Course Selection Procedure

Overview of Process

[Notes for 2023-2024 Academic Year]: 

Course selection for JD students has four stages:

  1. Pre-allocation course review and selection,  

  2. Post-submission allocation results view,

  3. Post allocation Waitlist Review and Conditional Drops,
  4. Post allocation Direct First-Come, First-Served Add/Drop period.  

Please see the Deadline Dates page for the specific deadlines for each of these stages for the current year.

Please note that there is a section below on how to resolve flagged waitlists requests in Cognomos.  Resolving flags is important and time sensitive, since students will not be moved into classes if the request is flagged.  If an opening occurs and the first student on the waitlist is flagged, the opening will be given to the next unflagged student request..

The early pre-allocation course selection provides students with an opportunity to review the upcoming academic year's course offerings.  Later, after the view-only period, students can list their course preferences.  Students must be mindful of the the credit minimum- and maximum limits.  This means full time students must enrol in 13-16 credits in each term and a total of 28-32 credits each academic year.   (Students enrolling in a January intensive course will use a separate, stand-alone allocation.)  Our course selection system requires students to list courses that amount to twice as many credits as they need.  This means full time students must list at least 32 credits in each term, and a total of 64 credits for the year.  (Half time students should list at least 16 credits in each term.)

Please note that students may not enrol in courses for which they do not have a listed pre-requisite.

Students indicate their course preferences by listing the courses in order of preference.  The highest preference category is "great." The system notes sequence within each category, with descending value placed on each course.  Ranking a course as first in the "great" category is not a guarantee that the student will be enrolled in that course.  There is no limit to the number of courses students may list as "great." The next preference category is "good," and the last category is "acceptable."  The system will assume minor preferences for courses based on the sequence in which they are listed in each category. 

If students are interested in more than one section of a course, they should list each section of the course, in order of preference.  When students have no preference between two or three courses, then they can link those courses together.  Clicking the link button between two or three courses tells the system the student wants one or the other, but not more than one, of the linked courses. Students can link together as many sets of classes as they wish. 

After the allocation is run, there is review period of several days to review course selection results.  The next day the add/drop period will begin.  

Note: JD students must have a utoronto.ca email address in order to use this system.

If you have questions, please contact:

It is important that students continue to check their utoronto.ca e-mail over the course of the summer for important information regarding course selection. Please DO NOT forward your utoronto e-mail address to any other domain because you may not receive Faculty of Law listserv messages.

Important Links
Deadline Dates

Preference Categories

Course Enrolment in Previous Years

Please read the following information carefully before selecting your courses.

  • Course selection - rules
  • Instructions for selecting courses 
  • Adding and dropping courses
  • Terminology and Course Numbers
  • Forms

Instructions for Selecting Courses

1) Pre-allocation Course Selection

Note - Read carefully: This program allows students to make course choices using preference categories. Students may edit their choices as often as they like during the selection period.  Whatever preferences are listed at the time of the deadline is the selection that will be submitted for each student. 

  • Go to the Course Match page (https://www.law.utoronto.ca/academic-programs/course-match)
  • If this is the first time a student has viewed on course selection, the student must visit MyProfile to make sure that his or her utoronto.ca email address is accurate. If it is not, the student will not be able to use this online course selection system. (Please see: https://www.utorid.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/utorid/info.pl for UTORid Information).
  • Click on the Course Match button appropriate to your program (JD, LLM, or GPLLM).
  • Note that for JD students there is one iteration of Course Match for the fall and winter semesters; and a second iteration of Course Match for January Intensives.

