1238 replies to this topic

[WhoWhere]

maybe07 said:

WhoWhere, thanx for setting this up. Hopefully you can run this through your spreadsheet for UT and Oz:

Best 2: 3.98 (87%)
Best 3: 3.85 (89%)
CGPA: 1.20 (scenario 1, no its not a typo)
CGPA: 3.85 (scenario 2)
LSAT: 170

I included 2 CGPA's so you can maybe run them both through - I don't know how the adcomms will treat my (obviously horrible) first attempt at university. Maybe they will include those marks (scenario 1) or they will ignore them (scenario 2).

If they told you to apply under SC you should definetly do so. This way you will be evaluated under the regular and SC category. I am pretty sure that osgoode will use scenario 2 to evaluate your file and will give you an offer.

you should consider applying under SC to all schools that have that category if you have a good reason that would explain your first attempt at university. Also work on your PS and explain in depth why you did so poorly in the begining and emphasize the conditions that lead to the change. However, i believe that with your numbers you will get in to all ontario universities. In any case i can guarantee you that you will be going somewhere to law school in 2007.

[WhoWhere]

Sideout said:

cgpa 3.3
best 2: 85%
lsat: 160

Ottawa: probably not, but anything can happen with the right PS.
Windsor: same as ottawa
Osgoode: If you completed 4 yrs and your best 3 years are at or above 3.6 then yes. Otherwise they will reject you.
Western: good chances of getting in (probably in later stages of the admission process, i predict that you will at least get waitlisted)
Queens: slightly worst chance than at western.
UofT: rejected

[maybe07]

slick_nick,

Osgoode will wait to calculate your final marks. However, there is a big caveat:

Osgoode recently undertook a policy review of their admissions process and one of the publications they put up on their website is a very complete description of their current procedures (which it looks like they are still using, at least this year). Go here:
http://osgoode.yorku.ca/QuickPlace/admi ... enDocument
and check out the "Final Admissions Policy Paper", specifically Appendicies 1 through 3, where it gives the flow chart they use to give offers to Regular Catagory applicants. (I don't know if they intended this for public consumption, but it is on their web site...)

My interpretation of their procedure is that they will calculate your best three years, but ONLY if your blended score (using CGPA, not best 3!!) falls in specific ranges:
January, February Offers: blended 3.8+
March, April Offers: blended 3.7 to 3.79
May to August Offers: blended 3.5 to 3.69

So basically, people with a low cumulative blended score are screwed, no matter how high their "best 3" blended score is. Sad but true. What this amounts to is that Oz will use your best 3 years but they have (in effect) a blended score (using cGPA) cuttoff of 3.5, even though they do not explicitly say that in the admissions section of their website.

Let me know if you interpret those charts a different way. Sorry, that was kinda long.

[WhoWhere]

slick_nick said:

cgpa: 2.8
best 3: 3.10
best 2: 3.36
lsat: 167

I have a question as well. I'm taking 5 years to finish my degree due to switching majors twice and taking much less than a full courseload for most of my first 2 years. I also did very poorly my first two years so my best 3 years is currently about 3.10. If I apply this fall, and have decent marks in the fall term, is there any chance that Osgoode would wait for this year's final marks and recalculate my GPA based on my new best 3 years? I think I could get my best 3 GPA above 3.5 this year since I am taking 6 courses per semester and plan on working very hard. Would 3.5 best 3 and a 167 be good enough for Osgoode?

