Top Law Schools

.

Not at all.

john09121 wrote:I'm currently studying abroad and dealing with intense chronic illness. I'm strongly considering taking a medical withdrawal from my courses. How would this affect my admissions chances?

No one cares. Just get and keep documentation.

But, seriously, you are sick and your concern is law school
Admissions? Show some common sense and respect for your health and well- being.

Yup, I had a medical withdrawal for something a lot more unsavory and still got into some good T14s. I provided details in a supplement to my application and that seemed to work well. One school asked for more info and once I provided that they admitted me.

I suggest withdrawing sooner rather than later so you don't risk your grades.

Get well soon.

I have a medical withdrawal on my record, but I do not think it has affected my cycle

Most of the time, a medical withdrawal won't negatively affect you. The only time it might come into play if it's a chronic illness that will persist into law school and likely progress to make it even more likely that you will end up medically withdrawing from law school. Even then, it's not a definite that it'll negatively affect you.

What if the illness is depression, I heard it can hurt your admissions. Is this true?

amuseboosh wrote:What if the illness is depression, I heard it can hurt your admissions. Is this true?

My issue was not depression but it was something similar and actually more taboo. It has not hurt me thus far in my cycle - I have been performing as well as or better than LSN/LSP predicted. I will say though, that if you are trying to justify an upward trend in GPA using a health or other reason, it generally won't work. I thought maybe law schools might ignore a semester where I was struggling, and take into account the fact that my GPA was wayyy higher if you disregard that semester. But nope - I'm having exactly the same results as people on LSN with my LSAT and my cumulative GPA, NOT the same results as people on LSN with my LSAT and my GPA minus the unhealthy semester.

ETA: I wrote a fairly long addendum to all my applications explaining what my situation was, how I reacted to it, how I progressed, and how I've proven myself since that time to be ready to thrive in law school. This approach seems to have worked for me.