Felony Charge vs Felony Conviction Forum

[jason8821]

It's pretty much all in the title. I did all of my research before posting.

I called several random schools, and even one dean at a very good school, and received a number of opinions. I also looked all over the internet. Very few people could give me a solid answer or any for that matter, but the dean I spoke with basically said anything on your record is pretty bad, while a few others didn't seem to think it was a huge deal.

Without going into a ton of detail, I have two citations which i am pretty sure won't be a problem but one involved an initial charge of an F3 for rioting. Anyone experience anything like this, or know if a law school would look at this at all similar to an actual conviction? I know it looks pretty bad, but in reality it was immediately dismissed as almost a laughable charge.

[paratactical]

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[reasonable_man]

I know it looks pretty bad, but in reality it was immediately dismissed as almost a laughable charge.

There are people on the board that can speak to your issues better than I can, but I'm doing pretty crazy research on getting into law school given my record. That being said, I already had my current rap sheet when I started my job at a big firm in NYC. They didn't have any problems with my record because I had disclosed everything and there were no surprises on my background checks.

If you're talking about admissions and you're correct in that the charges were laughable, a good addendum is what you need. Explain the situation without sounding pissed off or trying to explain too much. State the charges, when and where the incident occurred and the outcome. The people reading the addendum are knowledgeable about the law and will be able to discern from the outcome and a sentence or two how seriously to take it.

From what I've read and the advice I've been given, the most important thing is to always over share. You don't want to not disclose or speak about the crimes because, eventually, someone will find them and people are generally considered to look down on the lack of disclosure more than the past bad acts themselves.

Para... I had no idea you were a rebel?!?!

[jason8821]

I guess what I am trying to figure out is what I should do to gauge my target school. My practice LSATs keep getting better, and I would be surprised if I was not decisively over 160 on all my PT's going into Feb. That said, I am trying to figure of if I need to be in the 75th percentile range to have a chance at alot of schools (something I know is often the case for a convicted felon) or will I be treated like everyone else, assuming I can write a reasonable addendum?

[paratactical]

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[jason8821]

Para, thanks for the advice.

I am just hoping that if I end up with an lsat in the low 160's that someone who does not have to answer this question, and shares similiar softs/gpa can get in with a 157, especially given that the charge was almost 6 years ago, and it was not a violent crime or one that involved dishonesty.