When the Fimus Hits the Fan: Getting Readmitted After Not Following nylawgirl's Advice
Aug 06 '01
The Bottom Line In my academic life, I have been blessed. However, for many, this isn’t true. What does one do when you have to plead your way back into law school?
In my academic life, I have been incredibly blessed. From the moment I set foot inside Miss Hilling’s door in kindergarten to my final year of law school, I have liked going to school (I have liked it so much that my parents feared that I would become a career student – racking up degree upon degree and never having a job. I put their minds at ease when I went to law school. But, there's still the J.S.D. My career as a student isn't dead yet.) With that pleasure, has come academic success, with some moments (college) easier than others (law school). However, for many people this is not a reality, especially when the higher levels of education are reached. One of my lifelong friends, Kristen – who is actually one of the few people that I know who is not in law school, told me that her boyfriend, a now second-year at a New York-area law school, had been academically dismissed by his law school and had been required to apply for re-admission if he wanted to return. Why was he dismissed? His GPA for the first year had fallen below the level satisfactory for continued attendance. At most schools, that is a 2.0, at third tier schools (which often accept just about everyone who applies), the GPA can be higher – cutting off those students that the school believes are not prepared for legal study.
So, what does one do when faced with the situation of having to, essentially, beg your way back into law school? What’s the process? And, what can you do to prepare? With the help of Kristen’s boyfriend (who asked me not to name the law school that he goes to – ego, reputation and all that), I am going to detail the process of getting yourself back on the inside and what you can do to make sure that your process is a success (Boyfriend X had his petition granted – with conditions. He wouldn’t explain what they were. Ego, ego, ego.) This part one section will focus on the letter, with the next part discussing the interview (I still haven’t finagled all the questions out Boyfriend X. I will by next week. Trust me.)
Before I go any further, I want to say that this may not be the process for your law school (or graduate program) so I am going to try to make this as general as possible. Of course, if you had availed yourself of all my valuable advice, you wouldn’t need this advice. Oh, well. Live and learn – that’s why there’s a second year.
I’m Going To Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter: Pleading Your Case
This process usually begins with the writing a letter. Think of it as writing a brief to the court, stating your case. Because you may be feeling a tremendous amount of angst over the state of your law school career, give yourself a day or so before you start planning your letter. Writing the letter while you are in a highly emotional state will result in a letter that relies less on facts and more on an “it’s-not-fair” tone. That, you may have guessed, will not be persuasive. Once you have cooled down (or at least brought yourself to a simmer), you can begin planning. What should you include? Using Boyfriend X’s letter and my experience in cover letter writing, you should include the following:
Why Did Your Grades Slip Below The Minimum?
This is going to be the fundamental question that the committee will be asking. The closer you are to the cutoff the less extreme your explanation has to be. However, if your GPA fell significantly below, the committee may ask you to fulfill a higher threshold. In either situation, your letter should have a detailed chronology of your academic slip. If, for example, you weren’t prepared for the rigors of law school and fell back to your college ways, explain how you implemented those college study habits and how they failed you when they were squeezed into the law school study frame. This explanation, which was part of Boyfriend X’s letter, may only work if you fell slightly below the required GPA.
If, however, you either had significant personal tragedy and/or your GPA is considerably below the minimum, a more detailed timetable will probably be required. However, be warned: if you tell the committee that your grades slipped because your grandfather died, you better be prepared to back it up with family references. If you tell them you had a downturn because of your health, the committee will probably ask for a copy of your medical records. My point? Don’t lie.
In either case, detail and thoroughness are your allies. This letter must be persuasive and vagueness certainly isn’t. Break each point into individual section with point headings. For example, if you are organizing your letter by chronology, then separate your “Why” section into chronological segments – by semester, by month, by whatever means makes the most fluid segmentation of your letter.
How Will The Next Term Be Different?
While telling the committee where it all went wrong is important, the committee doesn’t want to re-admit someone who will just make the same mistakes again. Therefore, it is very important to put forth a concrete plan for the upcoming term. Again, detail is critical to the success of this section. You should break each point into its own section (can’t you tell that I love headings?). This part is critical to your re-admission campaign. You should sit down and think this through. One way to approach this is by directly countering each of your points in the “Why” section with a point in the “How” section.
The Closer: Driving Your Point Home
In this final part of the letter, tie together all of the above elements and include any miscellaneous that didn’t fit into the above sections, including an upward trend in your GPA. If there is an upward trend, use this point to illustrate that, if you are allowed to continue law school, you will be able to continue that rising inclination.
Just You Wait
Now that you have polished your letter, you have to wait for the next part of the process – the interview. So, if Boyfriend X can wait, so can you. Until next week …
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nylawgirl
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