Lived in Alberta and Nova Scotia. How does Kamloops compare?

[canuckfanatic]

16 minutes ago, legal2024 said:

Wait, so if you get a JD from any Canadian law school, then you can write a bar exam in Cali and practice in Cali without being in a US ABA law school, Hmm.. I thought you needed to study in an ABA-approved law school, to write the bar exam in the US, especially for writing the CALI bar exam and practicing there  

The process is more complicated than what I wrote in my brief comment.

You don't need to get a US JD to write the bar exam in Cali, you do need to:

• show that your Canadian JD is "equivalent to a Juris Doctor (JD) degree awarded by an American Bar Association (ABA)-approved or California-accredited law school in the U.S."; and
• complete "a year of law study at an ABA-approved law school or a law school accredited by the committee in the areas of law as outlined in the committee’s “Guidelines for Implementation of Chapter 2, Rule 4.30" of the admissions rules" - which includes 20 credits at an ABA approved LLM program.

https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Requirements/Education/Legal-Education/Foreign-Education

[legal2024]

10 minutes ago, canuckfanatic said:

The process is more complicated than what I wrote in my brief comment.

You don't need to get a US JD to write the bar exam in Cali, you do need to:

• show that your Canadian JD is "equivalent to a Juris Doctor (JD) degree awarded by an American Bar Association (ABA)-approved or California-accredited law school in the U.S."; and
• complete "a year of law study at an ABA-approved law school or a law school accredited by the committee in the areas of law as outlined in the committee’s “Guidelines for Implementation of Chapter 2, Rule 4.30" of the admissions rules" - which includes 20 credits at an ABA approved LLM program.

https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Requirements/Education/Legal-Education/Foreign-Education

So yeah, that's what I thought we need to study another year at an ABA-approved law school after three years of studying in a Canadian law school and completing the JD, and also we don't  know for certain if our JD is equivalent to a US JD or at least which law school JD in Canada is equivalent to the US JD, I guess it is better to start and finish law school in states if someone is planning to practice in States 

[canuckfanatic]

27 minutes ago, legal2024 said:

we don't  know for certain if our JD is equivalent to a US JD or at least which law school JD in Canada is equivalent to the US JD

I'd be surprised if they rejected any Canadian school on this basis. I know Cali-called lawyers from law schools across Canada. This is not a significant barrier to entry for Canadian graduates.

Another path might be to write the NY bar, get licensed there, then apply to write the Cali bar under the "Attorney" category. I haven't looked into it much, but at first glance it seems to bypass the ABA education requirement.

27 minutes ago, legal2024 said:

I guess it is better to start and finish law school in states if someone is planning to practice in States 

This is true. But due to the States' overabundance of schools and ranking system, not every school there is worth attending.

If you dream about working in NYC for example, Detroit Mercy isn't going to get you there.

Edited March 21 by canuckfanatic

[Tesseract]

Visit the schools? 

When I was accepted to TRU I went over there to take a look. The building is brand new, like a concrete fortress which is nice.. but that was about it. Campus was extremely tiny (I did undergrad at a large school so this might be subjective) and Kamloops as a whole was pretty trippy.

Just getting around was a challenge, tons of windy roads and steep elevation changes. It seems as if you are ALWAYS either driving up or down a hill. Its kinda weird, would definitely suggest you go check it out before committing. I would likely pick Windsor or Calgary over it. Windsor is close to Detroit so you can hop over into the US anytime, and they just completed a multi-year renovation so everything is new with the building. The dual program is expensive, but if you can afford it that doesn't matter, and if you do well you can work anywhere. 

[canuckfanatic]

24 minutes ago, Tesseract said:

if you can afford it that doesn't matter

I'd argue that even if you can afford it, it's a pretty poor financial decision to pay 2-3x the cost of TRU/Calgary for the dual JD.

25 minutes ago, Tesseract said:

if you do well you can work anywhere

If you're referring to the US, that's an overstatement. If you do well in the Dual JD program, you can work anywhere in Canada (relying on the Windsor JD), where as the Detroit Mercy JD will land you at some small/regional firms in Detroit.

https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/schools/detroit-mercy/jobs

Unless you're willing to pay 2-3x tuition for access to the Detroit job market, it's not at all a good choice over TRU or U of C.

[canuckfanatic]

34 minutes ago, Tesseract said:

The building is brand new, like a concrete fortress which is nice

Also, just because I found this perspective odd, how did you visit this and think of it as a "concrete fortress"?

