TMU VS Ottawa

[LOUISLITT123]

Hey Everyone,

Was just looking to get some advice about if Ottawa or TMU would be a better choice for me.

TMU automatically I understand has its downfalls due to its age as a school.

For me, the only things holding me to TMU have been the location being in Toronto and I can commute from home. Total about one hour each way and I have some family business in Toronto so I was hoping to keep helping with that. Both those are negligible if Ottawa is a much better option though. So was looking to get some advice from you guys.

[DreamBig]

If I were you I would pick TMU for a majority of the reasons you listed. TMU has a great professional program and sets you up with networking really well. A lot of their professors are judges and lawyers and they truly help teach law in a very practical way. Plus you will be saving A LOT of money that can be used for textbooks or even for your tuition. Law school is expensive but saving on at least rent is a major deal. 
 

Every law school is great, we just need to narrow down which schools can help us the most! Good Luck!

[soundofconfusion]

52 minutes ago, DreamBig said:

If I were you I would pick TMU for a majority of the reasons you listed. TMU has a great professional program and sets you up with networking really well. A lot of their professors are judges and lawyers

 

Every single law school in Canada has adjunct practitioners (judges among them) teach a fair few courses. I don't know what TMU's ratio of practitioner-taught versus academic-taught courses is, but I wouldn't imagine it's very different from any other school's, certainly not enough to be a particularly relevant selling point.

52 minutes ago, DreamBig said:

 Plus you will be saving A LOT of money that can be used for textbooks or even for your tuition. Law school is expensive but saving on at least rent is a major deal.

This is a really good point and you were right to emphasize it.

52 minutes ago, DreamBig said:

Every law school is great, we just need to narrow down which schools can help us the most! Good Luck!

Every law school in Canada is at the least just fine. Some are good to very good (I'm purely talking about perceived average student quality/outcomes, not educational quality; they're pretty uniformly good on that). And there are lots of practice areas where (Canadian) school choice ends up being irrelevant. You're also right to put an emphasis on what school best fits the applicant's personal circumstances (yes, OP, it sounds like you should go to TMU) rather than what's "best" in the abstract. That is, by far, the most important thing.

But there are reputational differences between some schools, and, depending on your goals and profile, that can matter. I get you probably don't mean to do anything but encourage and congratulate OP and I'm sorry to sound like a pedantic joy-crushing ass here; I just want to flag that for the benefit of applicants and admits who don't know much about law schools and who might read this later.

Edited Monday at 12:58 AM by soundofconfusion

[canuckfanatic]

15 hours ago, soundofconfusion said:

certainly not enough to be a particularly relevant selling point.

When I was at TRU, having too many lawyers/judges as adjuncts was actually a criticism. It was a sign that TRU didn't have enough full time profs.

Having practicing lawyers/retired judges teach electives is great. Having them teach core courses is a bit of an issue.