Help Me Choose ! Queens vs Western (Yea I know...)

[Kobe]

Must be said I know this has been done a million times but here we go anyway. I was wondering if anyone could give advice for my situation or even a way they would think about the decision. Truthfully I am leaning towards to Queens but I want to make sure I am not missing anything, I realize both schools are solid and have similar outcomes. 

I am planning to pursue a career in business law, and would like to find a corporate job. I think I need more experience to narrow down an exact area of practice though. I am pretty confident I don't want to litigate though. 

I was leaning towards Queens for a few reasons. It seems while they don't place quite as many students on bay, the Vancouver recruit and Ottawa recruit they seem to do better than Western. Meaning I might have more options in terms of cities to work (not sure if this is true) potentially making this a slight advantage? Additionally I could do the JD/MBA at Queens after seeing 1L grades, which does not seem to be an option at Western as enrollment seems super limited. I also really like Kingston. 

On the other hand Western appears to have slightly better Bay Street numbers, it is closer to home, and seems to have more offerings for business law (though how much of this is just branding?). Would be nice to be closer to home and it seems like the school is more aligned with my interests. 

Any thoughts would be appreciated, I know this topic is super over done but hey thought I would ask. 

[Notworthy]

I think you answered your own question. Either way both are great universities and you should be proud of both, if the outcomes are similar if you will have a smidge of better odds at Western vs Queens doesn’t necessarily mean either one will promise the outcome you want. The work/networking is up to you you’ll succeed at both. Best of luck.

[Kobe]

1 hour ago, Notworthy said:

I think you answered your own question. Either way both are great universities and you should be proud of both, if the outcomes are similar if you will have a smidge of better odds at Western vs Queens doesn’t necessarily mean either one will promise the outcome you want. The work/networking is up to you you’ll succeed at both. Best of luck.

Thank you friend. I do think I have an answer but I always look for something I might be missing. Best of luck to you as well. 

[goosie]

As a Western student, I can't talk to Queen's business law offerings but I can say Western does have quite a bit (lots of business law and related courses, moots, business law clinic, etc). The "business law school" aspect is definitely marketing, but in the sense that Western offers opportunities for every other type of law too. A lot of people see the business law school stuff and assume that means everything at Western is about corporate law - I have plenty of friends who just took the mandatory corporate course and then did nothing business-related during their degree again.

Western does have a pretty small class size (about 180 students in each year). Not sure how big Queen's is but my understanding is that Western is among the smallest in Ontario. That was something I found attractive about the school when I was deciding. The other unique thing about Western is I'm pretty sure we're the only school where you can take Corporate Law in 1L. The only real perk to that is having the prerequisite for all the upper year corporate courses in time for 2L fall. (Also it's the way some people figure out early that they don't actually want to work in corporate law.)

In terms of non-Toronto recruits, I know a couple of people who'll be working in Alberta, one of whom landed through the Calgary 1L recruit. Personally I landed a job through the Ottawa articling recruit. A few friends of mine who will also be in Ottawa landed in the 2L recruit. This is just anecdotal and I don't know the actual numbers, but there's certainly some success stories. I don't personally know anyone who applied to Vancouver, as far as I know.

The other thing I'd suggest, if you have time, is to go visit both schools. When I was deciding what law school to attend it helped me a lot to go to campus and see how I liked it. Obviously that might be easier said than done, but it help make up your mind if you are on the fence. They are pretty comparable schools so I don't think you'd lose much picking one over the other.

[Notworthy]

36 minutes ago, Kobe said:

Thank you friend. I do think I have an answer but I always look for something I might be missing. Best of luck to you as well. 

If you look for something missing at either institution you’ll always find it. That’s just life. 

[Kobe]

33 minutes ago, goosie said:

snip

Very helpful and interesting to hear about where people are landing. I do no need to go down to London, that is true. It's a tough decision. Is most of the class looking to get into some form of business law?

 

9 minutes ago, Notworthy said:

If you look for something missing at either institution you’ll always find it. That’s just life. 

When I say "look for something I might be missing" I mean I am looking for things I might be overlooking in my decision making process. Sorry about how I wrote that originally lol

[Mountebank]

The best thing you can do for yourself is go with the cheapest option in terms of tuition/living expenses.

[Greenjuice]

I don't have too much information on either of these schools but I was also struggling to make a choice so I wanted to share what helped me. I think it's easy to get focused on career prospects and academics. I will list a few questions that helped me round out my experience:

1. Have you/can you visit both campuses? Maybe going in person will help you get a feel for which one you prefer.

2. Which city would you rather live in? Where do you think you'll enjoy your studies more? Three years is a long time. For me the diversity of the city was important and that was a concern when applying to schools outside of Toronto.

3. Do you require additional supports at school? I need accommodations as I have a disability, so I did research into which school I felt would support me more. It's important that you feel supported in your school - whether you're a parent, or a part time student, or whatever else is going on.

4. Have you talked to other admitted students? I joined group chats for both schools and tried to feel out what the incoming class would be like. Of course I want to be challenged and develop my critical thinking skills, but it is definitely nice to be surrounded by people who share similar values/goals.

I hope this helps! Good luck Kobe!

[Professor Lupin]

The only advantage of taking Corporate Law in 1L at Western is that you can take Securities Regulation in first semester of 2L (since corp law is a pre req for securities regulation). I just want to level your expectations that there won't be a suite of courses open to you in 2L and 3L just because you take corporate in 1L. Upper year business law courses such as Income Tax, Bankruptcy, M&A, etc. do not require corporate law as a pre req.

Queens and Western are both great options if you'd like to pursue a career in corporate law. 

[goosie]

9 hours ago, Kobe said:

Very helpful and interesting to hear about where people are landing. I do no need to go down to London, that is true. It's a tough decision. Is most of the class looking to get into some form of business law?

 

From my own anecdotal view I'd say most students enter Western Law with interests in corporate law or corporate-adjacent fields, but lots of people's interests change as they take different classes and get different experience. That being said much of the class does pursue corporate law. That's also a product of Bay Street jobs being seen as the most desirable though, I don't know that it's unique to Western. 

[Kobe]

Thanks everyone and for all the messages I got! I am going to tour Western next week to see how comfortable I am there. The costs seems to be pretty similar Queens has slightly lower tuition but slightly higher rents, I calculated the costs out to be pretty similar. I am thinking I'll just go with the place I feel more comfortable.