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i have checked google and other law school forums and cant find anything on this. how does it work and what are the chances of acceptance?

Chances of acceptance are just the same as anyone else. LSAT + GPA = Chances. But the problem coming from Canada is LSAC is likely going to ding your GPA. Top grades are a lot harder to come by in Canada of course, and so it has the potential to drop hard. I came from McMaster and experienced this. But some people really dont get much of a ding at all. Just have to submit your transcripts to LSAC and see what happens.

I dont know much about financial aid but I believe foreigners have to finance through private loans, no federal or state aid.

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iShotFirst wrote:Chances of acceptance are just the same as anyone else. LSAT + GPA = Chances. But the problem coming from Canada is LSAC is likely going to ding your GPA. Top grades are a lot harder to come by in Canada of course, and so it has the potential to drop hard. I came from McMaster and experienced this. But some people really dont get much of a ding at all. Just have to submit your transcripts to LSAC and see what happens.

I dont know much about financial aid but I believe foreigners have to finance through private loans, no federal or state aid.

what do you mean by 'dinged'? from what ive heard canadian universities mark a lot harder than american so why should they get changed?

If you went to a Canadian or American UG, you'll have an LSDAS GPA and you'll have more or less the same chance of getting into schools as an American with the same stats would. As for financial aid, unless you go to YHS, where you'll get loans from the school's fin aid office, you'll have to get private loans from US banks (requires a guarantor) or Canadian banks.

"dinged" as in LSDAS might give each letter grade a different (lower) point value than your school does. So your GPA might come out to be lower.

as the previous poster explained, the grading will be different when LSAC looks at your transcript. At Mac it was a score from 1-12 for our grades, and LSAC translated that into 10=A-, 11=A, 12=A+, even though very few people ever get those grades and they are infinitely harder to obtain than an A at an American institution.

Its like high school in Canada, 80-100 is an A (at least when I went to school in Ontario, a long time ago). But if you got an 85, in Canada that is a respectful A, whereas if you applied to an American school with an 85, they would consider that a B and your GPA would adjust downwards accordingly.

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iShotFirst wrote:as the previous poster explained, the grading will be different when LSAC looks at your transcript. At Mac it was a score from 1-12 for our grades, and LSAC translated that into 10=A-, 11=A, 12=A+, even though very few people ever get those grades and they are infinitely harder to obtain than an A at an American institution.

Its like high school in Canada, 80-100 is an A (at least when I went to school in Ontario, a long time ago). But if you got an 85, in Canada that is a respectful A, whereas if you applied to an American school with an 85, they would consider that a B and your GPA would adjust downwards accordingly.

hmmm that's weird. ive always been told that a high canadian gpa is much harder to obtain than a high american gpa. i'd think that the canadian gpa would be more respectable

The unfortunate reality is that most US law schools would rather base their decisions on the statistic (LSDAS GPA) that counts toward their US News rank, even if it's a weaker indicator of an applicant's academic achievement in UG.

wolverinelove11 wrote:Lastly, I am wondering would LSAC generate a numerical GPA or rate the OPs transcript as "Superior, Above average, etc." I know foreign transcripts are sometimes processed different by LSAC?

For Canadian universities they'll give you a numerical GPA.

McMaster and its crazy system aside, I don't think Canadians are much more likely to get dinged by LSAC on the GPA. It really depends on where you went to school and how they calculate your GPA. At the University of Toronto, for example, they had a pretty comfy margin for what counts as A+ (90-100%) but calculated your A+ like an A when calculating your GPA. That translated into a .13 boost for me in the LSAC conversion. So it really depends.

FWIW, your transcript includes your percentile ranking at your university, so your GPA is so-so but you're at the top X% of your class, law schools will at least see that... even though, as soj points out, that might not count for much in admission decisions. You can also write an addendum about the marking policies at your university if that's an issue.

Anyways, redgreenpaper, just toss your grades into a LSAT GPA conversion calculator (go by letter grades, not numbers) and see what comes out. Also, I think there are some old threads on TLS on various Canadian-related issues. You can probably dig them up by doing a forum search if you're interested.

As far as funding goes, you can get government loans to go to school in the us.

alright cool thanks guys