Questions Concerning Honours Programs, etc. Forum

[LeeHyori]

Dear TLS community,

I have some questions regarding honours programs and related issues. I haven't been able to find anything clear on the topic and I've been Googling for quite awhile now. I will try to keep it as brief as possible, but I thank you all in advance! (I attend a top Canadian university that uses a 4.0 scale.)

• Do T14 American law schools factor in whether or not you did a standard major or honors program?
  
  Do these schools take this greater level of difficulty into account when looking at GPA? A 3.7 in an honors program is much more difficult to obtain than a 3.7 in a majors program, for instance. Honors programs are generally more difficult and have specialized honors only courses. As such, maintaining a high GPA in an honors program is presumably more difficult than in a standard majors program.
• What do admissions committees think about First Class Honours distinctions (the highest distinction for commonwealth countries)?
  
  My own program awards First Class Honors at 3.5 GPA for students enrolled in honors programs. 3.5 sounds low prima facie, but in honors programs, translates into roughly the top 10%.
• Do law schools care about theses?
  
  Honors programs require a supervised thesis. Is this a soft factor?
• How do Canadians fare?
  
  I did some searching on this forum and noticed that TLS users generally felt bad for Canadians applying. My school is very well known, but it is still Canadian. Does anyone know how this affects the way they will view my GPA?

Thanks in advance!

[John_rizzy_rawls]

These are all fairly mediocre soft factors which will matter much less than LSAT, GPA, URM, and strong softs - in that order.

[Balthy]

As rizzy rawls mentioned (and as much as it sucks), you honors distinction will help very little. It will, of course, put you above other applicants with identical numbers (LSAT score and GPA) but it won't do much after that.

TLSers feel bad for Canadian applicants? Maybe it's because GPA standards are generally more difficult in Canada (from what I've heard)? It may also be due to immigration concerns for Canadian applicants, i.e., whether firms would be willing to sponsor them after law school. I don't really know. In any case, you will not have a disadvantage over someone with the same numbers from an American school.