Top Law Schools

Hey guys,

I'm a 1L at the bottom TT school. I'm about 3/4 of the way through 1L but my family's financial difficulties are forcing me to drop out. But law school is my dream, and I still want to go back in maybe 1-2 years. What would be my chances of getting in reapplying? I got a 161 LSAT score out of undergrad with a 3.2 GPA, should I retake the exam and see if I can get into a better school?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Geta a job->Retake->NU?

Sorry to hear about your situation; best of luck.

IvoryTie wrote:Hey guys,

I'm a 1L at the bottom TT school. I'm about 3/4 of the way through 1L but my family's financial difficulties are forcing me to drop out. But law school is my dream, and I still want to go back in maybe 1-2 years. What would be my chances of getting in reapplying? I got a 161 LSAT score out of undergrad with a 3.2 GPA, should I retake the exam and see if I can get into a better school?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm pretty certain once you enroll in school you can't take the LSAT again. Honestly if you already tried law school and ended up at the bottom of the class, I'd suggest thinking long and hard about going back

TB12 wrote:

IvoryTie wrote:Hey guys,

I'm a 1L at the bottom TT school. I'm about 3/4 of the way through 1L but my family's financial difficulties are forcing me to drop out. But law school is my dream, and I still want to go back in maybe 1-2 years. What would be my chances of getting in reapplying? I got a 161 LSAT score out of undergrad with a 3.2 GPA, should I retake the exam and see if I can get into a better school?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm pretty certain once you enroll in school you can't take the LSAT again. Honestly if you already tried law school and ended up at the bottom of the class, I'd suggest thinking long and hard about going back

I wasn't at the bottom of my class though. My classes are year long, but I did well on my midterm exams. Top 5 grade in Civ Pro, and solid Bs/B+s in all of the rest.

If I can't retake the LSAT, then what are my chances getting in again with my current stats?

A month ago, you posted about transferring, citing that you were in the top 10% of your class. Now, you just want to drop out? Thats a big switch in one month. Do your parents need help paying the bills or did this site just scare the living crap out of you will all the negativity towards anyone not going to HYS?

kakaa001 wrote:A month ago, you posted about transferring, citing that you were in the top 10% of your class. Now, you just want to drop out? Thats a big switch in one month. Do your parents need help paying the bills or did this site just scare the living crap out of you will all the negativity towards anyone not going to HYS?

I did, and I still believe I'm in the top 10% of my class because of my school's curve, but I don't know for sure. But right now my family needs my help to support them (I live with an extended family with grandparents and siblings) and I can't continue law school right now. I'd like to go back though and would appreciate any advice regarding reapplying sometime later.

TB12 wrote:

IvoryTie wrote:Hey guys,

I'm a 1L at the bottom TT school. I'm about 3/4 of the way through 1L but my family's financial difficulties are forcing me to drop out. But law school is my dream, and I still want to go back in maybe 1-2 years. What would be my chances of getting in reapplying? I got a 161 LSAT score out of undergrad with a 3.2 GPA, should I retake the exam and see if I can get into a better school?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm pretty certain once you enroll in school you can't take the LSAT again. Honestly if you already tried law school and ended up at the bottom of the class, I'd suggest thinking long and hard about going back

I'm not sure if this is true.

I would recommend talking to someone in the Administration at your school. They should have a better idea of what you are allowed to do. I doubt there are too many of us on here that would even know what your options are.

You can just take a leave of absence at your current school without dropping out. Seems a shame to have to drop out now with your grades though. You can't get a part time job to help them out?

Villanova3 wrote:

TB12 wrote:

IvoryTie wrote:Hey guys,

I'm a 1L at the bottom TT school. I'm about 3/4 of the way through 1L but my family's financial difficulties are forcing me to drop out. But law school is my dream, and I still want to go back in maybe 1-2 years. What would be my chances of getting in reapplying? I got a 161 LSAT score out of undergrad with a 3.2 GPA, should I retake the exam and see if I can get into a better school?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm pretty certain once you enroll in school you can't take the LSAT again. Honestly if you already tried law school and ended up at the bottom of the class, I'd suggest thinking long and hard about going back

I'm not sure if this is true.

Pretty sure it's not.

