UNB vs Dal

[Empourer12]

Is Dal worth paying 2x the tuition, particularly if I'm interested in staying in Atlantic Canada?

[PePeHalpert]

If you are certain you intend to stay in Atlantic Canada, probably not.  I think Dal and UNB place students and grads at the major regional firms in roughly equal or proportionate numbers.  If there is any chance you want to practice outside of Atlantic Canada, Dal will give you a distinct advantage over UNB. 

[Empourer12]

On 10/4/2021 at 9:53 AM, PePeHalpert said:

If you are certain you intend to stay in Atlantic Canada, probably not.  I think Dal and UNB place students and grads at the major regional firms in roughly equal or proportionate numbers.  If there is any chance you want to practice outside of Atlantic Canada, Dal will give you a distinct advantage over UNB. 

Thanks! I'm pretty certain on staying in Atlantic Canada, hopefully in Halifax or Nfld 

[Phaedrus]

If you're staying in Atlantic Canada, either school will do you well. However, I'm not as inclined to say Schulich gives one a "distinct advantage" without explanation. There isn't a hierarchy of schools in Canada like you find the US. Osgoode, UVic, UBC and Dal all offer fine educations and the "prestige" is largely a product of opinions from non-lawyers. What UNB lacks is (1) a diverse and nationally-dispersed alumni, and (2) a boat load of courses, clinics, and community opportunities. It's a smaller school (~90 students), located in Fredericton (~58k pop.), and located somewhat far from major metropolitan centres.

UNB alumni are, unsurprisingly, largely from NB, PEI, NFLD, and NS. Your ability to network on the basis of shared education will be easier in the Maritimes, just as it'd be easier to find UofA alumni in Red Deer or Calgary. At the end of the day, the advise is always to attend school where you want to practice. 

On the basis of school alone, I've never heard of Dal's degree being considered more "valuable" than UNB's. It's what you do in your time at school that matters: what activities you participate in, the networking you do, and how you perform relative to your peers. That's true of any school. 

[123]

Dal was helpful for OCIs outside Atlantic Canada, because it had OCIs for firms outside Atlantic Canada.

I didn't participate in OCIs. I went to Dal and articled in Toronto. Other than for OCIs, I'm really not sure how beneficial the Dal degree was over UNB. So if I were to do it again, I'd probably save myself the $20,000 (or whatever) and go to UNB.