Frequently Asked Questions

Application opening and deadlines can be found on the program’s How to Apply page. 

All applicant-supplied documents must be uploaded to the online application, the application fee must be paid, and the application formally submitted by the deadline. You can still add documents to your submitted application up to the deadline.   

No. Without exception we accept no late documents. The Graduate Committee will not consider incomplete applications for admission to the program.

The deadline for references is approximately two weeks after the applicant’s document deadline. The deadlines can be found on the program’s How to Apply page. Please note that the Allard School of Law will be closed for Winter break the final week of December; no one will be available to answer questions until we return the first week of January when classes are back in session.

The Graduate Program must receive all letters of reference by the indicated deadline, whether submitted to the online system, or by hard copy to our office. Please submit everything early so you can be sure that your referees have ample time to send your references in.

No. We do not currently offer courses in the LLM T program as online or distance courses.

The program is 30 credits. Most courses are anywhere from 3 – 5 credits each. Generally, students take 3 - 5 courses a term or 12 – 15 credits a term.

A full course load is 4 course a term or 12-15 credits a term depending on the courses taken and the amount of time involved in the course. Generally, for each credit students are expected to have 1 hour of class and 2-3 hours of course work (readings, studying, and review) each week. So for a 15 credit course load you would be in class 15 hours a week and have 45 hours of course work to complete each week.

Yes. The part-time LLM T program is by permission of the Director and is only allowed to students who would be otherwise unable to complete the LLM T program full time because of extenuating circumstances. The part-time option must be completed in two years and a minimum of 15 credits must be taken each year. Please note that the majority of LLM T courses offered run two to three times a week during the regular school period of 8:30am – 4:30pm. We do not offer weekend classes and only a limited number of night courses each year.

Yes, we accept applicants from many different countries. Approximately 50% of the student body in the LLM T program are international students. 

Yes. Please review our admission requirements here: https://allard.ubc.ca/programs/graduate-programs/master-law-llm-taxation/program-eligibility

We ONLY offer conditional admission for those students in the last year of their law degree. In that case the offer of admission is conditional on successful completion of the first law degree and based on the in-progress transcripts submitted with the application. We do not offer conditional admission for any other reason.

No. We cannot tell interested candidates if they are likely to be accepted into the program outside of the formal application process. All complete applications will be reviewed on their individual merit in the formal application period. We will not be able to review any documents for a student outside of the formal admission process.

We do not offer paper application forms anymore. Applications are completed online via Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' website.

The Graduate Committee look at each application holistically. They take into account all factors concerning a student’s application including their CV, GPA, Statement of Intent, References, and English language test (if required).

We accept a wide variety of students into the LLM T program. Typically, successful applicants have a number of strong factors in their application including excellent academics, a strong statement of intent, and strong letters of reference.

Yes. All applications are reviewed holistically and all application documents are taken into account. Typically, applicants who are accepted exceed our minimum standards for GPA. However, if an applicant has a lower GPA from their first law degree but other outstanding aspects of their application then those will be taken into consideration by the Graduate Committee.

There can be many reasons that someone is not accepted into the program. The most common reasons are not meeting the English language requirement or not having a completed application. Other ways to improve are: additional work/volunteer/extracurricular experience in law on your CV, a better statement of intent, and/or stronger references. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide detailed individual feedback to every applicant.

Make sure the your file is one of the acceptable file types for uploading documents and the file size is smaller than the maximum allowable file size.  File size cannot exceed 10MB. Preferred file format: PDF.  However, documents can also be uploaded as: BMP, DOC, DOCX, GIF, JPEG, JPG, RTF, TXT. To allow our system to process your documents, please ensure that your files are not locked via a password or PDF Document Assembly restrictions. 

Your student number is an 8 digit number that will be emailed to you when you first submit your application. It is the same as your application number. It does not begin with three zeros. Please include your student number in all correspondence with the law school as it is the most accurate way to track your application and answer your questions promptly.

Documents submitted in support of applications become the property of the University and may not be returned to the applicant or student.

Applicants are discouraged from sending irreplaceable documents and are advised to follow the instructions for verified copies at the following website: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/international-students-transcripts.  

Please see Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies process for transcripts here: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/international-students-transcripts.

Acceptable documents must be PDF scans of an official transcript uploaded to the application system. These must:

• Be issued on the institution’s official transcript paper
• Have the seal of the issuing institution
• Contain the issuing institution’s marking guide.
• Include the degree conferral (if conferred). If not mentioned on the transcript, then you must upload a scanned PDF of your degree to accompany the transcript.

Unacceptable documents include, but are not limited to the following:

• Confirmation of enrolment letters,
• Printouts of student marks or course results,
• "Unofficial" documents
• Emailed transcripts
• Individual images of the transcript submitted in a jpeg, tiff, png or other image format. 

You can change each referee one time in the application system. You can do this under the “Manage References” tab of the My Application website once the application has been formally submitted. Please contact the program if you would like to add a fourth referee. We will have to enable that within the system. You will get an email to submit the contact information for the referee. 

Depending on the number of applications we receive, we usually send out application results for the LLM T program sometime in mid-march of the following year. Either way, whether or not your application was successful or unsuccessful, you can expect to hear from us about the results of your application.

