Semester Off Forum

[nonexpostfacto]

Hey, everyone: First, thank you so much for contributing to this site. I have learned so much about law school admissions, and after spending hours reading posts about the LSAT, I feel much more comfortable with the process.

Right now, I have a 3.6, and I will be a junior at my T20 liberal arts school in the fall. My major is not STEM.

Unfortunately, my family situation has become very complicated. My father lost his employment, and my brother has gotten in some legal trouble. My family's finances are now very tight, and my school is not budging on aid.

On top of that, I spent the summer doing research at my school, and I now have an internship offer (paid) in my home city related to that research. It's fairly prestigious, and it might lead to great opportunities after law school.

Because I have AP credits, I would not fall behind for graduation if I took a semester off to take this internship, and I could easily enroll at the local community college to get two or three easy A grades. I really like this option-We expect our finances to bounce back in a few months, and honestly, what good are the AP credits if I can't use them to follow a good opportunity?

Would this semester off negatively impact my application? As long as I am doing something productive, and I am raising my LSAC GPA, can this really hurt me badly? I have every intention of going back to my school in the Winter... But this Fall is just not working out.

[Not sure if this is the right forum. Please suggest move if it is not. Please do not quote.]

[rinkrat19]

It'd be fine. You might want to include an addendum briefly explaining that you spent a year at CC because family finances were tight for a period, just so they don't assume the worst and imagine that you went to rehab or something. It wouldn't hurt your chances overall.

[nonexpostfacto]

Would HYS, but more importantly for my GPA, CCN care? Is this going to come back to bite me? Will the addendum be enough to convince them that there wasn't a major academic/personal problem?

[rinkrat19]

Would HYS, but more importantly for my GPA, CCN care? Is this going to come back to bite me? Will the addendum be enough to convince them that there wasn't a major academic/personal problem?

Pretty sure it'd be fine. Just don't be too vague in your addendum like "family issues." Be a little more blunt, like "my father lost his job and my mother had a major medical expense" or whatever. You don't have to go into super-personal detail, but don't sound like you're trying to whitewash something sketchy.

[RoaringMice]

You wouldn't even need to tell them that you took a term off for personal reasons, if you didn't want to. You could say you took it off to do the internship, and took a couple of cc classes while you did so. Or you could just tell them you took it off for financial reasons - which is completely understandable and not at all unusual.