Have questions about going to law school in Canada? Please post them here!

[lsatstudent22]

Thanks so much for your help!

[lsatstudent22]

Hi again!

I have another question about undergraduate courses- would taking fully online courses look bad on transcripts? To be honest, I am not sure if this distinction (online vs regular) is even visible on transcripts, but in the case that it is, would it reflect negatively? This would be excluding the courses that were online by default due to the pandemic.

Thank you!

[Stephanie Oswalt]

Hi again!

I have another question about undergraduate courses- would taking fully online courses look bad on transcripts? To be honest, I am not sure if this distinction (online vs regular) is even visible on transcripts, but in the case that it is, would it reflect negatively? This would be excluding the courses that were online by default due to the pandemic.

Thank you!

Hi lsat,

Most schools don't show that distinction on transcripts, though it can vary depending on school and class. But even if that did show, law schools are not going to be concerned about you taking online classes. Law schools don't know if there are reasons you (or the school for that matter) opted for an online class, especially taking the pandemic into consideration.

Thanks!

[abbeycoutts]

Hi! I posted this question on the American forum by accident, I didn't realize there was a Canadian specific.

I wrote the August LSAT and totally surprised myself with a 171. I wasn't expecting to do that well, so I registered for the Sept LSAT before I got my score back. Now I am nervous, I don't want to do worse and show a decrease between tests. I debated signing up for Score Preview, but the Candidate Cancellation on my transcript does not sound great. Do you guys have any thoughts about how a Candidate Cancellation would look? I also am debating withdrawing from the test. I have just started my semester, and have had significantly less time devoted to studying. I am still doing practice sections, but way less than what I was doing during the summer leading up to my August LSAT.

For reference, I am applying to only Canadian law schools. My top choices are University of Toronto, UBC Peter Allard, and McGill. From what I can see online, a 171 is a competitive score for these schools, I think? I really just need some advice.

Thanks!

[Stephanie Oswalt]

Hi! I posted this question on the American forum by accident, I didn't realize there was a Canadian specific.

I wrote the August LSAT and totally surprised myself with a 171. I wasn't expecting to do that well, so I registered for the Sept LSAT before I got my score back. Now I am nervous, I don't want to do worse and show a decrease between tests. I debated signing up for Score Preview, but the Candidate Cancellation on my transcript does not sound great. Do you guys have any thoughts about how a Candidate Cancellation would look? I also am debating withdrawing from the test. I have just started my semester, and have had significantly less time devoted to studying. I am still doing practice sections, but way less than what I was doing during the summer leading up to my August LSAT.

For reference, I am applying to only Canadian law schools. My top choices are University of Toronto, UBC Peter Allard, and McGill. From what I can see online, a 171 is a competitive score for these schools, I think? I really just need some advice.

Thanks!

Hi Abbey,

Thanks for the question, and congrats on the 171! Yes, 171 is above the median for all those schools and is competitive.

If you feel confident you can score even higher, then there's no problem with retaking, as an even higher score provides more leverage for scholarships, etc.

But if you retake and score lower, then that's not an issue either. Schools really only care about the highest LSAT score you receive, so one slightly lower score on your record won't be an issue if you have a higher score.

An exception would be if you score significantly lower-- a 171 followed by a 140 may raise some questions about what happened on that second take -- and that's when score preview can come in handy. Candidate cancelations are commonplace now with score preview, so law schools won't be concerned!

In short, it's OK to retake, and also not an issue if you end up with a slightly lower score or a cancelation. The question really becomes whether you feel it's worth expending time and mental energy for the chance of a slightly higher score, or if you'd rather focus on getting your semester off to a great start and focusing on the rest of your application.

I hope this helps! Thanks!

[abbeycoutts]

Hi! I posted this question on the American forum by accident, I didn't realize there was a Canadian specific.

I wrote the August LSAT and totally surprised myself with a 171. I wasn't expecting to do that well, so I registered for the Sept LSAT before I got my score back. Now I am nervous, I don't want to do worse and show a decrease between tests. I debated signing up for Score Preview, but the Candidate Cancellation on my transcript does not sound great. Do you guys have any thoughts about how a Candidate Cancellation would look? I also am debating withdrawing from the test. I have just started my semester, and have had significantly less time devoted to studying. I am still doing practice sections, but way less than what I was doing during the summer leading up to my August LSAT.

For reference, I am applying to only Canadian law schools. My top choices are University of Toronto, UBC Peter Allard, and McGill. From what I can see online, a 171 is a competitive score for these schools, I think? I really just need some advice.

Thanks!

Hi Abbey,

Thanks for the question, and congrats on the 171! Yes, 171 is above the median for all those schools and is competitive.

If you feel confident you can score even higher, then there's no problem with retaking, as an even higher score provides more leverage for scholarships, etc.

But if you retake and score lower, then that's not an issue either. Schools really only care about the highest LSAT score you receive, so one slightly lower score on your record won't be an issue if you have a higher score.

An exception would be if you score significantly lower-- a 171 followed by a 140 may raise some questions about what happened on that second take -- and that's when score preview can come in handy. Candidate cancelations are commonplace now with score preview, so law schools won't be concerned!

In short, it's OK to retake, and also not an issue if you end up with a slightly lower score or a cancelation. The question really becomes whether you feel it's worth expending time and mental energy for the chance of a slightly higher score, or if you'd rather focus on getting your semester off to a great start and focusing on the rest of your application.

I hope this helps! Thanks!

Hi Stephanie,

Thanks for the response, I really appreciate you taking the time to write back. I realized I should have provided my CGPA as that is another area of stress for me. I struggled in first year and have been pulling it up since then I now have a 3.55 on a 4.0 scale. (I have been getting 3.8-3.98 for the last few semesters though - first year was just really rough). Taking my GPA into account, does that change anything about the competitiveness of my application?

Thank you so much again.

[Stephanie Oswalt]

Hi Abbey,

Thanks for the reply. You are what we call a "splitter": someone with a high LSAT score and a lower GPA. You can find some more information about splitters here: What Are Splitters, Reverse Splitters, and Super Splitters?

Retaking the LSAT to get an even higher score will still help, but a 172 is still strong regardless; it's your GPA that is lower than the schools' medians. You will want to focus on maintaining/increasing your GPA as much as possible in the last semesters. In addition, I would make sure your "softs" are as strong as possible: your letters of recommendation, your personal statement, your resume, etc.

Lastly, if you do have a compelling reason for why your GPA may have been lower your first semester, you may want to consider writing an addendum to explain the situation: https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/whats- ... h-addenda/.

Hopefully, this information helps!