<p>If you contat the state bar, they cannot opine one way or another about such a matter without carefully going through the process that is spelled out for them under the authority they have, which only kicks in when you're being reviewed before the bar.</p>
<p>It would be completely unethical for them to tell you at this point that your little indiscretion doesn't matter and offer you anything that could be construed as a promise of immunity before you've even gone to law school.</p>
<p>But be realistic. It's really not that big a deal, and I can actually imagine it being turned into a plus if you admit it freely and describe how this minor brush with the law inspired you to not only reform but dedicate yourself to the law.</p>
<p>If it was me, I'd be up front about it and tell how you grew from the experence. It just seems like it's nothing something that you should hide.</p>
<p>Thanks so much everyone, especially jonri and Robert W! I will definitely report it to all the schools I apply to, and using your advice Robert W, use this brush with the lawto tell the schools/bar that it] inspired me to not only reform but dedicate myself to the law.</p>
<p>Does anyone have an answers to my LSAT questions for June/October?</p>
<p>Also, I realized that I am not as strong as I would like to be in the Logic Reasoning and Games sections for the LSAT. Does anyone have any suggestions to where I can purchase books soley dedicated to those sections? I am planning to take a Kaplan course as well in May.</p>
<p>The most important part is getting your reading speed up. I found all the parts easy as long as I became familiar with the type of problems they had.</p>
<p>I plan on retaking it again so I can get 180 even though I got a 178 the first time because I am anal. I know you're not suppose to but I can't take not knowing if I could've done it.</p>
<p>Don't you worry about the risks of taking it a second time? A 178 is amazing. Why risk anything?</p>
<p>How would you guys imagine law school adcoms looking at the situation, say, the person gets a near perfect score, retakes, and gets a closer perfect score or perfect score. Good? Bad? Depends?</p>
<p>I once represented an applicant to the California bar who had two shoplifting convictions on his record; because he was on probation for the first offense when he was convicted of the second, he was convicted of felony shoplifting under California law. (Both arrests occurred while he was in law school.)</p>
<p>He waited nearly ten years without any further entanglements with the law before taking the bar exam. He was admitted to the bar, but only after a hearing and a two-to-one vote. (There were several questions at the hearing, by the way, about the extent to which he had revealed his record to other employers.)</p>
<p>I have three observations: First, make sure there isn't a second offense. (A second offense is less likely to be viewed as a youthful indiscretion.) Second, given that attorneys are routinely entrusted with other people's money, bar admissions committees sometimes take a sterner view of petty theft than you might expect. Third, the more time that has passed since the incident, the more bar admissions committees are more likely to believe that you have had a real change of heart.</p>
<p>I can't see any real difference between a 178 and a 180. I mean if your score is already that high, I doubt two points are going to have much if any effect.</p>
<p>not to mention that while law schools like high numbers, they also like to accept people who will be interesting members of a class and good team players (since a lot of being a lawyer is discussing and negotiating things with other lawyers/clients/judges, etc). </p>
<p>taking the lsat over when you have a 178 already might give them the --correct or incorrect--impression that you're hypercompetitive, obsessive, and not all that much fun to be around. My guess is that it'll hurt more than any 2 points could help.</p>
<p>if you really want that 180, get into law school first (which you will) and the retake the test...but I think it will only hurt more then help if you do it before you apply</p>
<p>i had a 3.1 GPA, sub-170 LSAT, and a misdemeanor charge (which i explained in full) (as well as a crappy ersonal statement) and managed to get myself into a top 25 law school..... </p>
<p>make the best of your "explain your f-up" statement. it's an essay in itself. it won't be a huge strike against you.</p>
<p>your GPA will be, however. but if you CAN pull off straight 4.0s and show a huge trend upward, you should have a better chance than me, since i didn't have such drastic peaks and valleys, and also went to a school with huge grade inflation.</p>
<p>Hey sologigolos,
No offense, but you did not have a very high gpa, and a sub-170 LSAT with a misdemeanor charge and a crappy personal statement, and you still go into a top LS. What's your secret? I thought LS was numbers driven. How did you do it? Do you have some desirable hook? Do law schools even care about hooks?</p>
<p>lucky as hell. also, got off the waitlist by playing the "first choice" game (which is awesome, because it WAS my first choice). i suspect that my absolute adoration of the school won me some points, as I got in like, the first day that the waitlists moved. i think that's about as big a hook as one can hope for with law schools, unless you are an URM, mil. vet., or have awesome WE.</p>
<p>play the numbers game, too. i was rejected/WL'd->rejected from all the other schools i applied to, as well, who had high GPA range. the school i got into had a relatively low GPA range (won't be hard to figure out which once u look at the rankings), and i was right on the 25th% and my LSAT was right on the 75th%. i figure that (in retrospect) for a lot of schools, i might have been above the 75th%ile on LSAT, but the fact that I was so drastically below the 25%ile for GPA probably got me out on the first screening.</p>
<p>When should I start the actual application for law school (in terms of what month if I want to be admitted for Sept. 2007 year). Also does each school require a different essay, or is there a "blanket essay" that one can use for many schools?</p>
<p>Well, good luck to you sologigolos, and congratulations on you admission! You're in, so it won't matter if you came from the first round or from the waitlist. That game is over! You must have shown some massive adoration for your school (how did you do that?).</p>
<p>time table: take the LSAT by june of your JR year, gives you a chance for a second chance at Oct of senior year. december is already too late.
you want to start sending out apps end of september. it's mostly on a "rolling" basis.</p>
<p>as for the adoration: remember the college essays that some schools asked for like "Why do you want to come to Emory"? same thing. do some research and find some unique characteristics about the school</p>