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I'm a second semester senior who planned to graduate in the Spring, apply to law school in August/September, and work a job I had set up for the next year in the meanwhile. My LSAT is 175 (FLEX though) and my gpa is 3.6ish. However, this semester I've had an intense amount of anxiety culminating in my missing a couple of weeks of class straight and some very important assignments. It started with an overwhelming fear of death maybe exacerbated by the pandemic that made it hard to focus or sleep and spread to a fear of handing in a particular couple of big assignments and then spread to a fear of attending class at all (no doubt related to not handing in assignments). I have had anxiety my whole life but it hasn't been this bad since early high school. I'm due to see a psychiatrist soon, but am wondering about what I should do—withdraw due to illness, and delay my plans and have the obvious negative of my having withdrawn, or continue on and get pretty bad grades my final semester of college. I have already dropped one class and switched another to pass fail in an attempt to lighten my load but the anxiety hasn't gotten any better.

Honestly, at this point I haven't resolved the issue at all, much less to the extent that I'm not sure it won't happen again, but on the other hand withdrawing and graduating late seems like it has such extreme downsides that it might be worth it to push through, especially if they can get me on tranquilizers or something similar that will allow me to stop panicking at the mere thought of going to class in the short term. If I do withdraw to take time to get help, can I just call it a medical problem and leave it at that? Would it be better for me to work/volunteer while taking time off or not? I feel like over the course of the last month or so I've destroyed everything I've worked on the past few years. Any advice welcome.

When do you graduate? Spring 2021 or Spring 2022?

Set to graduate this spring (2021). I know it’s really soon, I’m just worried about the gpa damage. Graduating late is bad, but maybe having a lower gpa is worse?

First, good for you on seeking help from a psychiatrist/therapist. It will get better.

I’m sure someone can confirm how withdrawing affects your LSAC gpa, but time off does not affect you negatively. A lower gpa does.

Consider delaying your graduation date and delaying applying to law school. Your LSAT score puts you in a great spot and work experience helps in interviews later on (and in my experience people coming from jobs do better in law school than people coming straight through).

It’s also fine to take time off and travel or just work on yourself between undergrad and law school if you push back your graduation. I went from a spring grad date to a December one and everyone in my OCI interviews messed up the math and thought I’d just graduated early.

What is most important is your health. You’ll need it to be successful in applications, at school, and working after. Do what you need to do for you.

Since you are on track to graduate this spring, my advice would be finish. It is late March and colleges usually are done in early May. April will be a tough month, but it will pass before you know it. That way, you will have an undergraduate degree behind you and the summer to work on yourself. You can always defer your law school admissions and take a year off. Please get help.

Also, my DM's are open if you need to chat.

Medication and therapy should be your first priority and please please please don't make the mistake that so many do where they stop taking their medication or going to therapy because they "got better". I have seen too many people feel like they didn't need help anymore and then spiral into a disaster. Talk to your professors and the dean to see what can be done, try any technique that has worked for you in the past. Speak truthfully and openly to your friends, get a great support group and then decide if you can get through the rest of the school year. There is help out there, seek out as much of it as you can.

I do have to ask though, Law school and the legal industry are some of the most competitive, stressful endeavors a person could go through. I would really look into it and see if it is something that you are comfortable with.