Can you really not take the LSAT anymore? I think the sticking point in this type of situation is figuring out how to explain this when you reapply. If you've dropped out of law school and are reapplying, I don't see any reason for LSAC to bar you.

Presumably your credits expire at some point (I thought there was some ABA requirement that you have something like 48 months from the date of enrollment to finish your J.D.).

Your situation (school, not family, sorry to hear about your troubles) isn't that bad. When you reapply, schools will want to know what your grades were. The fact that you were top 10% lends a lot of credence to the fact that it was personal problems, not an inability to do the work. The fact that they were external problems too means you're not a mental health risk (school are worried about this--at my undergrad I heard of people who had attempted suicide being put on forced leaves of absence).

Also, do take a leave of absence if it doesn't cost you any/a significant amount of money. That lends even more credence to the situation thing. It'll show that dropping out really was a last resort, not an opportunistic gambit to start over elsewhere.

cut your losses breh

I was under the impression that as long as you didn't finish a full year of classes, you could drop out and retake and reapply.

[quote="reformed calvinist"]
Presumably your credits expire at some point (I thought there was some ABA requirement that you have something like 48 months from the date of enrollment to finish your J.D.)./quote]

You have 84 months, being 7 years, from the date you enroll to finish your JD
(I presume that's what you meant)

dingbat wrote:

reformed calvinist wrote: Presumably your credits expire at some point (I thought there was some ABA requirement that you have something like 48 months from the date of enrollment to finish your J.D.)./quote]

You have 84 months, being 7 years, from the date you enroll to finish your JD
(I presume that's what you meant)

That long? Wow. So...you can take up to what, 4 years off before you would need to re-enroll? So, if you drop out after 1L and reapply before the time is up, you are technically applying for readmission to your old school, or as a transfer student? Or can you choose to begin 1L again if a school will let you?

And does that mean after 84 months you have to start from the beginning, or that you are ineligible to earn a J.D. for the rest of your life?

reformed calvinist wrote:

dingbat wrote:

reformed calvinist wrote: Presumably your credits expire at some point (I thought there was some ABA requirement that you have something like 48 months from the date of enrollment to finish your J.D.)./quote]

You have 84 months, being 7 years, from the date you enroll to finish your JD
(I presume that's what you meant)

That long? Wow. So...you can take up to what, 4 years off before you would need to re-enroll? So, if you drop out after 1L and reapply before the time is up, you are technically applying for readmission to your old school, or as a transfer student? Or can you choose to begin 1L again if a school will let you?

And does that mean after 84 months you have to start from the beginning, or that you are ineligible to earn a J.D. for the rest of your life?

it means you'd have to start from the beginning. also you can definitely start at a new law school and not as a transfer student as long as you haven't completed a year of classes. some kid on tls FAILED out of his first law school and applied to other schools a few years later w/o retaking the lsat. his new cycle was pretty much in line with his numbers and his conclusion was it's all about numbers. granted, this was for low t1/upper t2 schools. i imagine the top schools would view such behavior as a much bigger risk. good luck!

reformed calvinist wrote:

dingbat wrote:

reformed calvinist wrote: Presumably your credits expire at some point (I thought there was some ABA requirement that you have something like 48 months from the date of enrollment to finish your J.D.)./quote]

You have 84 months, being 7 years, from the date you enroll to finish your JD
(I presume that's what you meant)

That long? Wow. So...you can take up to what, 4 years off before you would need to re-enroll? So, if you drop out after 1L and reapply before the time is up, you are technically applying for readmission to your old school, or as a transfer student? Or can you choose to begin 1L again if a school will let you?

And does that mean after 84 months you have to start from the beginning, or that you are ineligible to earn a J.D. for the rest of your life?

The rationalle of 7 years is probably geared towared part-time (which is 4 1/2 years on a full load to begin with)
Yes, it means you can take a 4 year leave of absence, although that's probably a bad idea as you'll forget everything you learned.
However, taking a leave of absence is not the same as dropping out (and is a lot safer, as you don't need to apply for admissions, you just tell the school you're back)

Seven years? Sheesh. Not sure it's worth the wait.

Or maybe it is. Maybe I'll be in a better place then.

what's with the necro?