University of Alberta Law Index Score & Grade Conversion Guide

[Renerik]

4 hours ago, SYANG09 said:

I know this may sound irrelevant. But do some universities implicitly require higher LSAT scores from int'l students? I'm applying next cycle as an int'l student for both Canadian and American schools. A couple of U.S. law school are said only to look at LSAT and softs from foreign applicants. It is true that foreign GPAs are not easily convertible using the North American rubrics, giving the discrepancy between difficulties of undergrad programs taught around the world and intentional GPA inflation/deflation is not provable. Law schools now use third-party agency like WES for evaluating foreign transcripts, but clearly LSAT is a much more reliable index. However, I'm not so into the idea of dying for 170+ as many of my fellow applicants are (there's an obnoxious culture in my country that it's perfect scores or nothing). I have a decent cCPA and L2 (both around 3.88/4.0, WES certified) from a non-English speaking university. My first LSAT was 82% and I plan to rewrite this fall. Using the formula provided by OP, I think I do have a good odds for UAlberta right now. Still unsure if Alberta have a "special" treatment for foreign intake that they don't reveal. If that's the case, I'd be disadvantaged though I strove for high GPA but am not so good at standardized exams.

I know most american schools are explicit in that they have slightly higher admission standards for foreign students but I havent come across a canadian law school saying so. That said, it might be internal information that they dont disclose. While not UofA and I'm not sure how much they can disclose, some of the mods/admins were involved with their schools admissions so reach out to them.

If you think standards are higher for foreign students because there are relatively few in each school's entering class, I think that's moreso a result of sampling. More Canadians go to school here because more Canadians apply here.

Only 3 students for UofAs class of 2024 have a 170+ on record, so I doubt they would set the bar that high for international students...

Edited July 9, 2021 by Renerik

[SYANG09]

2 hours ago, Renerik said:

I know most american schools are explicit in that they have slightly higher admission standards for foreign students but I havent come across a canadian law school saying so. That said, it might be internal information that they dont disclose. While not UofA and I'm not sure how much they can disclose, some of the mods/admins were involved with their schools admissions so reach out to them.

If you think standards are higher for foreign students because there are relatively few in each school's entering class, I think that's moreso a result of sampling. More Canadians go to school here because more Canadians apply here.

Only 3 students for UofAs class of 2024 have a 170+ on record, so I doubt they would set the bar that high for international students...

Thanks for following up. I primarily use reddit for law school admission and the posts there are predominantly dealing with U.S. schools, esp. T14 (some redditors' psychology is kinda toxic XD). I agree that the representativeness of reddit cases is questionable. However, race for top-tier American schools is even tighter these years. Most int'l entrants who got into T14 in the last cycle had high LSAT scores (literally high, like 170+) plus strong PS/ECs that could even land them to UofT safely. I mean Canadian schools are by all means very prestigious, but upon first glance most of them have lower bars for LSAT than their U.S. counterparts. Alberta has the prestige comparable to a mid or lower tier T14 school but the median LSAT is the same as a 40th school. The competition seems much less crazy than I expected for Canadian schools (maybe not UofT or UBC).

Edited July 9, 2021 by SYANG09

[Renerik]

I'm not sure how UofA compares to a T14 (it doesn't), and don't think that you should put too much stock in prestige comparison between US-Canada schools, but the difference between Canadian schools is mostly negligeable. The application cycle has been tighter here as well. Some schools overenrolled much like some in the US.

The reason the US T14 boasts so many 170+ LSAT scores is because institutions' rankings matter a whole lot more than here meaning that you're much more likely to see scores polarizing to the extremes. Here, it's not uncommon to see high 160 scorers go to our smallest regional schools.  We also have fewer 170+ applicants because we are a smaller country. Given how normal distributions work, we'd need a crazy proportion of our 170+ scorers to apply to the same school to end up with a class median of 170+.

 

Edited July 9, 2021 by Renerik
For clarity's sake, I meant "I don't think comparing UofA to a T14 is wise"

[CleanHands]

1 hour ago, SYANG09 said:

Alberta has the prestige comparable to a mid or lower tier T14 school

This is a delusional statement.

UofA alumni do fine and it's not a knock to say it's not perceived the same way that Cornell is. But come on.

[Renerik]

1 minute ago, CleanHands said:

This is a delusional statement.

UofA alumni do fine and it's not a knock to say it's not perceived the same way that Cornell is. But come on.

Don't knock my man, he's just trying to get in with the admissions committee. 😁

[Whist]

There are plenty of great things about UofA. Longest operating school west of Ontario (fourth oldest English school in the country), lots of course options, second largest law library in Canada, produced Beverly McLachlin, allegedly 97%+ of students looking for articles get them, so on and so forth. But it has nowhere near the clout of even the lowest in the T14. And that's fine. Aside from a select few types of discussions, there isn't merit in measuring Canadian schools against American ones.

Edited July 9, 2021 by Liavas

[SYANG09]

9 hours ago, Renerik said:

Don't knock my man, he's just trying to get in with the admissions committee. 😁

I pretend some guy at the admission office actually peruses this site when he's bored lol

[TheMidnightOil]

2 hours ago, SYANG09 said:

I pretend some guy at the admission office actually peruses this site when he's bored lol

Wouldn't surprise me if that's the case, actually.