Osgoode will wait for your final marks but they will have a good amount of people admitted by then. However, there are many people who get accepted after the transcripts get released and after that they finalize the waitlist from which they accept more people. so you can say that there is 3-4 rounds of admission and you will be considered in the 3rd or 4th. For 3.5 your blended score will be somewhere between 3.56-3.6 (depending on whether they will consider 167 as 3.8 or 3.9. If if was this year then you would get admitted as they accepted people upto 3.55. Some people say that next year there will be more applications due the double cohort and that the standards will rise and it is a situation on which i cannot comment. Yet, i believe that you have a good chances of getting in during the later stages of the process.

for ottawa: The CGPA is low and chances are slim
Windsor: Same
western: GPA is low and probably not get admitted
Queens: same as western
UofT: rejected

[WhoWhere]

maybe07 said:

slick_nick,

My interpretation of their procedure is that they will calculate your best three years, but ONLY if your blended score (using CGPA, not best 3!!) falls in specific ranges:
January, February Offers: blended 3.8+
March, April Offers: blended 3.7 to 3.79
May to August Offers: blended 3.5 to 3.69

.

These numbers seem a little too high. Osgoode said that they will not change their policy for this year so they will use best 3 years only if you scored over 77th percentile on the LSAT otherwise they use the CGPA

i think this is more correct (at least this is how it was this year)

January, February Offers: blended 3.65+
March, April Offers: blended 3.6-3.65
May to June: 3.55-3.60
June-August: recalculate GPA using this year's marks, admitted those with the highest blended scored, make up waitlist and let in people from the list based on available space. Cut off was 3.5 for the waitlist this year they dipped to 3.56 (possibly 3.55) on the waitlist

[slick_nick]

Thanks WhoWhere.

[slick_nick]

WhoWhere, one other question. Will Queen's and/or Western consider my fall and/or winter term marks this year? I mean, if they wait untill january to review my file, my last 2 years will become last 2.5 years unless they drop my fall semester from 2 years ago or completely disregard my fall 2006 semester. Furthermore, while my CGPA is not currently above 3.0, it will be at the end of this year if I am able to get something like 3.48 this year. So I assume if I have a good year this year, they would be unlikely to reject a 167 LSAT (probably in the top 15% of their entering class) with a last 2 years around 3.4 as long as my CGPA is 3.0+. Is this correct, or would I have to apply next year for them to fully consider this year's marks?

[CANplanUK]

CGPA: 3.4
Best 2 & 3: 3.5
LSAT: 166

I'm applying to most schools in Ontario, but Ottawa is my first choice, is my cgpa too low?

Thanks WhoWhere!

[maybe07]

WhoWhere said:

maybe07 said:

slick_nick,

My interpretation of their procedure is that they will calculate your best three years, but ONLY if your blended score (using CGPA, not best 3!!) falls in specific ranges:
January, February Offers: blended 3.8+
March, April Offers: blended 3.7 to 3.79
May to August Offers: blended 3.5 to 3.69

.

These numbers seem a little too high. Osgoode said that they will not change their policy for this year so they will use best 3 years only if you scored over 77th percentile on the LSAT otherwise they use the CGPA

i think this is more correct (at least this is how it was this year)

January, February Offers: blended 3.65+
March, April Offers: blended 3.6-3.65
May to June: 3.55-3.60
June-August: recalculate GPA using this year's marks, admitted those with the highest blended scored, make up waitlist and let in people from the list based on available space. Cut off was 3.5 for the waitlist this year they dipped to 3.56 (possibly 3.55) on the waitlist

Ya, I realize that Oz is not changing their policies this year and they will apply the best 3 years calculation if one scores over 77th percentile on the LSAT, but Oz FIRST screens applications based on cGPA blended and only gives candidates the benefit of the best 3 years calculation IF their cGPA blended falls in a specific range. Oz posts this information here:
http://osgoode.yorku.ca/QuickPlace/admi ... enDocument
under their "Final Admissions Policy Paper". The EXACT process currently used by admissions is posted at the end of the document for every catagory. It contains much more information than can be found under the "admissions" portion of their web site. The distinction is subtle, but crutial for those with a competative "last 3" blended and low cGPA blended.

For those that are interested, this document also posts the gpa and lsat averages for every catagory of admission from 2000 to 2005. Also in the document is the startling admission that for regular catagory applicants, "no use" is made of any other factors (read PS and reference letters) besides the "numbers", though I guess we all figured this anyway.

