help! withdrawing from grad school for law school Forum

[gracieb]

Hey,

So I had always wanted to go to law school and when I took the LSAT last year, I panicked and got a 154. This happened because I screwed up the first section BADLY and then only 4 wrong combined last 3 sections after I overcame my anxiety. I froze, I should have canceled. But oh well, it's done now. Anyway, everyone in my family is a lawyer so there is a lot of pressure and my father suggested I get a masters degree in the mean time while studying to retake. This seemed like a great idea, until a few months ago I started having some health problems. The doctors thought I had a rare form cancer and for the past couple months I was grappling with that. Luckily it turned out that I have a less serious underlying condition that they missed that screwed up my results. But, after spending a few months thinking I was dying, I realized that this whole get a masters thing was a total b.s. move out of fear of failing the LSAT again.

So, I'm retaking in October, I have a 3.9 gpa and I consistently practice test over a 165. I want to withdraw from my masters program as it won't really start until the fall. Right now, they are just training me to teach ENC1101 classes. So, I guess my question is, how terrible is all of this going to look? A terrible past LSAT score paired with dropping my masters program? Will they even have to know about the masters program? I have no idea what to do!

Help!

[Knock]

Hey,

So I had always wanted to go to law school and when I took the LSAT last year, I panicked and got a 154. This happened because I screwed up the first section BADLY and then only 4 wrong combined last 3 sections after I overcame my anxiety. I froze, I should have canceled. But oh well, it's done now. Anyway, everyone in my family is a lawyer so there is a lot of pressure and my father suggested I get a masters degree in the mean time while studying to retake. This seemed like a great idea, until a few months ago I started having some health problems. The doctors thought I had a rare form cancer and for the past couple months I was grappling with that. Luckily it turned out that I have a less serious underlying condition that they missed that screwed up my results. But, after spending a few months thinking I was dying, I realized that this whole get a masters thing was a total b.s. move out of fear of failing the LSAT again.

So, I'm retaking in October, I have a 3.9 gpa and I consistently practice test over a 165. I want to withdraw from my masters program as it won't really start until the fall. Right now, they are just training me to teach ENC1101 classes. So, I guess my question is, how terrible is all of this going to look? A terrible past LSAT score paired with dropping my masters program? Will they even have to know about the masters program? I have no idea what to do!

Help!

Don't stress. You have a great GPA, and are testing at a solid level. It is not uncommon to panic and score less than practice tests on the real deal. I don't think withdrawing from the Master's program is going to hurt you. Maybe write an addendum if you are worried, just explaining that you decided it wasn't for you or something. One bad LSAT score isn't likely to hurt you either. Get that 165+ on your retest and you're in a great place. Write an addendum explaining the reason for the score increase, and most schools (and likely all the schools in the range you should be applying) will only look at the highest score. 3.9, 165+, you're looking at some great schools.

Go all out on your studying this time, check out the LSAT Prep and Discussion forum on here. It has some great study guides, that can help you get that score you want; or help you clean up a few errors. You can do it, stay strong, good luck.