First-year Law Applicants: Categories of Admission

There are 4 major categories of admission into first year:

  1. General Category
  2. Indigenous Peoples Category
  3. Black Student Applicant Category
  4. 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 157.

Indigenous Peoples Category

Our Faculty of Law is committed to increasing Indigenous representation within the legal profession and therefore welcomes 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 judge whether an applicant can undertake the JD degree program successfully.

If there is strong evidence of academic ability in the application, an exception might be made to the academic standards.

Black Student Applicant Category

Our Faculty of Law is committed to increasing Black representation within the 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 other factors, such as:

  • academic performance,
  • LSAT results,
  • employment history,
  • letters of reference and
  • a Personal Statement.

The Admissions Committee uses this material to judge whether an applicant can undertake the JD degree program successfully.

To be competitive in the admission process, 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. We may consider other evidence of academic ability in addition to these academic standards.

The Admissions Committee will endeavour to make decisions on completed applications early in the admission cycle for this category.

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.