UCalgary to BC?

[Hgh1212]

I've been accepted to UCal for 2024. It's the only acceptance I've gotten so far. I'm from BC and I'm conflicted about where I want to end up after law school. On one hand, I love BC and all my family and friends are here. I've lived here my whole life, I even went to UBC for undergrad and lived at home. On the other hand, cost of living in BC is so insane and I feel like it's only getting worse. I know I'm not getting into UBC or UVIC (I screwed around during undergrad and my grades are shit) and I haven't even applied to TRU because I really don't want to go to Kamloops. I guess I still have time to do that though. I feel like I would still choose Calgary over TRU so I'm conflicted about even doing that. I've been to Calgary before and I liked it and it would be easy for my boyfriend to visit me on the weekends there. Kamloops would be much harder to visit.

I love the Calgary curriculum and I'm so excited to live in a new place. I've been toying with the idea of staying in Calgary after law school, but I also really want to come back to BC and practice here. From what I've heard, most students placed in Calgary are from UCalgary (or I guess just Alberta in general?). I don't know about the prospects of getting a job in BC after going to Calgary for school. Does anyone have any information about this or any experience with going to school in Calgary and then going to work in BC? I think I would like to practice business law but further than that, I'm not sure.

I've just read and heard so much conflicting information. So many people say it doesn't matter where you go to school, and others say that you should go to school in the province you want to practice in.

I also want to make it clear that I'm so grateful for this opportunity, I really wasn't sure if I would get accepted anywhere because of my GPA lol and I know beggars can't be choosers. I'm just going a little crazy reading so many things. 

Thanks for reading!

[GoatDuck]

So several things.

One, “it doesn’t matter where you go to school” and “it matters where you go to school” are principles that apply to different issues. Where you go to school matters for establishing connections with the legal market in the province where you want to practice. These connections make it easier for you to network, establish yourself as someone interested in sticking around (which matters in some provinces), and many other things that make it easier to get a job in the province.

Where you go to school doesn’t matter insofar as you can work anywhere you want from any school, provided you’re good enough. “Good enough” does a lot to legwork in this formula. If you goal is Toronto big law and you’re attending TRU, “good enough” will be a much higher standard than if you wanted to work in Calgary while attending USask. The point is, any law school in Canada will provide you with a good legal education, and if you’re okay with playing a more long term game, you can work in any province coming from any law school.

Two, you’ll have to make sacrifices either way. Whether it looks like going to TRU and being far away from your boyfriend or going out UCalgary and dealing with, allegedly, less BC-job security, any decision you make will cost you something and that’s okay. If your stats aren’t competitive, you work with what you can. People here have taught me a good principle: that making any meaningful and authentic decisions in your career involves closing doors.

Three, UCalgary law is a great law school and I would personally pick it over pretty much any other school in Canada 🙂

Four, you may find it helpful to look at firms you’re interested in and search up lawyers by their law school. This will help you to see whether any UCalgary grads work there. You can then reach out to them and ask these questions — very often they’ll be happy to help.