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ok, so my gpa sucks and my lsat was (for me) a disappointment... but anyhow, i have decent softs: twice volunteered for Obama campaign, studied abroad, backpacked europe twice, professional sand sculptor, held leadership positions in my fraternity (phi sigma kappa), financial analyst summer internship, non profit lsat tutoring (spare me the "165 is too low to be tutoring" comments plz), profitable intrade investo/portfolio manager, amateur stand up comedy, and of course I've held down the same serving job fort the past 6 or so years .

but here is the kicker. In addition to my urm status, I also began suffering from epilepsy my freshman year of college... very serious stuff. had over 30 grand mal seizures while i was in school, which was out of state. as a result, I missed a lot of classes due to the fact that I was constantly traveling back and forth to New Jersey to see my neurologist. I've been out of school for the years now, and the epilepsy has completely subsided (and yes, I do have documents to back my statements up), , thereby alleviating any potential concerns going forward. it is also worth mentioning that while my GPA was not stellar, most of my classes that I did poorly in were easy classes while i generally excelled in most, but not all, of my harder coursework... this was mainly due to the fact that I was often not present and at my school the easier lecture courses took attendance.

also, i majored in finance at a nationally recognized state university.

your thoughts ? and btw, i have obtained an lsac fee waiver

Try and retroactively withdraw from the classes you failed. That's probably a pretty legit reason to get rid of at least some of those Ds/Fs.

honestly Georgetown would be ideal, but i realize this is unrealistic ... Fordham and William and Mary (and any t14 obviously) would also be wonderful ( but then again, I will be applying to virtually every school due to the fact that I have the LSAC fee waiver)... and how do you retroactively withdraw from classes you failed? I thought that LSAC factors in D/F repeats that you had during undergrad ?

They do -- you have to go to your school and talk them into it. It's absolutely worth the time and effort if it might bump your GPA up to the 3.0 level.

I would worry less about the retroactive withdrawal and more about a carefully crafted application package. Georgetown is not outside of your reach. However, I am not sure blanketing the t14 is the best idea just because you can.

That said I hope you have a successful cycle, and do not write off Georgetown because of your numbers. You have a shot.

Phlash58 wrote:I would worry less about the retroactive withdrawal and more about a carefully crafted application package. Georgetown is not outside of your reach. However, I am not sure blanketing the t14 is the best idea just because you can.

That said I hope you have a successful cycle, and do not write off Georgetown because of your numbers. You have a shot.

i appreciate your optimism for Georgetown, but i was curious.... in regards to your statement on blanketing the t14, in what way would blanketing the schools be detrimental to my candidacy ?

jgotz1118009 wrote:

Phlash58 wrote:I would worry less about the retroactive withdrawal and more about a carefully crafted application package. Georgetown is not outside of your reach. However, I am not sure blanketing the t14 is the best idea just because you can.

That said I hope you have a successful cycle, and do not write off Georgetown because of your numbers. You have a shot.

i appreciate your optimism for Georgetown, but i was curious.... in regards to your statement on blanketing the t14, in what way would blanketing the schools be detrimental to my candidacy ?

First, I did not say it would be detrimental to your candidacy. Harvard, "Hey Georgetown, he applied to me too, guess you aren't so special. . ." is not what was meant. I said it is not a good idea to apply just because you can. Despite your fee waiver, you get a limited amount of free LSAC reports. I think it's three. Then it's $21 a piece thereafter. I am assuming, hoping, that you don't have hundreds of dollars in LSAC reports to throw around just because the application fees are waived- since the waives are given based on financial hardship. Therefore, I think you need more of a reason to apply somewhere than just a need based fee waiver.

I understand the cast a big net philosophy but that should be tempered with some realism and reason.

They may not limit it to three. My statement stands, though.