First-year Law Applicants: Categories of Admission
There are 4 major categories of admission into first year:
- General Category
- Indigenous Peoples Category
- Black Student Applicant Category
- Access Category
The first-year class consists of about 208 students. Most students are admitted in the General category. Recently, up to 10% of students admitted to the first-year class have been from the Indigenous and Access categories.
General Category
Your academic record and LSAT score are weighed most heavily in this category. The other Admissions Philosophy criteria are weighed carefully in making distinctions between applicants who are equally competitive on these bases.
To be a competitive applicant, you should have at least an A- average (grade point average [GPA] of 3.7) in the top 2 years of your undergraduate degree program at a full course load and an LSAT score of at least 160.
Indigenous Peoples Category
Queen’s Faculty of Law is committed to increasing Indigenous representation within the law school and the larger legal profession and supporting Indigenous students who choose Queen’s. We encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, including First Nation (Status and Non-Status), Métis and Inuit.
We will consider applications based on several factors, such as:
- Identification with your Indigenous community
- Academic performance
- LSAT results
- Employment history
- Letters of reference
- Personal Statement
The Admissions Committee uses this material to demonstrate whether an applicant can undertake the JD degree program successfully.
The Admissions Committee will make decisions on completed applications at the earliest possible date in the admission cycle for this category.
If you are applying in this category and need more information than is available on this website, you can email our team:
Karla McGrath, Assistant Dean, JD Program: karla.mcgrath@queensu.ca
Stacia Loft, Director of Indigenous Initiatives and EDII Programs: sl174@queensu.ca
Black Student Applicant Category
Our Faculty of Law is committed to increasing Black representation within the law school and the larger legal profession and supporting Black students who choose Queen’s.
We will consider applications based on any personal or professional experiences that allow an applicant to contribute to the law school community and further the law school’s goal of building a representative and diverse class cohort. We will also consider factors, such as:
- Academic performance
- LSAT results
- Employment history
- Letters of reference
- Personal Statement.
The Admissions Committee uses this material to demonstrate whether an applicant can undertake the JD degree program successfully.
The Admissions Committee will make decisions on completed applications at the earliest possible date in the admission cycle for this category.
If you are applying in this category and need more information than is available on this website, you can email our team:
Karla McGrath, Assistant Dean, JD Program: karla.mcgrath@queensu.ca
Stacia Loft, Director of Indigenous Initiatives and EDII Programs: sl174@queensu.ca
Access Category
Our Faculty of Law is committed to enhancing diversity in legal education and the legal profession. To this end, we encourage applications from candidates whose backgrounds, qualities or experiences allow them to make unique contributions to the law school community, the legal profession and society in general.
The Admissions Committee will consider these factors:
- Disability
- Educational and financial disadvantage
- Membership in a historically disadvantaged group
- Age
- Life and lived experience
- Any other factor relating either to educational barriers you faced, or to your ability to enrich the diversity of the law school community and the legal profession
You must demonstrate the following capabilities:
- That you have strong potential to complete the JD program.
- That you have the ability to reason and analyze.
- That you can express yourself effectively orally and in writing.
- That you possess the skills and attributes necessary to cope with the demands of law school.
Traditional measures of academic performance and LSAT scores may be given comparatively less weight in this category, while non-academic experience and personal factors confirming your special circumstances or unique qualities may be given comparatively more weight.
To be a competitive applicant, you should have at least a B+ average (GPA of 3.5) in the top 2 years of your undergraduate degree program at a full course load and an LSAT score of at least 155.
If you are applying in this category and need more information than is available on this website you can email our team: jd@queensu.ca