As for the exact range of the numbers, my assumption is that the ranges supplied in the document were those used two years ago when Oz was using the 4.33 blended scale and the ranges are a little lower now to reflect their move to the 4.0 scale. Or maybe they publish these data and procedures and don't follow them very strictly...

[limz]

WhoWhere said:

maybe07 said:

slick_nick,

My interpretation of their procedure is that they will calculate your best three years, but ONLY if your blended score (using CGPA, not best 3!!) falls in specific ranges:
January, February Offers: blended 3.8+
March, April Offers: blended 3.7 to 3.79
May to August Offers: blended 3.5 to 3.69

.

These numbers seem a little too high. Osgoode said that they will not change their policy for this year so they will use best 3 years only if you scored over 77th percentile on the LSAT otherwise they use the CGPA

i think this is more correct (at least this is how it was this year)

January, February Offers: blended 3.65+
March, April Offers: blended 3.6-3.65
May to June: 3.55-3.60
June-August: recalculate GPA using this year's marks, admitted those with the highest blended scored, make up waitlist and let in people from the list based on available space. Cut off was 3.5 for the waitlist this year they dipped to 3.56 (possibly 3.55) on the waitlist

whowhere,

i certainly hope you're right about this range. the numbers that maybe07 looked a little high, but i believe they were from the previous 4.3 scale (I recall first round acceptance there was 3.8).

[WhoWhere]

slick_nick said:

WhoWhere, one other question. Will Queen's and/or Western consider my fall and/or winter term marks this year? I mean, if they wait untill january to review my file, my last 2 years will become last 2.5 years unless they drop my fall semester from 2 years ago or completely disregard my fall 2006 semester. Furthermore, while my CGPA is not currently above 3.0, it will be at the end of this year if I am able to get something like 3.48 this year. So I assume if I have a good year this year, they would be unlikely to reject a 167 LSAT (probably in the top 15% of their entering class) with a last 2 years around 3.4 as long as my CGPA is 3.0+. Is this correct, or would I have to apply next year for them to fully consider this year's marks?

I think that they would wait for both your fall/winter marks to calculate your best 2 years but they will use your fall marks as they become available and include it into your CGPA. I am not 100% sure whether or not they drop grades on a semester basis, so you should probably call them in regards to their policy. Also, i believe that they use the last 60 credits (or so) and not 4 semesters because some people can take 1 or 2 classes in their last year, therefore they would not use the 4.0 that you got in the last semester for one class and combine in with your GPA from the previous year.

You are in fact correct about having a very good chance if your last 2 years fall in the 3.4-3.5 range with your LSAT. It would be best to give them a call and check how they would calculate your best 2 years.

[WhoWhere]

CANplanUK said:

CGPA: 3.4
Best 2 & 3: 3.5
LSAT: 166

I'm applying to most schools in Ontario, but Ottawa is my first choice, is my cgpa too low?

Thanks WhoWhere!

Ottawa: The CGPA is low but apply anyways and work well on your PS and you may get in.
Windsor: same as ottawa
Western: Probably in
Queens: Probably in
Osgoode: Your blended score is between 3.56-3.6 (depending on how they will calculate your LSAT). So you have a chance of getting in depending on the calculation of your blended GPA. In this year's cycle you would get admitted with those numbers but the standards can change next year depending on the pool of applicants.
UofT:rejected

[vrm]

cgpa: 3.65
(only a 3 year ba)
lsat: havent written it yet but lets say 159, since i seem stuck on that number
where in ontario can I get in?

[WhoWhere]

vrm said:

cgpa: 3.65
(only a 3 year ba)
lsat: havent written it yet but lets say 159, since i seem stuck on that number
where in ontario can I get in?

Ottawa: Many people have gotten in with these numbers (work well on your PS)
Windsor: same as ottawa + must have some ECs and WE
Western: Probably In
Queens: Probably In (at least waitlisted)
Osgoode: Decent chance in later rounds
UofT: rejected

[sblaw]

4 year honours degree

cpga = 2.9
last 3 = 3.6
last 2 = 3.83

lsat = 160

[sblaw]

correction cpga = 3.3

[Noosh]

Howdy.


