Splitter with spotty grad school record...am I doomed?
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 11:18 pm
Hi, folks --
I have a feeling I know the answer to my main question, but I figured I had little to lose by asking for your input, anyway. I'm new to this site and unfamiliar with a lot of the "local vernacular," as it were, so please bear with me if I misused "splitter" in my Subject line or failed to use relevant abbreviations below. Here's my situation, which is nearly impossible to condense down to fewer words than what you see here:
I graduated from the University of Georgia in 2001, with an undergrad degree in psychology and a lot of research experience in various labs on campus. My undergrad GPA of 2.96 was pathetic -- reflecting a lack of consistent effort. But due mostly to my research experience and a high GRE score (something in the low 1500s out of 1600 on the part that mattered), I got right into a clinical psychology Ph.D. program at another big state university several hours south of here. Two years later, I made the asinine decision to leave that program after I was forced to take a medical withdrawal mid-semester. My two-year GPA there was around a 3.4. Making matters worse, I discovered when I requested my transcript this past fall that that school thinks I owe them tuition money for my last semester, which is impossible due to my having had a full tuition waiver the whole time I was there. In spite of that impossibility, I couldn't produce the $2000 they say I owe quickly enough to slide in under my target schools' deadlines, and contesting that now-ten-year-old debt will require an out-of-state trip to that campus to collect and distribute the requisite documentation. Thus, that transcript is unavailable, at least for the immediate future.
After an interim year working in retail and advertising, I applied to a couple of other doctoral programs and was again accepted, this time choosing to attend a bottom-tier doctoral program at a for-profit chain university. Unbeknowsnt to me at that time, that school's accreditation was on thin ice due to abysmal retention and postgraduate employment numbers, and I was ultimately one of their many casualties (only about 55% of my 150-student class completed the program). Unfortunately, I deserved much of the blame for being given the boot after five years in that program, as I very quickly began to make only a pretense of being motivated to complete it. In spite of an "F" during my last semester there -- a byproduct of that school's policy regarding late-term dismissals -- my transcript from there shows a 3.47 cumulative GPA and a nonterminal master's degree.
It took me a couple of years and a lot of soul-searching -- not to mention working full-time as an evaluator at a forensically-oriented psychology practice -- to finally come around to the notion that I probably should have applied to law school rather than clinical psychology doctoral programs in the first place. I had entertained the idea of law school toward the end of college, but I felt at that time that I was too far down the psychology path to turn around, and my undergrad professors agreed.
At any rate, after being dismissed from a fairly crappy doctoral program in 2009, I took the LSAT in October 2012 (score = 164) and applied to the only two local law schools I thought MIGHT accept me. I'm now married, with a whole lot more general stability in my life than I had at any point during grad school; more importantly, I now know beyond any doubt that my skills and experience are far more relevant to a career in law than to a career in psychology. (Incidentally, it's due to that stability that I can only apply locally: my wife has an excellent job where we live, and we bought a house shortly after getting married. We can't leave here.)
I wrote a good personal statement, but I obviously had to write an addendum discussing my grad school history, and I got all kinds of conflicting advice about that. My main supervisor at work said that that addendum "should consist of two sentences: 'It was a bad time in my life. Things are better now.'" Friends both currently in law school and recently graduated from law school offered a variety of ideas, as did my wife and others. Ultimately, I decided essentially to be fully forthcoming, telling my target schools basically everything I've said here (minus the part about my second doctoral program's poor retention rate, a fact which maybe I should have included). I wrote about my medical withdrawal from the first program, and I admitted to and thoroughly discussed my poor motivation and effort at the second. I pointed out that my grad school GPAs were still pretty okay, in spite of all that, and my personal statement focused on the relevance of my recent work experience. [Edited to add] It may be worth mentioning that I got three very strong recommendation letters, two from current supervisors and one from a former professor at the school from which I was dismissed.
My main target school is ranked between #41 and #59 overall, depending on whom you ask; my backup is way, way below that. But I have a bad feeling those rankings are meaningless in light of the deep, deep pit I dug in grad school. Even with a few years between me and my terrible crash-and-burn at the second school, I'm guessing I have no chance at law school almost no matter what I do. I'm currently awaiting decisions from both of the schools to which I applied.
What do you think? Are my law school chances permanently doomed? (Again, UGPA = 2.96; LSAT = 164; cumulative grad school GPA just over 3.4.)
Just for the hell of it, let's say, hypothetically, that I'm not offered admission at either of my target schools during the current cycle. Would there be any sense in reapplying very early in the next cycle (to begin law school in fall 2014), possibly with all my transcripts available? If so, what else could I do between now and then to make myself more "marketable?"
Honestly, I kind of dread reading people's responses to this, but I clearly have nothing to lose at this point.
