If you are reading this, and you have an application with UVic law for 2026 admission, stop! Take a deep breath. Don’t let the title mislead you. For the most part, your application was due on December 1, so please DO NOT send us additional documentation. We do not want additional documents from you. I cannot emphasize that enough.
There are only three circumstances in which we accept supplemental documentation, or documentation after the due date of December 1:
- The admissions team reaches out to you and asks you for something. Most often this is something that just needs to be clarified.
- You submitted fall grades. These were due January 15, so please do not send us your fall grades if you have not already.
- You wrote the January LSAT. We will get these scores automatically in February, so you do not need to send us anything.
How do we use your supplemental information?
First, let’s talk about the LSAT. As many of you know, we do not recommend sitting for the LSAT for the first time in January of the year you are seeking admission. There are a few reasons. Firstly, your application will not be processed until after we receive your score. This increases the odds that even an applicant with a high index score will be waitlisted. Secondly, you don’t know what your score is before you apply. That means two things. It means that an applicant who didn’t score as well as they had hoped might have chosen to retake the LSAT and wait a year to apply. It also means that if something goes wrong with your score or it’s not as high as you hoped, you might have chosen to speak to it in your application or apply through a different admission stream. Thirdly, even if everything goes well with your preparation or ability to take the LSAT, if you are sick or have technical problems, we cannot accept any score later than January for any reason. You will simply be out of luck.
That said, some applicants cannot take the LSAT early for a variety of reasons, and we understand that. Additionally, writing the LSAT in January cannot hurt your application. Because we only take your highest score over the last five years, it will not matter if your score comes back lower than previous tests you took.
Second, let’s talk about fall grades. You are not required to submit your fall grades (as long as you have met the admissions requirements prior to that term), though many choose to. It’s generally a good idea for two reasons. Firstly, most students tend to do better as their university career progresses, as they are taking more specialized classes in what they enjoy. In the case that grades are strong, this is helpful to your application. Secondly, we are seeing an increasing number of applicants applying to UVic Law after completing only exactly 45.0 units (90.0 credits) of coursework. For these applicants, we are not able to discount any grades. That means the F you got in statistics is still counted towards your cumulative GPA. By sending us another completed term, you might just get that F dropped from calculation. Practically speaking, what this means is that an application sent in after only 3 years of completed classes has to be PERFECT to be presumptive. A 160 LSAT and an A- average over those first three years likely will not cut it.
Note, however, that, unlike your January LSAT score, updating your grades CAN hurt your application.
Right now, again, we ask that you not send us any new material. We have your applications, and we are working through all of them. If we need anything from you, we will reach out to you. Aside from that, you should hear from us between now and the end of May!
Good luck!