Course withdrawals during freshman year

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>Essentially, even though I have a 3.8 GPA now, I have a bit of a problem. During my freshman year, I had two grandparents in the hospital, one of which ended up dying, and both of which had me scared into going to see them. I was weak of heart and let this affect my schooling, making me withdraw from 3 courses for my first semester and 5 courses for the spring semester after that. I also got a D during that spring semester for the class that I unwisely chose to keep. Since then, I've retaken that course.</p>

<p>Either way, that's how it is. I have a great GPA now and anticipate a great LSAT. Are those "W" grades going to really hurt my chances even after so much hard work after the fact? I've gone through two semesters taking 20 credit hours each and two summers of 14 credit hours each since then. In saying that, I think I've sufficiently proved that I'm not lazy and I can get things done. Does any of it matter? Am I condemned to a non-top tier law school because of a freshman year screw up?</p>

<p>Any help is appreciated. Thank you.</p>

2

<p>If the situation is explained to law school admissions, and your gpa stays high, then it won't matter as much.</p>

3

<p>Well, I'm worried about one thing. Does the LSAC count in course withdrawals as "attempted credits"? If it does, this 3.8 is going to experience a very heavy blow.</p>

4

<p>Nevermind, I looked at the LSDAS guidelines and it turns out I'll be fine with the W's number-wise. Though, the thing is the high number of W's. I mean, I essentially didn't do anything for a semester. 7 or so W's and a D. My freshman year was horrible. Is the reason I have really good enough to avoid making the admin staff want to throw up after they look at the first page of my transcript?</p>

<p>The way I see it, I had a freshman year indicative of a complete failure, but since then, I've been getting an enormous amount of A's with heavy courseloads and no W's. They, hopefully, will see it as an "improvement" or "maturation".</p>

<p>However, it seems like I just can't know until I apply. Anybody else have an opinion on this?</p>