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Dear TLS members,

I need your advice. Some quick info: I scored well on my LSAT, received a full ride to a lower ranked law school, and did very bad first semester because of a medical issue. I documented the disability with the school but just was not able to work my situation out and ended up attempting finals. Luckily, I was able to stay out of academic probation

The questions I would like to ask have been brought up before, but I have yet to come across a response from a student with real experience or someone with actual knowledge about the situation and detailed documents to support their claims

My question is, what happens when a student voluntarily withdraws after their first semester when they try to re-apply to another law school? If it is done with a documented medical issue that prevented student from performing? If

Do their first semester grades become the sole indicator of how strong their new applications will be?
Will re-taking the LSAT have any effect...perhaps if the student applies a year or two after withdrawing? Or would this be useless?


I can't help but believe re-taking should have some bearing because a student with an average LSAT score and bad first semester grades may not be able to get into another school without re-taking.

Time or money is not a concern anymore, my primary goal is to earn the degree at the best school I can gain admission into.

Thank you guys for your replies, if you have any questions, I would not mind answering them!

Tag out of curiosity.

So let’s say money isn’t an issue at all. What if, instead of transferring, you just reapplied for the next cycle and never mentioned it. Would this come back to bite you? I can say from experience that virtually every govt or firm position to which I’ve applied just asks for a scan of your official transcript. It would follow that, if you have an official transcript from the (new) school, the fact that you bombed at a prior school would never come up, right?

To be clear, I’m not offering advice or speaking from experience or some point of authority. I just know I’ve wondered the same thing, in the hypothetical, and wanted to add to the convo.

While I doubt jobs would care, schools will ask if you've ever matriculated anywhere else, so will find out about the first go at law school. And the bar will ask about everywhere you've matriculated once you get to that point. So for reapplication purposes, you can't just never mention it.

I have no experience with this, but a) Will the deadlines allow you to apply with both 1st semester and 2nd semester grades? 2) If not, Can you take a year off and apply with both First and Second semester grades? 3) Can you submit your application with your 1st semester grades noting the medical problem and then send an addendum with the 2nd semester grades before a final decision is made?

My hunch is that while retaking the LSAT would not hurt, showing a strong 2nd semester performance would be more important.