So, you have survived the holidays. Your Great Aunt Mary and her incomprehensible love for creating new aspic dishes are no match for you. You ushered the Earth through another birthday. It’s a new year. It’s a new you. You’re moving forward in all ways. More nutrient dense meals, gym membership, better study habits, better relationship habits, GOALS.
And if you’re reading this, odds are that one of your goals is to start school at UVic Law in September. We think that’s a fantastic goal.
It can, however, be really tough to have goals when you are waiting on an answer. A few of you have heard from us with offers of admission. Some of you will hear from us between now and March. However, many of you will simply not hear until March or even May.
The reality is that we received nearly 1700 applications for Fall 2026 admission to UVic Law. While we have committees and sub-committees and teams to which each piece of the admissions pie is delegated, this is A LOT of work. And it simply takes time, particularly when we engage in a holistic review process.
Currently, we are sending out offers of admission and seeking clarification where we have questions. This is done on a rolling basis, meaning, if you haven’t heard from us, it doesn’t mean you will not get an offer of admission. It simply means you do not have one yet.
We don’t send out our refusals until we have reviewed January LSAT scores. We don’t receive these until mid-February, so this happens at the earliest March.
For those of you “in between,” our waitlist is formulated around May. It’s important to remember that getting a waitlist position is not a “no.” We generally move through at least a small portion of the waitlist – some years more than others.
So what can you do while you are waiting?
You can work to control those things that you can. This means researching the variables of starting at UVic Law in the fall – or not. What changes in your life if you decide to accept a seat at Uvic Law? What changes in your life if you don’t get in this year? What plans do you need to make and what do you need to have as a back-up plan if things don’t go the way you think they will?
You can have honest conversations with yourself about things like how you plan to fund your law school education or how this will affect other members of your household. You can research housing if you aren’t already local to Victoria. You can decide how late in the year you accept a seat and still have time to put all of your plans in place.
If you’ve done those things, it’s time to be patient. Give us the time to consider each application. Know that you will hear from us. And then maybe focus on some of your other new year’s goals. Anyone ready to take up climbing?
