Recent Splitter Success Stories (Canada)

legallybrunette-1

Hello there,

I'm wondering if anyone has any splitter success stories relative to Canadian law schools? Information on this subject is pretty scarce and so far, the information I have been able to find is more than a decade old (2007). I know that US law schools are more receptive to admitting splitters than are Canadian law schools, and maybe I'll end up going to a really good school in the states, but if anyone can provide me with any insight re: this side of the pond, that would be great!

Kat

Guillaume

From what I've seen, Canadian law schools aren't that receptive to splitters (ie. high LSAT, low GPA). The most a law school would consider your LSAT is for 50% of admissions, the other 50% being GPA. Some law schools are reverse-splitter friendly where they weigh GPA much more than LSAT.

I think the most splitter friendly schools are UBC and UVic as they weigh GPA and LSAT equally. A high LSAT could compensate for a weaker GPA. You may also have a chance at other law schools if you had special circumstances that affected your GPA. Then you could try applying through the discretionary category.

lifescibutnolife

Are you talking about high GPA and low LSAT or low GPA and high LSAT?

ariincharge

If you are talking about a low GPA and High LSAT splitter situation I can speak to this. Some really amazing Canadian law schools are definitely receptive to splitters. For example: Ottawa, Queens, Western, Dalhousie, Windsor, Saskatchewan, Calgary and even Osgoode sometimes (they are moving toward a more holistic process).I would say that if your best two years of undergrad are decent and your LSAT is above the 80th percentile, mixed with some solid ECs, LORs and a thoughtful PS you have a shot at any of these school.

That said, if your cGPA and B2 are both sub-par you're going to need an outstanding LSAT to compensate. I know people in Canada who have gotten into really amazing law schools with 3.0 cGPA and 160+ LSATs. A friend of mine was admitted to both U of T and Osgoode with a 3.1 cGPA (3.7 B2) and a 166. Take a look on lawstudents.ca (Admitted threads) to get an idea of how many splitters were admitted to the various Canadian law schools.

Don't ever think you cant get in because of a weak GPA/LSAT. Give it your all, play to your strengths in your apps and im sure you'll be fine. Feel free to PM me for additional info or just to talk about.

CoffeeEnthusiast

I did some research on Canadian law schools but am not too sure about what is considered a splitter. As far as I can tell, most people admitted to Canadian law schools have at least a 3.0 cGPA and the rare exceptions have LSAT scores that are quite high. (~165+)

There are however a good portion of them that look at B2/B3/L2 so maybe for those schools you aren't really even a splitter. Also, some schools (like York for example on the top of my head) mention that they take a much more holistic view of applicants and I think those schools typically admit more people with a sub 3.0 GPA. For these more holistic schools, I've heard that tailoring your personal statement/CV to the things the school is known for could be helpful.

Hope this helps.