Deeming of External Scholarships and Awards

All students are encouraged to apply for funding from other organizations during their law school years. For instance, some students may be eligible for tuition support from their parents’ /guardians' employers or Indigenous students can apply to their bands for funding. Students in combined programs may also be eligible for Ontario Graduate Scholarships or Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) fellowships.

Students applying to the Financial Aid program must declare all scholarships, awards, and bursaries as part of their resources. Some awards are excluded from the resource contribution calculations. Students are required to submit documentation showing the bursary and/or scholarship amounts.

Calculations of Award Contributions for the purposes of the Financial Aid calculations

  • Awards of $15,000 or less - 50% of the award will be included as student's resource
  • Awards over $15,000 - $7,500 plus 70% of the amount over $15,000 will be included in the resource calculation

For example, a student receiving an award of $20,000 will be deemed $11,000 as available resource 

  • $7,500 plus
  • $3,500 = (20,000-15,000)*.7

 Awards Excluded from Resource Contributions

The following awards are NOT included in student resource calculations:

  • Indigenous students’ external funding received due to Indigenous status
  • Government grants
  • Centre for International Experience - CIE bursaries
  • JD/MBA student Rotman awards
  • Internal scholarships

Salary bonuses and Articling bonuses are treated as income, not Awards