<p>I have about a year and a half left of my undergrad and I'm thinking about law school (probably Fall 2015). Normally I would have just browsed other admissions topics but my situation is different from most and I need some personalized input.</p>
<p>Due to some health issues I had around my Junior year (2011), I suffered from a previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder manic episode. This caused me to stop attending my classes resulting in all F's for that semester. I took a year off and re-enrolled in the spring of 2012. Long story short, the exact same thing happened and I received another semester of all F's. I stabilized myself once more, received proper medication, worked as a waiter, and now a year and a half later I am returning to school once more. Currently I have a 2.0 GPA as a Philosophy major with 47 credits remaining.</p>
<p>Now time for the hypotheticals</p>
<p>I am determined to raise my GPA up to a 2.5 or a 2.7 and graduate next spring/summer. This will require me to have anywhere from a 3.3 to a 3.8 GPA for my remaining credits. Hopefully this upward trend will look good. I have taken a cold LSAT practice test and scored a 165. With at least 7 months to study I am hoping I can raise my score up to a 175-177. </p>
<p>So I'm thinking my law school admissions profile will look like this</p>
<p>UG GPA 2.5-2.7
LSAT 175-177
No extracurriculars
Two semesters of 0.0 GPA
3.3-3.8 GPA Upward trend for Senior year +
Mitigating Health Circumstances</p>
<p>Will I have any chance at a Law School that would be highly ranked enough to be worth attending? Also, should I disclose the fact that I have bipolar disorder? Unfortunately, there is a bad stigma for this disease in society. It is a disorder that promotes mental instability which I'm thinking might lead some colleges to think I am not worth the investment. On the flip side I read a topic where the OP had similar statistics to mine, although his health issue was a fight with cancer. Many posters said that would be a helpful circumstance. Will my bipolar disorder be a negative or a positive on my application? </p>
<p>I deeply appreciate any advice I can get on this topic.</p>
<p>^^agree, drag out graduation to get your GPA up to a 3+.</p>
<p>Get 2+ years of work experience and coupled with a very high LSAT, Northwestern would give you a serious look, as would UVa if you ED. But be prepared to pay full price – and IMO, that makes LS not worth attending.</p>
<p>Dunno how adcoms will view your illness, but just know that your situation is not unique. There are dozens of threads/applications like yours.</p>
<p>Even if you could get into a law school, it would be hugely expensive and your likelihood of getting a good job from a school that would accept you is not great. This is a very tough legal market and it would be a terrible mistake to pay for law school and not get a job.</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t think law school’s a good fit for you. You’ve had to sit out 2 semesters because of bipolar episodes…what if that happens 1L? Or during your summer associateship (if you’re lucky enough to land one)? Or during your 1st or 2nd year at a firm? </p>
<p>Furthermore, while you’re clearly intelligent with that LSAT score, the reality is that your GPA is just too low to get into a top school, and in this job market…you’re basically SCREWED if you
a) didn’t go to Harvard, Yale, Stanford (maybe Chicago, Northwest, Columbia)
OR
b) didn’t have a full-ride to another T20
YOU DO NOT want to pay sticker for anything other than HYS, and having any more than $40k or so in debt from anything but a T6 is ridiculously foolish</p>
<p>It’s important to note that OP’s LSAT is on a practice test; no actual LSAT score. Even with a monster LSAT, OP would probably be better off trying to attend one of the non-trad schools which value life experience-which it will take a few years to attain.</p>
<p>This is hyperbolic and extreme. The legal market isn’t great but it’s not that bad. If you go to a T14 you have a reasonable shot at a solid return on investment. That’s also true for the T15-20 in their regions. Further, with various PSLF/PAYE/IBR combos you can take lower paying PI jobs and survive with large debt just fine. </p>
<p>@crankyoldman: There’s no real reason he needs to go to a “non-trad” school (not really sure what that is) because he hasn’t gotten his BA/BS yet. Until then LSAC’s clock keeps ticking and he’s free to load up on As.</p>
<p>I would also be concerned about bar admissions. Despite the ADA and all that, state bars might be hesitant to allow someone with a mental health condition to practice law–a major symptom of manic states is profligate spending (which if you have client funds in trust could be very risky) and what if you are too ill to work? </p>
<p>Paying for law school is an expensive proposition even without a substantial risk of being unable to practice law afterwards.</p>
<p>also, it is unlikely (albeit not impossible–may as well study and find out!) that you will be able to increase your LSAT as much as you hope. 165 is about the 91st percentile; 175 is the 99.5 percentile. Maybe you are in the top 500 or so LSAT takers in the country the year you take the exam, but unfortunately about 112,000 folks a year aren’t.</p>
<p>My usual advice: get any of these issues straightened out before you start law school. Get a nice long track record of stable achievement. Law school is very stressful (I found it to be less work than engineering, but more stress); studying for the bar is stressful; being an attorney is stressful. For your own sake, ensure that you have a lot of psychological coping tools available to you, and that you enter into this as mature and responsible as possible. It eats up even emotionally strong, psychologically healthy people.</p>
<p>Tough Love: Have you considered that you are taking your mind to a place it was not intended to go? Also planning on law school after the given college results is, I think, a symptom of your mania. </p>
<p>Kind Love: Learn to balance your thoughts, staying away from the cognitive high and low way of thinking. You have 42 credits left so concentrate on those. Book a couple of solid semesters before you start thinking about law school. GL</p>