[Tesseract]

3 hours ago, canuckfanatic said:

If you're referring to the US, that's an overstatement. If you do well in the Dual JD program, you can work anywhere in Canada (relying on the Windsor JD), where as the Detroit Mercy JD will land you at some small/regional firms in Detroit.

https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/schools/detroit-mercy/jobs

Unless you're willing to pay 2-3x tuition for access to the Detroit job market, it's not at all a good choice over TRU or U of C.

This is a Canadian law forum, so I am referring to Canada, and my statement is correct. However if you want to look at the US, yes you can land at a national firm if you do well enough. Going there does not preclude you from working at a national firm, many other factors at play there. 

Additionally, I thought of it as a concrete fortress because thats exactly what it is. A large industrial building made of concrete, steel and glass with some wood trim here and there for decoration. 

See the several exposed concrete walls in the background: 

 

 

[ZineZ]

This is a very odd squabble about whether a building is or isn't a concrete fortress. Though I will say that if we're basing that question on whether the building is "made of concrete, steel and glass" or has "exposed concrete walls", we may have too broad of a definition.

OP - I agree entirely with @canuckfanatic about TRU over the Dual JD, FWIW. There's been...many heated discussions about that dual program in the past on the forum. If you search for them, it can provide some more information. 
 

[lunchbox]

On 1/3/2024 at 10:36 AM, cuincourt2027 said:

, and have heard that TRU is great at connecting students who want to work back in Calgary with jobs/articling positions.

https://ultravires.ca/2022/12/calgary-summer-2023-2l-recruit-numbers/
 

 

Here you can view the exact number of students who were placed in 2L at firms in Calgary from different law schools in 2023. TRU only placed 2 students in Calgary so I am not sure if TRU is the pick over a school in Alberta such as Calgary which played 23 students.

[canuckfanatic]

1 hour ago, Tesseract said:

This is a Canadian law forum, so I am referring to Canada, and my statement is correct. However if you want to look at the US, yes you can land at a national firm if you do well enough.

Going back to your other comment, "if you do well you can go anywhere". I had to ask if you were referring to Canada, because that statement is true for all Canadian schools. It's a horrible reason to spend 2-3x the tuition cost of TRU or Calgary.

As for "you can land at a [US] national firm if you do well enough", the stats show that 8.3% of the 2022 class got jobs at national firms. 9.9% of the same class are unemployed. 53% of the class ended up at small or regional firms. The odds are that OP (or anyone who attends the Detroit Mercy) will be an average student and find jobs at small or regional firms.

There's nothing wrong with that outcome. My point is that the US JD from Detroit Mercy isn't worth gambling $150,000 in tuition fees on.

As an aside, I hate the "if you do well you can go anywhere" sentiment when advising strangers on this forum. It's not useful to advise people based on the best possible outcome. It's far more realistic/pragmatic/helpful to assume the person you're advising will be somewhere in the middle of their class.

Edited March 22 by canuckfanatic

[HarryCrane]

54 minutes ago, lunchbox said:

https://ultravires.ca/2022/12/calgary-summer-2023-2l-recruit-numbers/
 

 

Here you can view the exact number of students who were placed in 2L at firms in Calgary from different law schools in 2023. TRU only placed 2 students in Calgary so I am not sure if TRU is the pick over a school in Alberta such as Calgary which played 23 students.

I would submit to you that TRU didn’t have many people apply for the 2L Calgary recruit in 2023, so looking at raw numbers is not the best metric. 

[Lawstudents20202020]

1 hour ago, ZineZ said:

Though I will say that if we're basing that question on whether the building is "made of concrete, steel and glass" or has "exposed concrete walls", we may have too broad of a definition.

It seems very Diogenes and the chicken.

[canuckfanatic]

4 minutes ago, Lawstudents20202020 said:

It seems very Diogenes and the chicken.

How fortress-y did it feel when we were there? For my dollar, there were too few battlements.

[Lawstudents20202020]

Just now, canuckfanatic said:

How fortress-y did it feel when we were there? For my dollar, there were too few battlements.

A significant lack of murder holes if you ask me. We couldn't even keep out the undergrads let alone a marauding army.

[BlockedQuebecois]

11 hours ago, Tesseract said:

Just getting around was a challenge, tons of windy roads and steep elevation changes. It seems as if you are ALWAYS either driving up or down a hill.

I can't believe y'all are arguing about whether the building is a fortress and ignoring the fact that Tesseract is afraid of hills? 

