<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I had a terrible fall semester as a freshman due to numerous extenuating circumstances that I do not wish to delve into. Anyway, I failed a class and had to do an emergency withdrawal for another. I am planning on re-taking both courses and will most likely get A's when I retake them. My school takes the new grade and uses that to calculate GPA but the original grades will still show up on my transcript along with the new grades. If I play my cards right, I could end up with a 3.7 from a tier one LAC. How will law schools, especially the top-tier one's view this?</p>
<p>There's a standard way law schools calculated GPA (LSAC/LSDAS), which will count both grades for retakes but won't count with withdrawals. Did you get a medical withdrawal? Often times, those don't show up on your transcript at all after you retake. Sorry about your rough semester!</p>
<p>Wow, sorry for your rough first year, but it is way too early to tell, because your subsequent grades are just projections, just 'what if speculation' which is pointless to engage in. Best thing to do is to put it behind you, since you can't change anything now. Good luck in your future semesters. Perhaps someone knowledgable about law school will come along, but I should think that a good record going on will dispel any doubt for most post grad situations.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies and good point about the grade speculations! I am mainly using it as motivation because I know if I work hard I can achieve those grades and I don't want one bad semester to hold me back.</p>