Admissions FAQ

JD stands for Juris Doctor. It is the degree designation the Henry N.R Jackman Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto uses for its undergraduate bachelor of law degree program. Nearly all other Canadian common law schools use this degree designation, a few continue to use the degree designation LLB (Bachelor of Law).

The JD degree is a law degree designation that is typically granted to students who receive a legal education after they have completed an undergraduate degree. On the other hand, the LLB is typically granted after completion of a legal education that is obtained following graduation from high school, which is the case in virtually all other Commonwealth jurisdictions. The JD degree designation is intended to bring the Henry N.R Jackman Faculty of Law into line with international standards for second-degree law programs.

The University of Toronto feels that the JD degree designation more accurately reflects the educational accomplishments of the vast majority of the Faculty's graduates who enter with at least one university degree (approximately 20% now enter our law school with graduate degrees as well). In addition, the JD is viewed as providing our graduates with a more competitive degree designation. This is particularly important for the increasing numbers of Jackman Law students and graduates who choose to work or study outside Canada.

There are no majors or minors in our JD program. After the completion of the mandatory first-year, in the upper years select the individual courses that satisfy your interests and goals. The JD is designed to provide the foundation to proceed to any area of common law practice.

For questions about specializing your studies and careers, see the Career Development Office's Frequently Asked Questions.

Law schools provide legal education, they do not license lawyers. In order to practice in another country with your Canadian JD, you must consult with the lawyer licensing agency/authority in that country. From the agency/authority ascertain the specific legal education and legal experience that must be attained in order be licensed in that country.

The Jackman Law JD degree is not an American JD degree. It is a Canadian JD degree designation. The Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law is not approved by the American Bar Association (nor is any Canadian law school). "ABA" approval is often a pre-requisite for admission to practice in a particular American state. Only US law schools are ABA-approved.

Regarding Canadian-educated and Canadian-trained applicants, each state in the United States has its own bar admission requirements. Currently, states which accept our law degree as "equivalent" to an American law degree are New York and Massachusetts. Another popular destination for our graduates is California, but to be eligible to write the California Bar, one must first be called to the Bar of a Canadian province, or another American state such as New York.

Detailed requirements for every state are available in a publication called the Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements, published by the American Bar Association.

Tuition & Fees for 2025-2026

• First Year JD Domestic Student (Ontario Resident) $35,150*
• First Year JD Domestic Student (Non-Ontario Resident) $41,490*
• First Year JD International Student $72,220*

*Figures have been rounded

Details about Tuition & Fees can be found on the University Registrar's Office (Please see - Tuition Fee Schedules: Fall-Winter Sessions > 2025-26 > Division - Faculty of Law)

For information about the University of Toronto Indigenous Tuition Initiative, please visit the Indigenous Tuition Initiative webpage. 

Jackman Law plans for a first-year class of about 205 students.

Jackman Law receives over 2,000 applications each year.

For applicants who are eligible for the JD first-year or to transfer into the JD second year, an English language proficiency test is not required. Note that the LSAT is required for these applicants, no exceptions.

Eligible applicants to non-degree JD studies (visiting students on a Letter of Permission, NCA students), may be asked to demonstrate proficiency, if warranted, after the review of their submitted applications.

Eligible applicants to visit on an approved student exchange must demonstrate proficiency, where warranted.

International students follow the same application procedures as all other applicants. Any applicant, regardless of immigration status who has post-secondary education undertaken outside of Canada or the USA is required to first have that education evaluated for equivalency by WES Canada, and then arrange for WES Canada to submit the official results to OLSAS directly.

Our JD Admissions Guide is available online from the JD Admissions website. The JD application is completed electronically through OLSAS at ouac.on.ca/olsas.

JD applications including all supporting documents are to be submitted directly to OLSAS (Ontario Law School Application Service) ONLY.

Do not use CAS (Credential Assembly Service) operated by the LSAC in the US for applying to Jackman Law or to any other Ontario law school.

No. We do not begin the file review for selection until after the application deadline.

Our review of an applicant's undergraduate record is sensitive to context. It is based on the principle that undergraduate records should be compared as fairly as possible across applicants. For this reason, we examine the pattern of the intensity of the course work taken across an applicant's undergraduate career (light versus heavy, full-time versus part-time, co-op versus regular, introductory versus upper-year courses, courses on exchange, courses during the summer term).