Cognomos log in page

  • Enter your UTORid and UTORid password, and hit "Submit."
  • To select a course, click on the course name. To indicate preference, move the course title into either the Great, Good, or Acceptable section of the page.  Remember that sequence within categories is also significant:  the system understands significant differences in preference between categories, and minor differences in preference within categories. 
  • Students should select courses until they have chosen twice as many credits as they need for the academic year. Full time students must select around 28 credits per term.  Students need 60-65 credits for the system to work well. The system automatically saves each time a student makes a change. Students may change their courses as often as they wish up until the submission deadline.
  • Note that some courses are not filled by the lottery.  Students should not rank Competitive Moots (for which there are try-outs) or application-based clinical courses or externships.  
  • Students will be shown a variety of possible schedule results from each set of preferences. Please note that these possible schedules are not final and are not promised.  They are examples of schedules that meet the demands that have been entered.   Students often toggle back and forth between their preferences and the schedules that are generated as they finalise their choices.  The system will not permit students to submit any courses which conflict or overlap on the timetable or the exam schedule; or if there is a pre-requisite/co-requisite that they have not met/are not enrolled in; or if the total number of credits is too low
  • Students may sign-out of the system at any time. Their course selections will have been saved, and will be available the next time they sign-in. Students may continue to make changes until the final submission deadline.
  • Students who miss the deadline for course selection will not be able to select their courses until the system is reactivated after the allocation has been run. 

Course Selection - Rules

  • There is no limit on the number of courses students can list in the other categories.  The system assumes a significant difference in preference among categories, and a minor preference based on sequence of listing within a category.
  • Students cannot take courses that take place at the same time or overlap on the time table.  
  • Students cannot take a course for which they do not have the pre- or co-requisite.
  • Full-time JD students must take a minimum of 13 credits and a maximum of 16 credits per term; and a minimum of 28 credits and a maximum of 32 credits per academic year. The January Intensive credit will be allocated to the Winter term, and students in an intensive will end up with up to 17 Winter term credits.  But students enrolled in a January intensive may take 17 credits in the Winter term, and a total of 33 credits in the academic year.  
  • Students can consult the exam schedule while choosing courses in order to review their exam schedule.  Note that students who have two classes that meet on the same day can ask the Records Office to move one of them.
  • Students applying for clinics that have an application process must request to be registered for that clinic after they have been accepted.  Please adhere to the individual application deadline of that clinic.  (Most applications are due the same day as the course selection submission). 
  • Half-Time JD students must take a minimum of 6 credits and a maximum of 8 credits per term; and a minimum of 14 credits and a maximum of 16 credits per academic year. Because students must list twice as many courses as they need each term, half-time JD students must select at least 16 credits for each semester in the course selection process.
  • Combined Program Students are exempt from the minimum course load requirements, but are still subject to a maximum credit load of 32 JD credits, which include out-of-division courses.  Half-year graduate courses are the equivalent of 2 law school credits, and students must adhere to the maximum credit load using that equivalency.
  • Please note the limitations on Letter of Permission and Incoming Exchange students.  They are not permitted to Moot or do Clinical Work, and are barred from some classes.
  • Students must choose courses for the entire academic year. Students must choose courses for both terms during the summer course selection process.  
  • In consideration of other students, students waitlisted in a course that they have no intention of taking should drop the course.
  • Intensive Courses: Students should select three intensive courses during the year they are filling the Intersession requirement.

Course Selection - Anomalies

  • Students can enrol in the Upper Year Moot as they would any other course.  (But note, please, it has an earlier add/drop deadline than the other winter courses.)  Try-outs for Competitive Moots are held early in the term, before the add/drop deadline so students can adjust their schedules depending on the results of the try-outs.
  • Students who want to earn coaching credit in the year after their moot should read the course description for coaching and notify the Records Office before the add/drop deadline.
  • Some Externships and Clinic placements are by application.  Check the course descriptions to see how to register for a placement, and the relevant deadlines.
  • Directed Research applications are due one week before the add/drop deadline.  They must include a description of the project and be signed by the supervising faculty member.
  • There are some categorical rules limiting courses to just once per academic year.  These include workshops, out-of-division courses, and directed research projects.
  • Intensive Courses: Students should select three intensive courses if they are participating in the intensive course allocation. 

 

2)  Post-allocation Schedule Viewing - 

The course selection system will be closed in order to run the allocation. Students will be placed into courses based on the global allocation that meets the highest number of student preferences.  After the allocation is completed, students may view the courses for which they have been confirmed and/or waitlisted. The view-only period is brief. 

