Admissions Categories & Program Options

An applicant is a resident of a province/territory if they have a real and substantial connection with that province. Such factors include, but are not limited to:

• Having lived in that province/territory full-time for two years, without having attended a post-secondary academic institution, as of September 1st of the year for which they are seeking admission;
• Place where the applicant has lived/been employed, with a focus on the preceding five years;
  
• The place of residency for parents, especially in cases where applicant relies upon financial support; or
  
• Place where applicant attended high school

Please note: When declaring residency, especially for the Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland & Labrador, and New Brunswick), and the territories (Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories), please include context where appropriate.

The General applicant category is open to those who have an undergraduate degree or who are within one year of graduation eligibility from a degree-granting university or college recognized by the Dalhousie Senate.

The Indigenous applicant category is open to those who self-identify as a Canadian Indigenous person, including First Nations, Métis and/or Inuit. The Indigenous category is intended to manifest the Schulich School of Law’s recognition of the need for reconciliation and greater representation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit persons in the legal field, as well as an acknowledgement of our presence as an educational institution on the ancestral and unceded territory of Mi'kma'ki.

• Applicants are encouraged (but not required) to share how they have contributed to, are connected to, and/or identify with their community and/or the impact of colonization on their family or their connection to Indigenous culture. 
• For applicants in this category, non-academic experiences may be given comparatively more weight than traditional measures of academic performance and LSAT scores in the holistic review of their files if that works to their advantage.  

Indigenous applicants may also be considered for the Indigenous Blacks & Mi’kmaq Initiative.

The IB&M Initiative prioritizes the admission of students who are either:

• African Nova Scotians (Indigenous Blacks): a distinct people who descend from free and enslaved Black Planters, Black Loyalists, Black Refugees, Maroons, and other Black people who inhabited the original 52 land-based Black communities in that part of Mi'kma'ki known as Nova Scotia.

• Mi’kmaw: individuals who are Mi'kmaw and were born and raised in Mi'kma’ki or have a substantial connection with a Mi'kmaw community in Mi'kma'ki.

Other Black individuals who were born and raised in Nova Scotia are also eligible for admission and support through the IB&M Initiative.

If, in any given year all qualified African Nova Scotian, Mi'kmaq and other Black applicants born and raised in Nova Scotia have been admitted and there are still spaces available, Black students who were not born and raised in Nova Scotia and Indigenous students who are not Mi'kmaq may be admitted through the IB&M category.

IB&M applicants are required to submit the same application materials as candidates in other admission categories.  In addition, candidates will undergo additional consideration for the IB&M Initiative by a separate committee.

Applicants from this category may also be considered for the Historically Underrepresented and Indigenous applicant categories.

Learn more about the IB&M Initiative

The Historically Underrepresented Communities applicant category is open to those who self-identify as members of historically underrepresented communities (other than Indigenous and Indigenous Black Nova Scotian communities for which there are distinct categories). 

The following is an illustrative and non-exhaustive list of communities currently included in this category: Black; African descent; additional racialized minorities; 2SLGBTQ+; gender identity; persons with diagnosed mental illness; persons with visible or invisible disability (including physical, mental, intellectual, learning or sensory impairment, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders an individual’s full and effective participation in society).

This category is intended to recognize the need for greater representation of historically underrepresented communities at the Schulich School of Law and in the legal profession. Having this as a category is also intended to focus the Committee’s attention on the need to not perpetuate the harms of systemic discrimination. 

• Applicants are encouraged (but not required) to submit a statement or include within their personal statement how they have contributed to, are connected to, and/or identify with their community.
• Non-academic experiences are given comparatively more weight than traditional measures of academic performance and LSAT scores in the holistic review of their files if that works to their advantage. 

Applicants from this category may also be considered for the IB&M Initiative and/or Work/Life Experience applicant category.

The Work/Life Experience applicant category is open to those who seek admission and whose work/life experience provides a strong basis for inclusion in the incoming class.  These candidates may not have the required number of academic credits to be eligible for the General category; or have the required number of academic credits but based on their academic record alone, they would not be competitive in the General category.

Examples of those eligible to seek admission under this category include (but are not limited to) candidates who:

• have been raising children or caring for sick relatives
• have been running a local non-profit or similar organization 
• pursued a trade after high school  
• completed a university degree where their subsequent work experience and LSAT score may be a more accurate and relevant indicator of current capabilities than their GPA  

The Work/Life Experience category is intended to recognize the skills and abilities individuals can gain outside of an academic institution that serve to prepare them for the demands of law school and to ensure that the legal profession is more representative of the communities that it serves. 

• Applicants seeking admission under this category are strongly encouraged to have successfully completed a College Diploma or at least two years (10 credits) of university studies before applying. 
• Non-academic experiences will given comparatively more weight than traditional measures of academic performance and LSAT scores in the holistic review of their files. 

We offer the option of completing your JD on a part-time basis over seven years.

Learn more about the part-time JD.

The primary focus of the IB&M Initiative is on students who are either:

• Indigenous Black Nova Scotians - individuals who are Black and were born and raised in Nova Scotia, or who have a substantial connection with a historically Black community in Nova Scotia, or
• Mi'kmaq - individuals who are Mi'kmaq and were born and raised in Mi'kmaqi or have a substantial connection with a Mi'kmaw community in Mi'kmaqi.

The IB&M Initiative places the admission of African Nova Scotian and Mi'kmaq students as its highest priority. If, in any given year all qualified Indigenous Blacks and Mi'kmaw students have been admitted and there are still spaces available, Black students who are not indigenous to Nova Scotia and Aboriginal students who are not Mi'kmaq, may be admitted through the IB&M category.

IB&M applicants are required to submit the same application materials as other candidates but will undergo additional consideration for the IB&M Initiative by a separate committee.

Learn more about the IB&M Initiative

We have partnered with Dalhousie's Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Health Administration (MHA), Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Information (MI) programs to allow students the opportunity to earn two degrees - a JD and a Master’s Degree - in four years instead of five.

To be admitted to our combined degree programs, an applicant must satisfy the entrance requirements of both the JD and Master’s Degree program and apply for each program separately.

Learn more about applying to combined degree programs.