LSAT: 170
CGPA: 3.65

Last 2 years: ~ 3.9 ?

[WhoWhere]

sblaw said:

4 year honours degree

cpga = 2.9
last 3 = 3.6
last 2 = 3.83

lsat = 160

ottawa: Questionable as CGPA is slow. Depends on the content of the PS and ECs and WE
Windsor: same as ottawa
Western: In
Queens: In
Osgoode: Most likely in
UofT: rejected

[WhoWhere]

Noosh said:

Howdy.


LSAT: 170
CGPA: 3.65

Last 2 years: ~ 3.9 ?

Ottawa: 95% in (anything can happen)
Windsor: same as ottawa
Queens: In
western: In
Osgoode: In
UofT: In

[Noosh]

Ops. According to the U of T system, its not a 3.65, thats the SFU one, but its 3.56

[bry]

CGPA: 3.65
Last 2 years: 3.75
LSAT: 161

Applying to Queen's, Western, Ottawa (1st choice), and Dal

[Waller073]

CGPA: 3.55
Last 2: 3.67
Lsat: 162
Attend Univ. of Ottawa
Lots of EC's and volunteer at the school
applying to western, queens, uottawa
thoughts?

[pencil-skirt]

maybe07 said:

My interpretation of their procedure is that they will calculate your best three years, but ONLY if your blended score (using CGPA, not best 3!!) falls in specific ranges:
January, February Offers: blended 3.8+
March, April Offers: blended 3.7 to 3.79
May to August Offers: blended 3.5 to 3.69

how does this admission schedule at osgoode apply to their special circumstances and/or access applicants? if your blended is less than 3.69, but you are in one of those categories, do you have any chance of hearing before may? gosh that is so crazy late....

[sarahh]

maybe07 said:

January, February Offers: blended 3.8+
March, April Offers: blended 3.7 to 3.79
May to August Offers: blended 3.5 to 3.69

Apparently if you have a 3.75 blended you don't get in at all!

[WhoWhere]

bry said:

CGPA: 3.65
Last 2 years: 3.75
LSAT: 161

Applying to Queen's, Western, Ottawa (1st choice), and Dal

Queens: In
Western: In
Ottawa: Probably in, but also depends on other factors
Dal: In

[WhoWhere]

Waller073 said:

CGPA: 3.55
Last 2: 3.67
Lsat: 162
Attend Univ. of Ottawa
Lots of EC's and volunteer at the school
applying to western, queens, uottawa
thoughts?

Queens: In
Western: In
Ottawa: Write a good PS, mention all the EC's and volunteering and you will probably get admitted

[WhoWhere]

pencil-skirt said:

maybe07 said:

My interpretation of their procedure is that they will calculate your best three years, but ONLY if your blended score (using CGPA, not best 3!!) falls in specific ranges:
January, February Offers: blended 3.8+
March, April Offers: blended 3.7 to 3.79
May to August Offers: blended 3.5 to 3.69

how does this admission schedule at osgoode apply to their special circumstances and/or access applicants? if your blended is less than 3.69, but you are in one of those categories, do you have any chance of hearing before may? gosh that is so crazy late....

they consider you first in the regular category (so if you have a 3.65 you will probably hear before may).

[pencil-skirt]

But if you don't have that high a blended, do they honestly not consider "special circumstances" or "access" applicants whose stats are not high enough to get in through the regular stream until May? That seems like a good way to discourage people with non-traditional circumstances from coming to Osgoode, especially since in their paper on admissions reforms, they are trying to get more out of province students. Who can move cross-country if they don't get admitted til July? Maybe some people, but certainly it must be a deterrent!

[ouchitburns]

171, 3.83 LSDAS

[Noosh]

you're in everywhere