Give me your advice. (lawyers especially)

[Frozinite]

I'm graduating law school this month. Tonight, as I'm filling out my bar application, I happen upon a distinct problem. The law school registrar has a form that they fill out in your bar application detailing the educational history they have on file for you. This includes undergrad work. I then have to sign a statement to the effect that it is my complete undergrad record. But it isn't complete.

I was accepted to a school and registered for classes, but I never went or took any of the tests. This university presumably has Fs recorded as my grades in these courses and I didn't put this school on my law school application. So, as of now, when the registrar fills out the bar application it won't be complete. If I sign it anyway and it ever comes up, this is considered perjury and I could lose my bar membership and not be able to practice as an attorney. If I don't sign it, I can't take the bar. If I try to come clean I guess I have to tell the registrar and then they may decide not to grant me a diploma. A further complication is that I was on full scholarship to this school for 3 years and they may want me to give them $150,000 in tuition now that they see that my application wasn't complete.

I don't know how rigorous the background check is on applicants, but I have heard it is intense. Nonetheless, I assume that they would have to actually inquire about my enrollment from the school itself and this seems unlikely. Barring the background check, I just can't see how it would ever come up that I attended this school, but the stakes for this gamble are really high. Any input from you guys?

[Oski]

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I was accepted to a school and registered for classes, but I never went or took any of the tests. This university presumably has Fs recorded as my grades in these courses and I didn't put this school on my law school application.



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You enrolled and registered, but you did not stay long enough to go to classes, take tests, OR FIND OUT IF THE SCHOOL KEEPS RECORDS FOR THOSE WHO OBVIOUSLY NEVER INTEDED ON "GOING TO SCHOOL" THERE.

In other words, you do not know whether there is a "record" of what you did (or actually, did not do) at this school you mention.

Therefore, your experience at the school was quite different than from that of a "real" student of that school. The "real students" probably have records ... records that would be included in their overall academic records.

However, for a strange case like yours, we don't know if they keep records for that.

Don't lie and say you need to include this school as part of your academic record when you know damn well that you don't know for sure if there are any records there of you. That is not a good thing.

Since you don't know if there are records and you know you were not a student there, you have to just not mention that institution.

[thatpfunk]

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I was accepted to a school and registered for classes, but I never went or took any of the tests. This university presumably has Fs recorded as my grades in these courses and I didn't put this school on my law school application.

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Did you pay for the semester? Why don't you actually find out for sure? It wouldn't be very difficult to call the school's registrar.

[Frozinite]

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Did you pay for the semester? Why don't you actually find out for sure? It wouldn't be very difficult to call the school's registrar.


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I was on a full academic scholarship. I will definitely call up the school tomorrow.

[Frozinite]

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Since you don't know if there are records and you know you were not a student there, you have to just not mention that institution.

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It would seem that one could easily argue that I was a student there as I registered and did not withdraw from my classes. Also, I was unclear in the original post in that I did attend 3 weeks of classes or so.

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However, for a strange case like yours, we don't know if they keep records for that.

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I'll find out for certain what they have tomorrow, but I would be surprised if it were anything but a string of Fs.


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Don't lie and say you need to include this school as part of your academic record when you know damn well that you don't know for sure if there are any records there of you. That is not a good thing.

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As above, I'll find out for certain what records they have, but I would think that both my law school and the bar would view this as a material ommission from my academic history. If there are no records, then hallelujah, but what do I do presuming there are?

[slickpoppa]

I'm confused. If you didnt get credit for those classes that you missed, and you had adequate credits to graduate college without those credits, why would your law school care?

[Oski]

Your law school didn't teach you how to work within "gray" areas?

1. The form requires you affirm you have given your complete academic records.

2. At this moment, and based on all the information known to you, you have provided the complete records.

3. What you don't know ... might be something you don't want to know. Keep it that way.

Oh, by the way, most state bars are severely underfunded are unlikely to delve too deeply into the "academic records" portion of your application. For the most part, what is important is that you earned an undergrad degree at a legitimate institution. After that, some states have additional requirements depending on whether you went to an ABA school, or not.

Don't over think this one.

[Frozinite]

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I'm confused. If you didnt get credit for those classes that you missed, and you had adequate credits to graduate college without those credits, why would your law school care?

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It's competitive to get in and they use grades to weed people out. I got into a first rate school on scholarship, but had I included the semester of failed(presumably) classes I would have had a much harder time being accepted. It would have affected my GPA(therefore my ranking as a candidate and my scholarship).

The Bar cares because it is an integrity issue.

[slickpoppa]

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I'm confused. If you didnt get credit for those classes that you missed, and you had adequate credits to graduate college without those credits, why would your law school care?

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It's competitive to get in and they use grades to weed people out. I got into a first rate school on scholarship, but had I included the semester of failed(presumably) classes I would have had a much harder time being accepted. It would have affected my GPA(therefore my ranking as a candidate and my scholarship).

The Bar cares because it is an integrity issue.

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Are the classes that you missed from the same school that all your other credits are from?

[Frozinite]

You have good points and they are well taken sir.

[Frozinite]

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Are the classes that you missed from the same school that all your other credits are from?

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No. I was registered at this school for one semester only and received my degree and all other credits from other schools.

[pokerstudAA]

Disclose, Disclose, Disclose....


They will not like it if they find out. Compare your academic record to the one provided by the uni. They better match up with what you sent the bar. The board is more understanding about past mistakes then about current mistakes on applications.....

They certainly will not reject you because of your poor academic past. If you did not tell your law school when you applied it could become a problem.

[slickpoppa]

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Are the classes that you missed from the same school that all your other credits are from?

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No. I was registered at this school for one semester only and received my degree and all other credits from other schools.

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Then I would just tell your law school about it. Assuming that your grades were good in all of your other classes, I don't see why the law school would care. Just tell them that you had personal problems that prevented you from finishing the semester. Since you didn't go to class at all, you might not even be recorded as failing the classes.

[jba]

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Are the classes that you missed from the same school that all your other credits are from?

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No. I was registered at this school for one semester only and received my degree and all other credits from other schools.

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oh dude are you for real? Are these the only credits you took there? I think it should be very possible for you to get the school to change your status to withdrawn from the course??

edit: what I mean to say is, your official stance should be that you dropped out of the courses