL

On a day when there will be notifications, we will send an official email confirming the offer of admission. The email will be sent in the evening of the notification day, likely after 8:00 pm (Toronto time).  

Please DO NOT phone or email us to find out if you were offered admission. Instead, simply check your email address (that you provided on your OLSAS account), no more than once each weekday evening until we update this blog that Round 1 has been completed.

We trust that your email is operational i.e. you received our email that acknowledged our receipt of your initial application data from OLSAS. If you did not receive our acknowledgement email, please first check your spam/junk folder, since that email was sent as many as three times if our emailer suspected that it was never viewed. Also refer to our October 23rd blog post regarding how to help prevent our emails from going into your spam/junk folder.

OFFER OF ADMISSION SHOWING AT OLSAS

The offer should be visible on OLSAS accounts within 3 business days from the date of email notification by UofT. Your patience is appreciated. Once again, checking once per day is sufficient.

HAVE MULTIPLE LSAT SCORES? (RE)TAKING THE LSAT IN NOVEMBER OR JANUARY?

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR JD FIRST YEAR ADMISSION

For entry in 2024, an acceptable LSAT is a test taken from June 2019 to January 2024 inclusively, that produced a test score. A cancelled test does not result in a score.    

As you are aware, the LSAT is mandatory. If from all of the acceptable LSATs, you will not obtain any test score, then regardless of the strength of the remainder of your applicant file, you will not be considered for admission in 2024.      

OLSAS is our source for LSAT scores. In order for OLSAS to retrieve your scores from LSAC, in your OLSAS account you must provide your LSAC account number (Lnumber). For tests you intend to take after your OLSAS application was submitted, you must also specify the dates of your future tests.

To ascertain whether OLSAS retrieved your scores from the LSAC, check your OLSAS account and not with the law school.  

Scores are not retrievable by OLSAS at the same time they are released to test takers. Please allow 3-6 business days for your scores to be visible on your OLSAS account.     

If you are not seeing your scores at your OLSAS account, then inquire with OLSAS regarding its retrieval of scores. If OLSAS doesn’t have them, then no Ontario law school will have them.  

#1) LSAT WRITING

Your official LSAT Report requires both the Multiple Choice score and one LSAT Writing. Remember to complete BOTH otherwise your score will not be released at all, whether to you, OLSAS or any law school. Refer to the LSAC website for details and FAQ.

#2) RE-TAKING IN NOV 2023 OR JAN 2024, DO I INFORM THE LAW SCHOOL?

>>> YES, BUT ONLY VIA OLSAS, PLEASE << Since we get scores via OLSAS, informing us is meaningless. Simply update your LSAT future test date in your OLSAS account, please do not email/phone the law school.

As per the instructions on the online OLSAS Application, you must provide the most recent LSAT date and/or the date on which you plan to write the LSAT. Ensure that you update your application if your test dates change.

1.    Log into your OLSAS account

2.    In left sidebar menu of Application Links, select LSAT

3.    Select the action to either Add or Edit, and update your Future LSAT Test Dates.

4.    In left sidebar menu of Application Links, select Review and Submit; review and correct as warranted, then at the very bottom of that web page, Agree and Verify the change.

There is no need to inform us with the reason(s) for re-taking the test. Updating the future test date online at OLSAS is sufficient.  

#3) MULTIPLE SCORES & CANCELLATIONS

Which will you use? Can you hold off and wait for my new score?

As long as your application file is complete, i.e. all required documents have been received, including scores from an acceptable LSAT (i.e. taken from June 2019 to January 2024 inclusively), then it can proceed for review. Again, since OLSAS retrieves the LSAT score, check with OLSAS for its receipt. ARRIVAL OF NOV 2023 SCORES The results of the Nov 2023 LSAT are scheduled to be released on Nov 29, to test takers who have successfully completed LSAT Writing by the date.

The scores will not arrive at the law school that day since they must first be retrieved by OLSAS, then distributed to the respective Ontario law schools to which candidates applied. This can take 3-5 business days. Therefore, since we must await the scores via OLSAS, it is not possible for us to know with certainty, how likely might the Nov 2023 results be available for our first round of decision-making.

MAIN CONSIDERATIONS

Prior to a re-take, if your entire file is already competitive with your current score(s) Then we need not await the new score to make an admission decision. Otherwise, if it is not already competitive, we will re-assess automatically with the new score after it has been received via OLSAS. As we’ve stated quite clearly on our website we do not average scores and we give emphasis to the highest score.

A cancelled test does not produce a score or any indication of why the test was cancelled. There is no data from the cancellation for use in file review. Therefore, a cancelled test only impacts selection if it resulted in the absence of any score for use in the admission cycle.  

There is no need to contact us to (re)consider with a future acceptable score Simply update the future LSAT test date on your OLSAS application. That’s our way of knowing to expect a new score and therefore, to re-assess with the forthcoming score, automatically.  

We remind you that assessments occur only after a file is complete Please ensure that your LSAT score(s) are visible on your OLSAS account.    Notifications of the admission decisions are expected at three times in the cycle: early-mid December, mid-February and mid-to-late March. Applicants with completed files are considered for each round of decisions automatically.  

Refusals and wait lists are determined at Round 3 only, in March. Your focus should not be on gaining admission in the first round, since offers of admission are made at each of the three rounds. Once their files are complete candidates are considered automatically up to, and including, the last round of decision-making.

#4) WHAT’S NEXT?

Please allow the process to unfold which includes awaiting the decision patiently. We will update this blog to indicate when we expect to send Round 1 notifications.