3)  Post-allocation- Waitlists & Conditional Drops

  • Students who are allocated fewer than 22 credits will be moved to top positions on waitlists before course-selection re-opens.
  • Once the course selection is re-opened, students who do not have enough credits should add courses that have open seats to bring themselves up to the credit minimum. 
  • Students will automatically be placed on the waitlists of courses they categorised as "great" and did not get, provided the course was ranked higher by the student than the lowest ranked course in which he or she is enrolled. If a student's waitlist number is greater than 20, they may not see the position. (Rather, they will be informed they are on the waitlist.)
  • Important:  During the add/drop process, students cannot be added to courses that pose a conflict with their existing schedule.  For example, if adding a course would put a student over the credit limit, the system will not add the course to the student's schedule.  To address this, students should list a "conditional drop" to their waitlist request.   This instructs the system which course the student wishes to drop in the event a seat in the waitlisted course becomes available.  Similarly, students who are in a course that meets on Monday mornings but wish to replace the course with a different course that meets at the same time, should list the course that poses a time conflict as their "conditional drop."  The system cannot add a course that conflicts with the student's schedule, but the conditional drop instructs the system to drop the currently enrolled course in favour of the preferred course should an opening becomes available. 
  • For the first few days of the add/drop period, students can add themselves to waitlists and enter conditional drops.  The first set of requested changes will all be processed at once after a few days, and from then on several times a day. 

4) How to Resolve Flagged Waitlist Requests in Cognomos

  • A red flag indicates that Cognomos cannot grant a waitlist request because doing so would render the student's schedule invalid.  The most likely reason a request is flagged is because getting into the course would put the student over the term- or year- credit limit (16 or 32, respectively).  Another reason for a flag might be that getting into the course would create a time conflict with another course the student is already in.  In both of these cases, the student can resolve the conflict by creating an automatic drop that will be triggered to make room for the additional credits or eliminate the time conflict.
  • Requests for courses with pre-requisites or co-requisites will be flagged if the student does not have the required course.  
  • In the add/drop period students should not request courses that meet at the same time as another course in which they are enrolled, unless they list that course as a "conditional drop" (offering to drop the conflicting course if admitted to the course they are requesting.)  Failure to do so will result in a red-flagged request that cannot be met.
  • Students must have a valid schedule in order to participate in the add/drop process.  Sometimes students are inadvertently placed in two courses that meet at the same time, or are over the term or academic credit limit.  When this happens *all* of their add/drop requests are red-flagged, and *none* of them can be fulfilled.  That student's enrolment will stay frozen until the schedule is made valid again.
  • Students should not request courses that will put their enrollment above the credit maximum (16 credits per term for full time students, exclusive of intensive course credits) unless they list the course they wish to drop to make room for the requested course.  Failure to do so will result in a red-flagged request that cannot be met.

5) Direct Add/Drop-First Come/First Served

It is important to pay attention to enrolment and waitlists and keep them up-to-date throughout the course selection process.  Students who decide they do not want to be enrolled in a particular course should drop it as soon as possible. Staying enrolled in or on the waitlist for an unwanted course causes three potential problems:  (1) it could prevent another student from getting access to that course, and (2)  it can cost tuition dollars and (3) it may also result in the course remaining on the student's transcript.  

Students will be responsible for any fees and academic penalties incurred if they do not cancel courses by the appropriate deadline. 

