Canadian Law School Rankings

Using law school rankings to help you decide which LLM course to choose in Canada to apply for is a good starting point, however be careful as it can be rather complicated and challenging!

A quick online search will reveal a long list of different rankings all vying for your attention. But are they all important? And are they all useful?

To put it simply, you need to accept that you may find some Canadian law school rankings more useful than others.

Here is a list of the best ranked Canadian law schools according to University Magazine – please note, some universities in Canada use a Grade Point Average (GPA) out of 4 and others use a GPA out of 100.

Ranking	Canadian Law School	Average LSAT	Average GPA
1	University of Toronto	166	3.8
2	McGill University	162	85%
3	University of British Columbia	166	83%
4	Your University	165	3.67
5	University of Windsor	155	3.7
6	University of Alberta	161	3.7
7	University of Ottawa	159	82%
8	Dalhousie University	160	3.7
9	Queen’s University at Kingston	161	3.7
10	University of Calgary	162	3.6

Source

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Different rankings reveal different facts

What Canadian law school rankings you turn to will depend on what you are looking for. Do you want to know how the Canadian law school you are considering sits within a Canadian, North American or Global context? Or do you just want to know what current and past LLM students felt about their education?

If it’s a global picture that you’re after you could try using a worldwide ranking system like QS World University Rankings by Subject will help you narrow down which law schools in Canada have an excellent global reputation. Organisations like QS World Rankings or Times Higher Education publish their results annually, so you know the information you are looking at is current.

If you are more interested in law schools in a strictly Canadian context, then try sources like University Magazine who publish the rankings produced by Academics Major each year.

Questions you need to ask yourself about Canadian law school rankings are issues like what data do they use? Some law school rankings use student questionnaires, others use information from the law school administration, and yet more use a combination of questionnaires and academic publications.

Just because a law school in Canada is highly respected doesn't mean that it is the perfect law school for you. Check what the academic staff specialise in, where have the worked before and what do they advise on or what research have they published recently? This is easily done on the law school's website, for example the McGill University’s website has plenty of useful information about its Faculty of Law.

You should also bear in mind that a higher ranked Canadian law school may demand higher tuition fees.

How to use rankings

Again, how you choose to use the rankings depends again on what you are looking for. Do you just want to know about academic results? Are you interested in what the academic staff have published recently and what current students think of the facilities? Or are you more interested in the atmosphere of the campus? In which case there are rankings about all sorts of interesting aspects of Canadian law schools such as student satisfaction or how safe the campus is considered by students?

Alternatively, you might want to look at the current graduate employment figures six months after completing the course or view the expected salaries that graduates gain on average after five years. Once you've found a relevant ranking check to see how it was compiled, and if it was created from student questionnaires, and if so, how many students were actually contacted? A quick look through the methodology should easily tell you if the ranking is of any use to you.

What to check for

Check your rankings to see if it is only a ranking of JD results, as ideally you will want to see more about the postgraduate or LLM course rankings. Does the law school promote its position in a particular ranking list, like the University of Toronto? If so, then it is probably an academically respected ranking, but have a look and see how it was compiled.

Keep an eye out for a law school that suddenly pops up high on a ranking list, especially if the list is from online student reviews as in some cases these can be tampered with by different groups leading to inaccurate results.

Canadian Law School Rankings

What additional information should look for?

Check to see if the law school you're considering is only well placed in law subject area league tables, or if the wider institution also places well. If it does, then you have probably found a robust academic environment to attend, but that doesn't mean an institution with an outstanding law department only should be avoided. It's all about what is right for you.

Look at how the law school places in other non-academic areas too, perhaps in sporting events or artistic or cultural pursuits. This will give you an idea of the atmosphere of the campus and what else of value is going on.

Make a checklist of what’s important to you then research into the different law schools to choose one that reflects your interests and priorities the best. Different aspects of the law school – such as the number of journals published or the amount of student organisations that you could join may be of importance to you.

Canadian Law School	Journals Published	Student Organisations
Dalhousie University	3	33
McGill University	10	41
Queen’s University	1	1 (200 in the university)
University of Alberta	3	28
University of British Columbia	2	4
University of Calgary	1	28
University of Manitoba	1	1 (117 in the university)
University of New Brunswick	1	12
University of Ottawa	1	1 (250 in the university)
University of Saskatchewan	1	12
University of Toronto	11	46
University of Victoria	1	23
University of Western Ontario	2	2 (180 in the university)
University of Windsor	2	46
York University	1	61

Sources: 1 & 2

Find out about the LLM courses

In Canada, you will want to make sure that you are studying the correct type of law as the province of Quebec uses Civil Law, whereas the rest of Canada uses a Common Law system based on the British legal system and an Aboriginal Law system that governs people such as the Inuit, First Nations and Métis people. Law schools in Canada often offer courses in both systems – but it’s good to double-check.

It's a good idea to find out if the LLM course that you want to study is well respected within its field, and this is best found out by speaking with people working in the field. If you yourself are already working in the right field either in paid employment or as an intern, then this research should be easy to undertake.

Try and speak with lawyers who are where you want to be career-wise in five or ten years, and check that the LLM course you are considering seems like the right career move.

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