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After reading this post (http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=159462) the idea came to me that I may have a convincing enough argument for a past university to expunge grades that now seem to be affecting my admissions odds.

I started out in a community college, where I earned a 3.88 GPA (90 credits - changed majors). Then I transferred to a university where I withdrew from all but one class in the first semester, and failed all classes the next semester. Then I spent a couple of years out of school and eventually transferred to a university where I took correspondence courses for a year and earned around a 3.7 GPA (25 credits). Then I transferred to a fairly decent traditional university and have a 4.1 GPA (40 credits, counting A+ grades as 4.3). I am set to graduate next year with a BBA in Accounting / M.S. Accy.

The grounds on which I would request the low-performing semester to be expunged are as follows:

1. My performance before and after indicates a problem that occurred during that academic year.

2. I was incorrectly diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder by the school psychiatrist halfway through the first semester and prescribed psychoactive medications to treat said illness. The medications chemically induced severe clinical depression which culminated in suicide attempts. And in the face of their staggering failure to treat my condition, the university required, by threat of force, that I continue treatment (that is, they threatened to call the campus police to drag me out of my dorm room to counselling sessions if I refused to go). This continued through the end of the second semester.

3. I never set foot in a classroom during the semester that I failed every class. (However, I attended weekly counselling sessions.)

4. After leaving the university, I was correctly diagnosed with autism.

I plan to take my case to the registrar, judiciary committee, and to the dean if necessary, in order to request that either the entire year, or the second semester only be recorded as withdrawals. If anyone is familiar with grade expunging, are these arguments persuasive or not?

If I am successful, would the resulting changes affect how my GPA is calculated for LSAC purposes?

This is easier said than done, just a heads up.

I think you should at least try. You have nothing to lose by trying. But what I might have you look at is starting off by looking into getting a retroactive medical withdrawal for the term you failed. If you were able to do this, you'd get regular Ws for that term, not WFs.

When you file for this, I'm sure you won't use quite the same wording you did here. But just to be sure, please consider rewording this bit:

2. I was incorrectly diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder by the school psychiatrist halfway through the first semester and prescribed psychoactive medications to treat said illness. The medications chemically induced severe clinical depression which culminated in suicide attempts. And in the face of their staggering failure to treat my condition, the university required, by threat of force, that I continue treatment (that is, they threatened to call the campus police to drag me out of my dorm room to counselling sessions if I refused to go). This continued through the end of the second semester.

To say something more like this:

I was incorrectly diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder by the school psychiatrist halfway through the first semester and prescribed psychoactive medications to treat said illness. The medications chemically induced severe clinical depression which culminated in suicide attempts. Despite my expressed concerns about the treatment, the university required, [cut this: by threat of force,] that I continue treatment. This continued through the end of the second semester. At that point, I left the university and sought treatment elsewhere.

Then wrap up by saying that after you left the uni, you were correctly diagnosed with Autism. That the school psych's misdiagnosis caused you to be treated with drugs which were incorrect for your condition, and which had severe and disabling side effects which caused you to fail your classes. Back all this up with a current doctor's note explaining your diagnosis of Autism, and how you do not have PTSD or BPD, and how the meds used to treat those illnesses often cause the side effects you mentioned, and would have been disabling to someone who does not have PTSD or BPD.

I feel you have nothing to lose by trying to get this retroactive medical withdrawal. I wish you the best of luck in all this.

It's definitely worth a shot. Schools vary tremendously as to how they treat these petitions. Don't let some lower-level advisor tell you no; make sure any refusal comes from someone with actual authority.

I was successful in getting two F's retroactively withdrawn and my case wasn't even half as compelling as yours seems to be. My first UG had their own simple application process for it that I just simply followed. Two professors approvd, one said basically go fuck yourself and one wasn't at the University anymore and his department chair said no (I actually tried tracking him down on the internet and he still said no). Definitely no harm at all trying so definitely do it. Try and get all of the F's withdrawn. Good luck! Those two F's helped me get a 3.5 instead of a 3.3!

anilomevin wrote:After reading this post (http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=159462) the idea came to me that I may have a convincing enough argument for a past university to expunge grades that now seem to be affecting my admissions odds.

I started out in a community college, where I earned a 3.88 GPA (90 credits - changed majors). Then I transferred to a university where I withdrew from all but one class in the first semester, and failed all classes the next semester. Then I spent a couple of years out of school and eventually transferred to a university where I took correspondence courses for a year and earned around a 3.7 GPA (25 credits). Then I transferred to a fairly decent traditional university and have a 4.1 GPA (40 credits, counting A+ grades as 4.3). I am set to graduate next year with a BBA in Accounting / M.S. Accy.

The grounds on which I would request the low-performing semester to be expunged are as follows:

1. My performance before and after indicates a problem that occurred during that academic year.

2. I was incorrectly diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder by the school psychiatrist halfway through the first semester and prescribed psychoactive medications to treat said illness. The medications chemically induced severe clinical depression which culminated in suicide attempts. And in the face of their staggering failure to treat my condition, the university required, by threat of force, that I continue treatment (that is, they threatened to call the campus police to drag me out of my dorm room to counselling sessions if I refused to go). This continued through the end of the second semester.

3. I never set foot in a classroom during the semester that I failed every class. (However, I attended weekly counselling sessions.)

4. After leaving the university, I was correctly diagnosed with autism.

I plan to take my case to the registrar, judiciary committee, and to the dean if necessary, in order to request that either the entire year, or the second semester only be recorded as withdrawals. If anyone is familiar with grade expunging, are these arguments persuasive or not?

If I am successful, would the resulting changes affect how my GPA is calculated for LSAC purposes?

I failed out of two colleges, and got my grades retroactively withdrawn from the one I tried to have them expunged at. The reasons resulting in medical withdrawal were somewhat similar to yours. I think you are going about this incorrectly. First, you are asking the university for a favor. I would drop the accusatory and hostile language. Instead I would treat it as a nobody's fault situation. Talk about how you sought help at the time, and unfortunately instead of things getting better you were misdiagnosed and had a bad reaction to the medication. Feel free to describe the reaction however you like. Get a doctor to vouch for this. Preferably the doctor who diagnosed your autism. Also have that doctor write some sort of explanation about how such poor outcomes are common with people who have undiagnosed autism. Also, stress how after you were properly diagnosed you had a significant amount of success, and include transcripts to document it. I would also suggest finding out who is in charge of making these decisions and explain why you are now seeking to have your grades withdrawn (I.e. it is significantly impacting your law school prospects). Try to do this via a phone call, or better yet in person.

Your story sounds very compelling, but based on my experience making a connection, stressing the nobody's fault aspect, and having a lot of medical documentation helped significantly. Message me if you have further questions.