Blew up one single semester? Forum

[Anonymous User]

CCN 2L here. Did fine jobs in two of the past three semesters (like 3.8-ish) but blew up 1L spring for very unlucky reasons and the cumulative grade is like 3.6+. Assuming I keep doing well in 2L spring, how does the bad semester look in the application if I apply the next summer?

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Meant to ask about clerkship but mistakenly posted this to the legal employment section. My bad!

[Anonymous User]

I had a similar situation (but I was at UT-Austin, so I didn't have the CCN brand). I was able to get a clerkship (although I did work for one year after gradation) but I basically worked my A$$ off my 2L year and the first semester of my 3L year. I made sure I took a lot of blackletter law classes so judges could see that I knew what I was doing academically and that my second-semester grades were really just a fluke due to personal problems. I chose to apply for clerkships for the year after I graduated because I wanted my 3L fall grades to help solidify my GPA. I sought out advanced-level courses with professors whose classes I a B- in 2l Spring and made sure I made a solid A. I formed relationships with those professors and one of them ended up writing me a letter of rec. where he mentioned what I was going through the semester I tanked my grades.

I would say overall there were three big repercussions: (1) law review was out of the question, so, especially at a lower-ranked school, that took me out of contention for a lot of clerking opportunities; (2) while my friends were able to relax during 2L and 3L, I was constantly studying and worrying about grades, now that I am a few years removed, I really wish I had focused more on relationships with my peers and enjoying a the relative lack-of-responsibilities than on my GPA; (3) I was not competitive for Districts in big cities, so after one year of living in Austin/Dallas/Houston, I had to move to a small-ish town in Texas (I actually ended up loving my life there, but this was still a hassle/inconvenience), I found it hard to form relationships when I knew I would only be there for a year.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Meant to ask about clerkship but mistakenly posted this to the legal employment section. My bad!

I had something like this but grades were a bit better and school was a bit worse. Clerked and got traction on a SCOTUS application. Don’t despair my dude.