LLM Program Admissions

All applicants must upload electronic transcripts from every post-secondary institution they attended, including all studies started, completed, or attempted, regardless of degree completion. This also includes transfer credits and courses taken on letter of permission.

Notes:

• If your transcript has a grading scheme it must be included with the scanned document. 
• Ensure transcripts are complete and do not leave out any years or courses.
• Applicants finishing their final year must submit an interim transcript.
• Foreign language transcripts need to be officially translated into English, except for French transcripts, which do not require translation as French is an official language of Canada.

Applicants who are required to provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application will need to upload an official scan of their English Language Proficiency test scores on the application system. All scores must be uploaded by the document deadline.

In addition, applicants must also arrange for the testing agency to submit their official test score directly to the University of Toronto (Enrolment Services office).

• The TOEFL institution code for U of T is 0982. There is no need to specify a department.
• For IELTS, you should select “University of Toronto (Undergraduate and Graduate programs)” from the list of options. The University of Toronto (Undergraduate and Graduate Programs) is an IELTS “STED RO”. This means that we subscribe to the electronic score-sending service and do not accept paper results. You may wish to advise your test centre, specifically, that U of T is an STED RO when you make your request to have your scores sent to us. You do not need to notify U of T once you have ordered your test results. U of T receives IELTS results on an ongoing basis.

If this requirement is not applicable to you, it will be waived when your online application is reviewed. There is no need to contact SGS or Jackman Law to get this requirement waived.

Applicants should submit a Curriculum Vitae (CV) of no more than three pages that includes the following information: education, scholarships and awards received, scholarly publications, work experience, and relevant extracurricular activities.

As part of the application form, applicants will be asked to answer a series of questions reflecting on their interest in pursuing the LLM program. Each question should be answered in the text box provided, with a maximum word count of 250 words. Applicants are encouraged to be clear and concise in their responses.

Note:

Applicants who wish to provide additional context to help the Admissions Committee understand their application more fully — for example, gaps in their record, non-traditional pathways, or circumstances that shaped their academic experience — may do so in the optional text box provided in the application form. 

Applicants to the thesis LLM must submit a 750-word thesis proposal in the text box provided in the application form. The proposal should describe a specific legal problem, question, or debate the applicant wishes to explore during their graduate studies, explaining what makes the issue significant, what remains unresolved or contested about it, and how they might approach investigating it.

Note:

Endnotes and bibliography should not be included in the text box and may be uploaded as a separate document.

Applicants should upload a writing sample that demonstrates their analytical skill and writing ability. The writing sample must be in English.

Appropriate writing samples include academic papers written for a university course or seminar (including, where possible, the name of the course and the grade received) or work published in a scholarly publication. Please note that co-authored publications are not admissible.

Format:

The writing sample must be a maximum of 5,000 words (no minimum length).

Applicants who wish to apply for financial assistance should indicate as much when creating their application and will be required to complete the SGS Financial Assistance Application Form. This form is available for download through the application portal, after the application form has been submitted.

Note:

The Financial Assistance form is for all applicants and is not restricted to OSOTF applicants only. Financial assistance is available to both domestic and international students; the form helps determine an applicant's eligibility for OSOTF and non-OSOTF awards.

All LLM applicants are expected to independently investigate and apply for all types of external funding for which they are eligible (e.g., SSHRC, OGS). University-wide and external awards must be applied to well in advance of the start of the graduate program. Applicants are encouraged to review our Financial Aid & Awards Policies. 

Applicants who have an International (Educational) Credential Evaluation (for example: WES Evaluation Report, ECA from the School of Continuing Studies or other) are encouraged to submit the report/assessment with their application.

Please note that submission of a report/assessment is optional. Not uploading a report/assessment will not result in your application being considered incomplete. 

Two academic letters of reference are required. If you cannot obtain academic references and will be submitting professional references instead, please briefly explain why in the optional text box provided in the Reflection Questions sections.

You will need to provide the name and contact information of your chosen referees on the application form. The system will automatically send an electronic submission request to each referee once their information has been entered. It is highly recommended that you contact your referees ahead of time to confirm they are willing to provide a reference letter by the document deadline.

Refrain from soliciting references from peers, co-workers, or direct reports. Personal references (e.g. friends, family members) are also ineligible.

Important:

Do not add more than two referees. If more than two are added, only the first two reference letters submitted will be considered; any additional letters will not be reviewed.

You must provide your referees' institutional email address (e.g. @university.edu or @company.com). Personal email addresses (e.g. gmail.com, yahoo.com, mail.com) are not accepted. If one or both of your referees do not have an institutional email address, you will need to email gradadmissions.law@utoronto.ca with a link to an official institutional webpage confirming that your referee is employed by the institution and that the personal email address provided is official. If this is not possible, your referee will need to send a hard copy reference letter on official letterhead, which must be received by the document deadline. Reference letters submitted from unverified, non-institutional email addresses are not admissible, and the application will be considered incomplete.

Reference letters submitted by applicants themselves will not be accepted, and the application will be considered incomplete.

Reference Letter Content:

Referees are not provided with a template letter to complete. They will be asked to answer a series of questions related to your academic abilities and to submit a letter commenting on your ability to:

• Conduct independent research (searching for and organizing relevant material);
• Analyze and critique the positions of others;
• Develop your own arguments;
• Produce original work (for LLM Thesis applicants only).

Where possible, referees should be encouraged to provide detailed and specific information about their engagement with you. Form letters, or letters that simply repeat information already available to the committee (e.g., a summary of your academic record), are of less value than those that give the committee a clearer sense of your strengths as an applicant.

It is your responsibility to log in to your profile on the application website to confirm the receipt of your supporting documents, including letters of recommendation, by the application deadline.

A green checkmark on the system will indicate that a document has been received (it may take a few minutes for the checkmark to appear).

Admission decisions will be communicated by mid-April, though unsuccessful applicants may receive their decision earlier.

Admitted students who are unable to commence their studies due to significant extenuating circumstances may request a one-year deferral of their offer of admission. To request a deferral, please contact the Graduate Programs Office at gradadmissions.law@utoronto.ca as early as possible. Deferral requests will only be accepted until July 31, 2027.

Please note that only a limited number of deferrals can be approved each year; therefore, deferrals will only be granted in limited circumstances, such as unforeseen personal emergencies or obligations.