Please allow at least four weeks for us to update the status of your application documents in the system. You can monitor the status of your application documents by logging into the My Applications website. Due to the number of applications, the Graduate Program is unable to confirm the receipt of individual hard copy documents sent by mail.

The wait list is those students who meet our requirements for admission but there is not currently a place in the program to offer them. The waitlist is ranked and you can ask for your position from the Director, Professional Programs. Generally, there is little movement on the waitlist as  few students end up declining our offer of admission. You can take yourself off the waitlist at any time. We will keep the waitlist open until a week before orientation. 

Yes. The only documents that we are able to carry over to your new application would be acceptable scans of official transcripts that were completed at the time of your initial submission.  Please contact the program directly if you have questions about your previously submitted documents being transferred to the current application once you have submitted the application. 

No. We do not offer interviews for admission. If the Associate Dean or the Graduate Committee needs further information from you regarding your application you will be contacted via email.

Yes. We accept applicants who have significant work experience in a field related to taxation such as accountants. Significant work experience is defined as a minimum of five years in a relevant field of work. Internships, volunteer experience, and extracurricular experience will be considered.

Yes. Any offer of admission would be conditional on the successful completion of your law degree. You will need to upload a scanned copy of your official in-progress transcript to your application.

Yes.

No, the faculty does not give preference to Canadian Citizens, but seeks to achieve a diverse community from Canada and around the world.

UBC's Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website sets out the minimum academic requirements by country. Simply select the country in which you went to law school from the drop-down menu. The Graduate Committee evaluates your transcripts based on the marking guide from the institution itself – the reason we require a marking guide to accompany the official transcript. 

No, you do not need to write the LSAT.

The requirement for demonstrating English language proficiency is connected to the language of instruction at an applicant's post-secondary institution, not the applicant's first language. If English was the primary language of instruction in the entire university, then you do not need to write an English language proficiency exam; however, if English was not the primary language of instruction, then you need to demonstrate sufficient English language proficiency through one of the approved exams (TOEFL, IELTS or GCE). Details on the LLM T Program's required minimum test scores for these exams can be found on the Program Eligibility page. 

If you can prove that your first degree was completed in English, we will waive the TOEFL/IELTS requirement. Please request the registrar or the student records office from your university provide a letter attesting that English is the primary medium of instruction in the entire institution and mail the hard copy of the letter to us at the following address.

ATTN: LLM Taxation Program

Peter A. Allard School of Law

University of British Columbia

1822 East Mall

Vancouver BC Canada V6T 1Z1

No. The English Language proficiency results are considered part of the required documents and must be submitted before the document deadline. Failure to submit results will likely mean your application is incomplete and will not be considered for admission.

Generally no. While your English exam score is only one of the requirements that is assessed in your application, it is crucial to have a sufficient level of English to succeed in the program. As a result, applicants who do not meet the English minimum requirements are most of the time not successful. The LLM T program is a highly rigorous one year legal program and to help ensure our students succeed, we require a certain level of English for admission. We do not offer deferred admission on the basis of English language. If you do not have an IELTS or TOFEL test that meets our minimum standard, it is recommended that you wait to apply until you meet our minimum requirements.

No, we do not offer a means of conditional admission for English Language. Applicants who attend or complete intensive English language training, such as UBC’s English Language Institute, are still required to provide an English language proficiency result that meets the minimum requirements.

No, the program does not offer a waiver for the English language requirements. All applicants are required to provide an English language proficiency result that meets our minimum requirements unless the applicant has completed a degree program (equivalent to a bachelor’s degree or higher) from an institution where English is the primary language of instruction in the entire institution (and not just the degree program). 

Tuition is assessed on a per-credit basis, and the program’s minimum required credits to graduate is 30 credits. We maintain up-to-date tuition figures at the LLM T Tuition website.

Tuition is due in installments at the beginning of each term. The first term installment is due in the beginning of September.

Award information is available on our Tuition, Fees & Funding page. The Allard School of Law offers no other scholarships for LLM T students.

Deferral can be granted by the Associate Dean, Graduate Studies where extenuating circumstance prevent a student from attending the LLM T in the year they were admitted for. You can only defer once and a deferral is given for a maximum of 12 months.

No. The LLM T is not designed for students to take NCA required subjects but to provide a deeper expertise in taxation. For applicants wanting to meet their NCA requirements during their studies we recommend you look at applying to the LLM CL program.

The PhD program at the Allard School of Law looks for applicants to have completed a thesis-based Master’s program, or a Master’s program with a substantial research component to demonstrate the applicant’s research abilities.  It is advised that prospective students looking to go on to further study in law at the doctoral level complete a thesis-based LLM degree, and not the course-based LLM T degree. 

Admission to our program is a multi-faceted process and each application is carefully reviewed.  Speaking very generally, the main components of an application review are the academic weight of the degree which forms the basis of admission, GPA, the standing of the institution where the degree was taken, English language proficiency scores (if required), letters of reference, statement of intent, and associated activities such as volunteer or professional work.  This is a competitive process which takes into account the caliber of all applicants in a given application cycle.

Please bear in mind that the number of applications we receive each year far exceeds the number of seats available in our program.  Meeting our minimum requirements is not a guarantee of admission to the program.  We regret that each year we must turn down many qualified and strong applicants who have applied to our programs.