Does difficulty of classes taken in undergrad effect admissions chances?

[xj1998]

For example I often took 4 classes and in my upper years would take lower level classes as well as some upper level ones each semester. Will this effect admission decisions to any serious degree ?

[Telephantasm]

Some schools take into account class/program difficulty. U of T, for example, explicitly states that it will do so. Frankly, it makes sense to me that an adcomm should consider difficulty, too. If one students averages a 3.85 in a six-course per semester, low-average engineering program and another student averages a 3.87 having only taken four courses per semester in a program with higher averages, to me it's patent that, notwithstanding the .2 point drop for the former student's GPA, the former student has performed better in the circumstances. The same holds for students who attend schools/programs with notoriously inflated grades. I had some friends in law school who bragged to me about their 90+% undergraduate averages at such schools/programs who then bombed relative to others with lower averages from programs/schools with stricter curves.

All the above is to say is that, adcomms are generally attuned to program and school difficulty. Regardless of whether one took a lighter course load for GPA boosting purposes, comparable success in more difficult programs typically suggests better preparedness for the rigour of law school, where everyone is more-or-less on a level playing field workload-wise.

I'll note, however, that often people have good reasons for taking lighter course loads, and adcomms are similarly attuned to such explanations. For example, I had to take time to care for a relative during undergrad, and noted as much on my personal statement. I'm not sure how much it helped, but I got offers where I wanted offers.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Telephantasm

[Apple]

I took all second and third year course in my last year of undergrad. I was admitted to Osgoode day one and Western and Ottawa within the first week of admissions. Queen's is the only one I didn't hear from, and never did. So, that may be assistive to you. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Apple

[MapleLeafs]

I took multiple first year classes during my final year of undergrad and got accepted to multiple Ontario schools. 

[xj1998]

On 9/21/2021 at 12:53 PM, MapleLeafs said:

I took multiple first year classes during my final year of undergrad and got accepted to multiple Ontario schools. 

Which schools? 

 

(go leafs)