We also examine the patterns of results the applicant achieved in that coursework (increasing trends, sustained periods of strong performance, short-term deviations, cumulative results, etc). Moreover, we take into account the nature of the program and the undergraduate institution (or institutions) at which an applicant has studied. Specifically, programs and institutions have varying grading practices, which we take into account in our assessment.

In general, the Admissions Committee examines each applicant's academic record with a view to meaningful and fair comparisons of undergraduate performance.

Our GPA is calculated on undergraduate courses only, using the best three academic years (traditionally the fall and winter sessions) of full-time study. We use the results of these calculations merely as a starting point for our context-sensitive analysis.

All courses in the entire post-secondary record are considered and valued, regardless of which will be used in the GPA calculation i.e. all courses, undergraduate and any graduate, including summer courses are considered. In addition to the GPA calculation, we review transcripts to better understand the performance on the entire academic record.

Our selection is holistic based on the combination of the personal profile, academic record and LSAT performance. Each year the applicant pool is different and no one can know in advance how strong anyone's file will be in their admission year. Therefore, it is not possible to pre-determine any minimum or average GPA and LSAT score for selection.

On our website we do not list a minimum or average GPA and LSAT. Instead we list the median values which represents the midpoint GPA and LSAT score, from which half of the entering class scored higher, and half scored lower.

It is erroneous to deduce that everyone above the median was offered admission, since it is not a minimum, and the holistic selection is not based on the numerical measures solely. Therefore, you do not need to be at, or above the median in order to be competitive, since by definition the median (midpoint), half of the entering class will always have a GPA and LSAT that is lower than the median.

A very strong performance in a graduate program may overcome modest weaknesses in an undergraduate record, but will not usually overcome an undergraduate record which is otherwise un-competitive.

In Canada and the US, the LSAT is offered eight times a year, normally in June, July, September, October, November, January, February and April. For the desired year of entry into the JD first year, the latest score we will accept for first-year entry is that year's January LSAT score and for upper year entry that year's April LSAT score. We recommend that you write earlier.
 
An LSAT score is valid for 6 test cycles: (the current and the 5 prior). For entry into first-year we suggest that you write the LSAT by the November of your final year of university. Our admissions decision notifications are provided at three times (December, February, March), which means that offers of admission will begin to go out as early as December. The class may be close to full once the results of the January LSAT become available.

The multiple choice and writing portions of the test are completed separately. The LSAT score will only be available to the test taker and law schools when both the LSAT Writing and multiple choice portions are completed. Therefore, you must ensure that the LSAT Writing is completed before the release date of the results of the multiple choice portion for the last acceptable LSAT test for the entry year, otherwise the law school will not receive the score in time for consideration. 

Appropriate
The appropriate tests for admission to JD program at Jackman Law are the 'regular' LSAT test (online, paper, in-person) and the LSAT Flex (online) test, wherever in the world they are administered officially by the LSAC.

Inappropriate
The specially-designed test for entry into law schools located in India (LSAT-India), and the specially-designed Spanish-language test (Spanish LSAT) for law schools located in Puerto Rico. Note that the 'regular' appropriate LSAT (online) is also available in India and Puerto Rico.

Always apply to OLSAS by the application deadline.

Do not hold up applying to OLSAS to await registering for the LSAT or your test scores. The OLSAS application form will ask if a future test will be taken, and it will retrieve the future score from the LSAC once it is available.

An LSAT score is valid for the most recent 6 test cycles. If more than one LSAT score is reported, all LSAT scores within the past five years will be seen and considered by the Admissions Committee. Generally, we place emphasis on the highest LSAT score reported. We do not average scores.

As long as your application file is complete, i.e. all required documents have been received, including any valid LSAT score, then it can proceed for review.

Prior to the re-take, if your entire file is already competitive with your current score(s) then we need not await the new score to make an admission decision. Otherwise, if it is not already competitive, we will re-assess automatically with the new score after it has been received via OLSAS.  

You are responsible for updating your future LSAT test date on your OLSAS account once you have registered for the future test, in order for OLSAS to retrieve the score once it becomes available. Again, we do not average scores and we give emphasis to the highest score.

If you intend to, or are contemplating whether to, study JD combined programs, then on the OLSAS application form, you must pick the JD-only selection and the desired JD combined program selection(s).

Please ensure that the selections are made before the OLSAS application deadline, after which your ability to add a new program selection on the OLSAS application form is disabled.

You will also need to apply to each desired non-JD partner program directly and independently of the OLSAS application. Apply to the partner program by its own application procedure and deadline.