Taking a semester off in Undergrad Forum

[Kellanj]

What's up guys!

Just have a quick question. Because of financial reasons I'm thinking that I might have to take a semester off from undergrad, does anyone think this could be detrimental to my law school admission process?


Thanks!!

[haus]

From the post by numerous non-traditioanl students on this board who have had interrupted academic records of various lengths who have mostly reported that their cycles have gone more or less as expected by GPA and LSAT it would seem unlikely that this would have much impact.

I hope that whatever setback you are facing is short lived.

[Kellanj]

Good to hear, thanks man.

[jbagelboy]

Normally I wouldn't recommend it if there is no justifiable cause -- just taking a semester off because you are tired of working or you had a substance abuse problem or something is not going to reflect well -- but if you can document the financial strain and you explain it in your academic addendum (which will be required and stipulated on the LSAC app), it should not count against you and your cycle will go as your numbers would indicate.

For your own sake though and the wholeness of your collegiate experience, I would not recommend leaving school if possible to stay. Obviously if it will be very detrimental to your family, you must do the right thing

[CR2012]

I took a semester off to work a job in a field related to my major. I simply included an addendum in all of my applications explaining the absence. Interestingly enough, every school I applied to requested an addendum explaining any time spent away from school.

[sap]

I took a medical leave. My only comment on this is it may affect your graduation if you go to a small school - I ended up needing to take an extra semester because I was a hard science major and some of the prereqs I needed were only offered the semester I took off. It * may * affect your cycle if for this reason you can't finish your apps to get in early for rolling basis decisions because of grade delays. If you're a 4.0/180 obvs you'll be fine whether your application gets looked at in late January or not, but if you're a border case, it might mess you up.