[Lawstudents20202020]

@BlockedQuebecoisI live in the Okanagan, prairie transplants being scared of small hills and slight turns no longer surprises me.

[canuckfanatic]

4 hours ago, BlockedQuebecois said:

I can't believe y'all are arguing about whether the building is a fortress and ignoring the fact that Tesseract is afraid of hills? 

I didn't want to belabour it, but I thought it was hilarious.

It's almost as if the school is on the side of a mountain, overlooking a valley 🤔

[Tesseract]

20 hours ago, canuckfanatic said:

Going back to your other comment, "if you do well you can go anywhere". I had to ask if you were referring to Canada, because that statement is true for all Canadian schools. It's a horrible reason to spend 2-3x the tuition cost of TRU or Calgary.

As for "you can land at a [US] national firm if you do well enough", the stats show that 8.3% of the 2022 class got jobs at national firms. 9.9% of the same class are unemployed. 53% of the class ended up at small or regional firms. The odds are that OP (or anyone who attends the Detroit Mercy) will be an average student and find jobs at small or regional firms.

There's nothing wrong with that outcome. My point is that the US JD from Detroit Mercy isn't worth gambling $150,000 in tuition fees on.

As an aside, I hate the "if you do well you can go anywhere" sentiment when advising strangers on this forum. It's not useful to advise people based on the best possible outcome. It's far more realistic/pragmatic/helpful to assume the person you're advising will be somewhere in the middle of their class.

I think what you mean to write is: "I didn't have to ask because I already knew the answer, but I asked anyways."

So the stats show that you what I said is correct? Thanks for your help with that. Obviously they are likely to end up near the middle of their class, but you said that they would not place at a national firm if they attended there, which is not true. There is always a chance. I'd quote you but you've edited every single post you've made in this thread. 

I get it, you went to TRU and you wanna promote this school and Kamloops. Feel free to, I just recommend not attacking every person that doesn't share your views, there are a ton of places i'd rather live than Kamloops and since I have actually visited theres nothing wrong with me giving my honest take on it. Odd place.

14 hours ago, BlockedQuebecois said:

I can't believe y'all are arguing about whether the building is a fortress and ignoring the fact that Tesseract is afraid of hills? 

Considering OP is Alberta born and raised, this is extremely important info. Driving over there is like being on a Hot Wheels track, its almost funny that people decide to live there voluntarily imo. 

[canuckfanatic]

1 hour ago, Tesseract said:

but you said that they would not place at a national firm if they attended there, which is not true

I said, in my not edited comment:

On 3/21/2024 at 3:46 PM, canuckfanatic said:

the Detroit Mercy JD will land you at some small/regional firms in Detroit

Which is the probable outcome. Your commment, that with the Detroit Mercy JD, OP can "work anywhere" and that the Detroit Mercy JD "does not preclude" OP from landing at a national US firm encourages OP to gamble $150,000 in tuition fees on 8.3% odds. You can keep saying that you're "technically correct" because it's possible, but that is not a defense against my argument that it's shitty advice.

1 hour ago, Tesseract said:

There is always a chance.

There's a chance that my 9-leg March Madness parlay will hit and I can retire early, but I wouldn't advise other people make the same decision.

1 hour ago, Tesseract said:

I'd quote you but you've edited every single post you've made in this thread. 

You can only edit posts for the first hour they're up. You've always responded more than an hour later. My comments have not changed since you responded to them. And, in any event, none of the edits were substantive.

1 hour ago, Tesseract said:

I get it, you went to TRU and you wanna promote this school and Kamloops. I just recommend not attacking every person that doesn't share your views

I advised OP to go to U of C. I've also said elsewhere on this forum that TRU doesn't make much sense as a "first choice" school (unless you're from Kamloops). I'll say again though, that it's a significantly better option, financially, than the Dual JD at Windsor.

I did thoroughly enjoy my time there and liked living in Kamloops, but then again I'm from Vancouver so I'm not so easily confused by hills.

[canuckfanatic]

@cuincourt2027 I feel the need to apologize for participating in the devolution of this thread. I hope you harvested something useful from all of this

[Chewy]

Let's get this thread back on topic.

Kamloops sucks. 

[FlyingFish]

10 hours ago, Chewy said:

Let's get this thread back on topic.

Kamloops sucks. 

Agreed. I am a BC resident who went to school in Edmonton. I would say that out of the "major" cities in BC and Alberta, Kamloops might be the worst (competes with Prince George and Red Deer).