-- Fearful in Atlanta
I have a feeling I know the answer to my main question, but I figured I had little to lose by asking for your input, anyway. I'm new to this site and unfamiliar with a lot of the "local vernacular," as it were, so please bear with me if I misused "splitter" in my Subject line or failed to use relevant abbreviations below. Here's my situation, which is nearly impossible to condense down to fewer words than what you see here:
I graduated from the University of Georgia in 2001, with an undergrad degree in psychology and a lot of research experience in various labs on campus. My undergrad GPA of 2.96 was pathetic -- reflecting a lack of consistent effort. But due mostly to my research experience and a high GRE score (something in the low 1500s out of 1600 on the part that mattered), I got right into a clinical psychology Ph.D. program at another big state university several hours south of here. Two years later, I made the asinine decision to leave that program after I was forced to take a medical withdrawal mid-semester. My two-year GPA there was around a 3.4. Making matters worse, I discovered when I requested my transcript this past fall that that school thinks I owe them tuition money for my last semester, which is impossible due to my having had a full tuition waiver the whole time I was there. In spite of that impossibility, I couldn't produce the $2000 they say I owe quickly enough to slide in under my target schools' deadlines, and contesting that now-ten-year-old debt will require an out-of-state trip to that campus to collect and distribute the requisite documentation. Thus, that transcript is unavailable, at least for the immediate future.
After an interim year working in retail and advertising, I applied to a couple of other doctoral programs and was again accepted, this time choosing to attend a bottom-tier doctoral program at a for-profit chain university. Unbeknowsnt to me at that time, that school's accreditation was on thin ice due to abysmal retention and postgraduate employment numbers, and I was ultimately one of their many casualties (only about 55% of my 150-student class completed the program). Unfortunately, I deserved much of the blame for being given the boot after five years in that program, as I very quickly began to make only a pretense of being motivated to complete it. In spite of an "F" during my last semester there -- a byproduct of that school's policy regarding late-term dismissals -- my transcript from there shows a 3.47 cumulative GPA and a nonterminal master's degree.
It took me a couple of years and a lot of soul-searching -- not to mention working full-time as an evaluator at a forensically-oriented psychology practice -- to finally come around to the notion that I probably should have applied to law school rather than clinical psychology doctoral programs in the first place. I had entertained the idea of law school toward the end of college, but I felt at that time that I was too far down the psychology path to turn around, and my undergrad professors agreed.
At any rate, after being dismissed from a fairly crappy doctoral program in 2009, I took the LSAT in October 2012 (score = 164) and applied to the only two local law schools I thought MIGHT accept me. I'm now married, with a whole lot more general stability in my life than I had at any point during grad school; more importantly, I now know beyond any doubt that my skills and experience are far more relevant to a career in law than to a career in psychology. (Incidentally, it's due to that stability that I can only apply locally: my wife has an excellent job where we live, and we bought a house shortly after getting married. We can't leave here.)
I wrote a good personal statement, but I obviously had to write an addendum discussing my grad school history, and I got all kinds of conflicting advice about that. My main supervisor at work said that that addendum "should consist of two sentences: 'It was a bad time in my life. Things are better now.'" Friends both currently in law school and recently graduated from law school offered a variety of ideas, as did my wife and others. Ultimately, I decided essentially to be fully forthcoming, telling my target schools basically everything I've said here (minus the part about my second doctoral program's poor retention rate, a fact which maybe I should have included). I wrote about my medical withdrawal from the first program, and I admitted to and thoroughly discussed my poor motivation and effort at the second. I pointed out that my grad school GPAs were still pretty okay, in spite of all that, and my personal statement focused on the relevance of my recent work experience. [Edited to add] It may be worth mentioning that I got three very strong recommendation letters, two from current supervisors and one from a former professor at the school from which I was dismissed.
My main target school is ranked between #41 and #59 overall, depending on whom you ask; my backup is way, way below that. But I have a bad feeling those rankings are meaningless in light of the deep, deep pit I dug in grad school. Even with a few years between me and my terrible crash-and-burn at the second school, I'm guessing I have no chance at law school almost no matter what I do. I'm currently awaiting decisions from both of the schools to which I applied.
What do you think? Are my law school chances permanently doomed? (Again, UGPA = 2.96; LSAT = 164; cumulative grad school GPA just over 3.4.)
Just for the hell of it, let's say, hypothetically, that I'm not offered admission at either of my target schools during the current cycle. Would there be any sense in reapplying very early in the next cycle (to begin law school in fall 2014), possibly with all my transcripts available? If so, what else could I do between now and then to make myself more "marketable?"
Honestly, I kind of dread reading people's responses to this, but I clearly have nothing to lose at this point.
-- Fearful in Atlanta