What was your “law school did not prepare me for this” moment?
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Hegdis, in General Discussion
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By Luckycharm · Posted
"similar wealth to my own what they were getting" Do they also have similar available resources, expenses, accumulated educational debts and personal reasons....... "The primary criterion for receipt of a bursary is financial need. Decisions are made based on a variety of considerations, including available resources, expenses, accumulated educational debt and personal factors, including medical and familial circumstances. -
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Academic: Going to echo The Scientist because he usually always explains UOttawa's depth quite well. Our faculty size for the English Section is the largest with 50+ fulltimes, 30 part time (technically, in reality they have job functions non-purely academic but teach courses, since we have non-JD stuff like the National Program for training QC lawyers in commonlaw, a bunch of faculty-run legal clinics/public interest groups intervening in the SCC, etc. ). Research at the faculty is also pretty strong but the university isn't that good at branding itself; e.g. our environmental law faculty has the most depth including the very best career lawyers in Canada and our tech law faculty has the most influential people in Canada for tech-related areas of law. We have people from the foremost torts scholar in Canada (former dean too) and a former Attorney General teaching 1Ls. Other positive notes: Significant amount of panels, talks, issues and engaging topics. This ranges from the obvious SCC lawyers/Federal Courts cases where a bunch of lawyers go from the court house to panels at UOttawa, many corporate lawyers from Ottawa/Toronto, many specific interest groups (Aboriginal law, feminist law, technology law, federal law, public international law etc) and many visiting lawyers and academics in Ottawa. The thing about Ottawa is that it functions as a sort of "gathering place" for people from all across Canada/the world so there's lots of big events in town where some people also do things at UO. We also have a strong "revolving door" of sessional instructors, you will very likely get one per semester. They are usually hits but they are also working people with full jobs and a law graduate degree (e.g. the guy who teaches my course is an awesome first-timer and went to HYS school for an LLM). They are also fantastic people to talk to for career advice. Downsides: We do not have nearly the depth as Queens or a few schools in advanced corporate law courses; classes can be very full sometimes (50-60 per class is typical). Community: Upsides: More mature community than other law schools, like 30% of the class has had career experience or a graduate degree and the average age is like 25-26. While the majority just got out of undergrad, the two groups mix quite well. I've known many people who worked for the Feds or Prov government, worked in Bay Street, did advanced research MSc's, etc. I have honestly learned alot from my classmates and each bring great life experience. We have lots of student groups; arguably many of the X Field of Law Students Association do not do regular events except panels and bake sales but you will find lots of proactive interest-specific groups/clubs/event organizations. Getting engaged in student life can be very tricky but it requires looking in the right place. We also got to meet the SCC at an event hosted on their lawn; it was fantastic. The Faculty seems to be the most well-connected in Canada. Downsides: Overcrowded building; they shuffle a lot of undergrads into a few rooms and they are often in our libraries. Alot of law students were pushing for a ban of undergrads. Civ Law also uses our space and we operate like two parallel worlds. The community is less tied together; there is definitely a weaker sense of community outside of your large group (70-80) or small section (15-20). Part of this is due to the inept law student society imo and the lack of community-building events of the orientation which did not have any social events. They virtually guarantee that cliques will (and has always) formed just by the nature of how they structured the first week. English Common Law have far few events that bring people together and French Common Law (1/5th the class) are pretty much in their own bubble. Civil Law tends to dominate the libraries though; hard-working but we have basically parallel worlds. I honestly think this can be fixed by just giving us our own student spaces and lounge areas; offices and rooms for student groups and making it appear more community-friendly. They were supposed to give us a new building a while back but UOttawa instead spent it elsewhere. Taking proactive effort in the first 3 weeks with community-making social events and breaking the barriers that develop is also something the admin can do. Other Notes: It can feel like "Going to Work" in some sense; our school is probably less student-focused given the school plays a significant functional role for the legal profession, Canada, and specific interests/issues. For example there was an event honoring a great Ontario judge attended by many lawyers and well-to-do judiciary members including the SCC right beside my evening class; it was definitely open to all students though. -
By ImposterSyndrome · Posted
Generally speaking, of a 4-year degree, U of C considers only the last 2 years-worth of courses (last 60 of a total of 120 credits). Regardless of whether they transfer or not. If you went to a university outside of Canada, then you will want to contact admissions with your specifics. -
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