Top Law Schools

I started my undergrad in the summer, plus I'm a non-trad who started as a part-time student, then transitioned into full-time. Anyway, I will finish undergrad summer 2011 (the summer before I begin law school) so when I submit my transcript in a month, I will have 10 or so less credit hours than most other applicants; (or so I assume). I will have around 86 credits and I need 122 to graduate. I will take 15 in the fall, 15 in the spring, and 6 in the summer before law school.

Bottom line: will adcomms see the lower credit hour number on my transcript and fear I may not finish in time and therefore treat my application for admissions adversely? Does this warrant an addendum?

they will not care.

Good - my academic advisor acted like I wouldn't be admitted and will have to reapply next year if I didn't explain. Yet, she has never applied to law school or had any first-hand account of this happening to anyone.

angiej wrote:Good - my academic advisor acted like I wouldn't be admitted and will have to reapply next year if I didn't explain. Yet, she has never applied to law school or had any first-hand account of this happening to anyone.

Adcoms absolutely won't care.

BTW, this academic adviser sounds like a great person to be giving students advice on applying to law school

I HATE that some people will choose to give out potentially wrong information rather than just admitting that they have no idea what they are talking about. Do you have an actual pre-law advising office on your campus? If so, I'd utilize their services. Good luck on your cycle!!

angiej wrote:I started my undergrad in the summer, plus I'm a non-trad who started as a part-time student, then transitioned into full-time. Anyway, I will finish undergrad summer 2011 (the summer before I begin law school) so when I submit my transcript in a month, I will have 10 or so less credit hours than most other applicants; (or so I assume). I will have around 86 credits and I need 122 to graduate. I will take 15 in the fall, 15 in the spring, and 6 in the summer before law school.

Bottom line: will adcomms see the lower credit hour number on my transcript and fear I may not finish in time and therefore treat my application for admissions adversely? Does this warrant an addendum?

I had low credit numbers too and it did not impact my cycle at all. Good luck!

phoenix323 wrote:

angiej wrote:Good - my academic advisor acted like I wouldn't be admitted and will have to reapply next year if I didn't explain. Yet, she has never applied to law school or had any first-hand account of this happening to anyone.

Adcoms absolutely won't care.

BTW, this academic adviser sounds like a great person to be giving students advice on applying to law school

I HATE that some people will choose to give out potentially wrong information rather than just admitting that they have no idea what they are talking about. Do you have an actual pre-law advising office on your campus? If so, I'd utilize their services. Good luck on your cycle!!

Thanks for your help - unfortunatley, I do not have a pre-law advisor on my campus (which is a regional campus). My undergrad, though I LOVE it dearly, does not typically send a lot of students off to graduate school, so I have limited resources at my disposal. I went to our school's library to see if I could check out a book on this process and the only thing I found was a book published in 1970. We get a lot of the "throw-aways" from the main campus. I am reading Anna Ivey's law school admissions book and "How to get into the top law schools" by Richard Montauk.

blurbz wrote:

angiej wrote:I started my undergrad in the summer, plus I'm a non-trad who started as a part-time student, then transitioned into full-time. Anyway, I will finish undergrad summer 2011 (the summer before I begin law school) so when I submit my transcript in a month, I will have 10 or so less credit hours than most other applicants; (or so I assume). I will have around 86 credits and I need 122 to graduate. I will take 15 in the fall, 15 in the spring, and 6 in the summer before law school.

Bottom line: will adcomms see the lower credit hour number on my transcript and fear I may not finish in time and therefore treat my application for admissions adversely? Does this warrant an addendum?

I had low credit numbers too and it did not impact my cycle at all. Good luck!

Thanks! And congrats on UIUC!

From what I've seen on TLS, most pre-law advisors seem to be very ignorant of the process.