Question about yes... W's.

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>After doing two years of Community College,I was accepted to UC Berkeley last year and plan to start this year, 2011 as a Junior in Political Science, and finish by 2013. I plan to apply for various t14 Law Schools for the 2014 year. I have a 4.0 so far in all of my studies so far, and I know the weight of the LSATS and ECs, etc. The only thing holding me back and worrying me is the conflicting information regarding "W's."</p>

<p>I've been maintaining a 40 hour a week job to support my ailing mother (Fibromiligia) and I've had to withdraw from some courses here or there as a result, the aggregate being 7 in about 2 years. I know this is above average, but Cal didn't care-- so my question is as follows --</p>

<p>Maintaining a 4.0 at UC Berkeley and having no more W's, will I be greatly diminished in my ability to get into a t14 school? Most of the people I've talked to say that all Law School's care about is GPA and LSATS, followed by some nebulous factors such as ECs, etc, and that the way that Law School grades are calculated makes it so that W's are irrelevant and weightless.</p>

<p>Anyone who could shed some light on the above would be most helpful.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Wow… 7 W’s??? </p>

<p>Now that I think about it… If I had taken just 1 W my GPA would be about .1 points higher… </p>

<p>I’m not sure. I read on the TLS forums about a year ago that the T14 schools don’t look favorably upon W’s but that UGPA and LSATs are still the most important factors.</p>

3

<p>In most law school applications, you will have an opportunity to explain your w’s (or any other grade/class “issues”) in a short, separate statement. I would recommend that you indeed do explain your w’s so that the law schools to which you apply understand your circumstances.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, understood, but I just searched TLS and I could not find a thread or a post where people said W’s matter… and apparently my transcript just gets sent to LSAC and the W’s aren’t counted at all.</p>

<p>Can anyone confirm this?</p>

5

<p>Since these withdrawals obviously haven’t affected your GPA, your school clearly considers them nonpunitive, so LSAC isn’t going to count them in calculating your GPA. But seven Ws is something the adcoms are likely to notice, so you should attach an addendum explaining the situation.</p>