UofT vs UCalgary

[hihihi]

Hi everyone! I'm torn between these two schools and would love to hear any thoughts others might have. 

Factors I'm considering:

- I'm interested in corporate law. While I am interested in Big Law now, I have no clue whether this will change as I begin taking courses and exploring the legal field.

- I'm not certain where I want to settle in the future. I currently live in Calgary and would love to live in Toronto for a few years. However, I'm not certain whether I will want to stay there forever. At the same time, I'm also not certain whether I want to settle in Calgary permanently.

- Cost: Calgary is significantly cheaper, both tuition and cost of living wise.

- Future opportunities: Toronto has more prestige. While I know going to the school in the market you want to practice in is more valuable than prestige, I wonder if going to UofT will open more international doors that are closed if I go to UCalgary.

While these are the factors I know about, I would love to hear anything about either school! Community, professors, etc.

[goodisgood]

It'd probably be easier to move from Toronto back to Calgary if you've got both options in front of you. UofT Law talks about international opportunities with their program here: https://www.law.utoronto.ca/academic-programs/jd-program/international-opportunities and I suspect (but have not confirmed) that they have more partnerships with universities for exchange programs compared to UCalgary. 

But as you noted, that comes at great financial cost (both tuition and rent is crazy in Toronto). 

Before you make a decision, why don't you try to find some corporate lawyers on LinkedIn that you can chat with on Zoom or something? Both from Calgary and Toronto. Get a feel for what a day in the life is like for them, what their advice would be in your position, and try to understand at a high level the work they do and what makes it interesting for them. If nothing they say appeals to you, that may be a sign that you don't actually want to do corporate law -- then the equation becomes more complicated because going to UofT essentially means you have to do corporate law or some other high paying area of law. 

Cast as wide a net as you can and think of other areas you may be interested in too. Technology, IP (if you come from an engineering/science background), Sports Law, Construction Law, Real Estate, there are a lot of areas that you could look into if you want.