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I was academically dismissed from a T4 law school after 1L following some extenuating circumstances that impacted my grades. I petitioned for readmission and it was granted. After going back to school, I worked hard and managed to place in the top 20% of my class. Under normal circumstances, I feel as though I would have a pretty good shot transferring to BU or BC. However, I'm wondering if my chances will be negatively impacted by the prior academic dismissal. My hope is that my performance upon readmission will outshine that, but I can't be too sure. Any thoughts?

I think this will be too unique a situation for anyone to offer anecdotal evidence. But my instinct is that the dismissal will count against you, since you'll have to report that. And whether it's accurate or not, the fact that you performed well this last semester is likely going to be read as the consequence of you being given a do-over, not improved competence.

Thanks for the insight. My impression is that, no matter how justified, the dismissal would invariably have a negative impact that would preclude me from both transferring out and success during OCIs. My concern is that any success during law school will have an asterisk on it despite the fact that my previous underperformance was as a result of factors beyond my control.

cavalier1138 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 05, 2021 4:55 am

And whether it's accurate or not, the fact that you performed well this last semester is likely going to be read as the consequence of you being given a do-over, not improved competence.

I think this is a little overstated. I agree that the dismissal may have some negative impact, but I don’t think subsequent success will be read only as you had a leg up bc you’d done the class once already.

Do you have any updates on how your transfer applications went? I'm in the same boat (still waiting to hear back) but I went back to school 5 years later and have a 3.83 GPA. I've done a couple interviews for summer associate positions and internships/externships and my previous dismissal and the "comeback" was actually looked at positively and it shows you are very resilient.

I personally don't think it would have as much of a negative impact as people are saying.