  • After the first round of add/drop requests are processed, students will be able to add and drop courses on a first-come-first-served basis.  Requests will be processed several times a day.
  • Students will receive an email when they are placed into a course.
  • Students with the minimum number of credits for the year will be limited to five waitlist requests.
  • Students will receive an email when they are first on the waitlist, but were unable to enrol in a course because of a conflict.  If this happens student will stay at the top of the waitlist.   The student should identify the conflict (e.g. adding the course would have put them over the credit limit, or a time conflict) and add a "conditional drop" to their request.
  • When adjusting courses, student must keep track of their conditional drops and be careful not to drop a course by mistake.  Another student will be admitted to that course.  A student who drops a course with a wait list, even accidentally, can only be added to the bottom of the waiting list.
  • Waitlist Courtesy to others: Students may keep their names on any course waitlist until the end of the add/drop period. However, in fairness to others lower down on the waitlist, please delete the course from your schedule as soon as you are sure that you no longer want the course.
  • Waitlist Courtesy to oneself:  Students sometimes list a course as a conditional drop and then lose track of them.  Weeks or months later they rise to the top of that waitlist, and the conditional drop is triggered.  When that happens there is nothing the Records Office can do.  Students' seats have been given to someone else, and the only recourse will be to put the student's name back on the waitlist.  Please do not let this happen--review your waitlist requests regularly, and eliminate conditional drops if you've decided you do not wish to make that swap!!

Students are given an opportunity to make changes to their programs of study over the summer and for the first few days of each  semester.  See Deadline Dates for details.  At the beginning of the term, we will upload students' courses into Acorn.  This will provide a snapshot of enrolment shortly before Labour Day (in the Fall term) and shortly before the start of classes in January (in the Winter term).  Students will not be able to use the add/drop functions in Acorn, however.  They will continue to use Course Match for the duration of the add/drop period.  When add/drop is over and the course lists are final, there will be a final upload into Acorn.  

There are different deadlines for submitting requests for Supervised Upper Year Research Paper, Directed Research, and fully graded mooting petitions.  These tend to be one week earlier than the final add/drop deadline.

During the add/drop period, many students attend a number of classes in order to get a sense of the courses. Students who are wait-listed for a course often attend these classes in order to keep up with the material.

Permission to add or drop courses from your program after the dates listed on the Sessional Dates is granted only as an accommodation.  Students should submit a petition to the Accommodations Committee to make such a request.  

 Terminology and Course Numbers

Faculty of Law Courses

Every course and seminar at the Faculty of Law has a 3-digit number followed by a term designation.

e.g. Administrative Law (LAW202H1F)

The last character designates the term, ie. "F"=first term; "S"=second term; "Y"=full year.

Centre of Criminology and Sociolegal StudiesCourses offered at the Centre of Criminology and Sociolegal Studies have a 4-digit number with the prefix "CRI".
Other Faculties

Courses in other Faculties which are cross-listed retain the number used in that Faculty or have a joint number.

e.g. Roman Law (CLA 336Y) or Religion and the Liberal State:  The Case of Islam (RLG3501H1) (JPJ2029H1) (LAW321H1).

Osgoode Hall Law SchoolCourses offered at Osgoode Hall Law School have a 3-digit number with the prefix "OSG" followed by a term designation.
Courses with multiple sectionsCourses offered in more than one section are differentiated by the name of the instructor and a separate section number.
Class hoursThe actual instruction time per week.  
Enrollment numbersThe maximum enrollment for each course or seminar.
WaitlistedOnce a course reaches the maximum enrolment, students are placed on a waitlist. As students adjust their courses (adding and dropping) this opens a spot in the full course. Students should list a conditional drop if they are not able to add the course due to a conflict.  The first student on the waitlist is placed in the spot. Note:  Please be careful!  Students who inadvertently delete a waitlisted course who wish to reverse their decision must re-add the course and will be added to the bottom of the waitlist.
Conditional enrolmentSome clinics, externships, journals and moots are conditional enroll courses. These courses require an application or approval prior to confirmation. Students who select conditional enroll courses will be waitlisted until participation is confirmed for ALL students planning to do this course. It is necessary for students to select the required number of credits for the year or term until all courses are confirmed on their course selection.
Students going away for a term (Letter of Permission, Leave of Absence and  Exchange)Students should select courses only for the term that they will be in residence at the U of T Faculty of Law

Forms

Forms are available on the Forms page. Forms must be completed for the following activities:

  • Capstone Course Form
  • Combined Course Credit Application Form
  • Directed Research Change of Credit Form
  • Directed Research Proposal Form
  • Request for One Additional Credit
  • Supervised Upper Year Research Form