Petition for readmission - help?

[Denny Shore]

Yes.  That's what I was doing.  I was bragging.
Hahahahahahaha.
Thank you for keeping the conversation active.  I do appreciate you checking in on me and letting me know you are still there.  The only question is: why?

[wingman]

I am not trying to be a jerk about things...but seriously. You applied to Cooley, and flunked out of the law school you were in. What makes you this confident that you were "meant to be a lawyer"?

[mqt]

I spoke with a dean about readmission, but they didn't have much information to give.  Essentially, they accept petitions in February of each year.  They usually get 12-16 and admit 4-6. 

Wow, that is eye opening, as no one flunked out of my school that I know of (I'd always check the grade distributions for my classes after each semester, and for each class, there were usually one or two Cs, and a handful of C+s, but that's about as low as it went).  I'm just writing because that was really surprising to me. Holy cow...they flunk out so many that there are 12-16 that apply for readmission each year?  That's just shameful that a school would do that, and it really does make me wonder whether the motivation truly is an extra year of tuition money, as one poster alluded to earlier.  I mean, I understand maybe dismissing 1 or 2 a year for truly bad grades, but if they're flunking out 5, 10, 15, 20 whatever it might be (I presume that all 12-16 readmission applicants each year might not necessarily be from the same class and also that not all dismissed students reapply, so who knows what the annual number really is), then that's B.S.  No "academic-probation" either?  Sorry, I know this post wasn't helpful to your question, I just wanted to express my indignation at your situation. 

[TheDudeMan]

I am not trying to be a jerk about things...but seriously. You applied to Cooley, and flunked out of the law school you were in. What makes you this confident that you were "meant to be a lawyer"?

EXACTLY.

[hitmon33]

Denny, I don't know enough either way to offer you meaningful advice on readmission, but with regard to 3LEMan, just ignore him.  Any time one gets really personal on a message board, he or she is bound to receive about 90% crap and 10% good advice.  Take the 10% and move on.  Don't even comment on the other 90%.  Invariably, these are people who mostly thrive on reactions, and after reading this thread, you have reacted plenty. 

[Denny Shore]

I am not trying to be a jerk about things...but seriously. You applied to Cooley, and flunked out of the law school you were in. What makes you this confident that you were "meant to be a lawyer"?

I applied to Cooley because I was interested in their 2 year program, where you go full time year round.  The idea was to become a lawyer as quickly as possible.  When I was accepted to the school I went to, I decided not to attend Cooley because my school has a much better reputation.

To answer your second question, I would point you to my original post.  Unfortunately for law school, and me, there was only one set of tests and one set of testing conditions.  While taking the tests, I was extremely anxious as a result of my add symptoms.  I had never been exposed to such rigorous testing and the ADD made me extremely uncomfortable.  As I stated in the first post, I was the first one out of the test room.  I am this confident because I understood the material and was the class expert.  The problem, and now that I have the ADD in control I am quite sure of this, was the testing conditions.  Now that I'm on meds and have them dialed in, I've been taking practice exams and scoring very well.

I'm not sure why applying to Cooley has any bearing on the matter.  I didn't go there.  Cooley has literally nothing to do with anything.

I also applied to the University of Chicago law school - does that have any bearing on getting advice and help with a petition for readmission?

Thanks for reading.  If you would like to help, please read the opening post of this thread and give me some suggestions.

[Denny Shore]

I spoke with a dean about readmission, but they didn't have much information to give.  Essentially, they accept petitions in February of each year.  They usually get 12-16 and admit 4-6. 

Wow, that is eye opening, as no one flunked out of my school that I know of (I'd always check the grade distributions for my classes after each semester, and for each class, there were usually one or two Cs, and a handful of C+s, but that's about as low as it went).  I'm just writing because that was really surprising to me. Holy cow...they flunk out so many that there are 12-16 that apply for readmission each year?  That's just shameful that a school would do that, and it really does make me wonder whether the motivation truly is an extra year of tuition money, as one poster alluded to earlier.  I mean, I understand maybe dismissing 1 or 2 a year for truly bad grades, but if they're flunking out 5, 10, 15, 20 whatever it might be (I presume that all 12-16 readmission applicants each year might not necessarily be from the same class and also that not all dismissed students reapply, so who knows what the annual number really is), then that's B.S.  No "academic-probation" either?  Sorry, I know this post wasn't helpful to your question, I just wanted to express my indignation at your situation. 

I'm past my own indignation, but appreciate your expression.
To be clear: my school has a one semester tolerance threshold and fails out approximately 30-40 students per year.  In many schools, particularly the better ones, there seems to be very little if any academic dismissals.  My school academically dismisses more students per year than all the other law schools in the states COMBINED.

It is, quite clearly, a money thing.  They have no problem dismissing 30-40 students per year.  Their excuse is bar passage rates and some nonsense about increasing said rates, but their bar passage rate seems to be fairly steady over the last decade or so.  The truth is probably more business oriented than academic in nature.  If you enroll 30-40 students for one year that you anticipate dropping, you make that much more tuition without putting too much of a strain on the institution.  Then, of course, you end up with people like me who are determined to come back and repeat that coursework, meaning they get me to pay for my first semester twice.  Not a bad deal.

Now I don't doubt that of the 15 or so students that were academically dismissed, most deserved it because after looking over some of the names there are few surprises.  However, when I was dismissed, it was a shock.  I remain in touch with many of my classmates and all of them were absolutely shocked to hear about my predicament.  Please understand, this is a systemic issue.  The school requires that Prof's give 10% of the class D's or F's. 

Yet another compelling argument for my readmission is that I scored similarly on every test.  I would understand if I got one bad grade, but every test result was practically identical.  We have a blind grade, so each of my Prof's were besides themselves when I showed up and told them my scores/grade.  Each wanted to help and each was denied that ability after meeting with academic services.  All of my prof's offered to write me a letter of recommendation for readmission, which I think speaks pretty highly of their opinion regarding my abilities and knowledge.

It sucks.  I agree.

[Matthies]

I think what you need to do is just reapply and see how it goes. It may take more than one attempt to get back in. But be sure not to come off as whiney, which you could without even knowing it. Its easy with hindsight to see ADD as the only problem with your grades. But I think there is more to it, and you need to be open to that in your reapplication. You need to demonstrate that you are a different person than when you last talked law school, not just a medicated person.

Taking the mediation is part of that, but it won’t I think, nor should it be the premise of your reapplication that is a cure-all. Its not, trust me. I have ADD plus I am severally dyslexic. I did not take meds for my first two years of law school for ADD and they don’t make meds for dyslexic. My grades were good. I’m not saying your ADD was not part of the problem, it likely was a big part of it, but there are other things going on as well. I would make sure the adcoms understand that YOU understand that. I would also advise you take a look at some of the excellent books out there on how to take law school exams, that might help you as well.

Being medicated and having a better understanding of what professors are looking for on exams can’t do anything to hurt you. 

[Denny Shore]

I spoke with a dean about readmission, but they didn't have much information to give.  Essentially, they accept petitions in February of each year.  They usually get 12-16 and admit 4-6. 

Wow, that is eye opening, as no one flunked out of my school that I know of (I'd always check the grade distributions for my classes after each semester, and for each class, there were usually one or two Cs, and a handful of C+s, but that's about as low as it went).  I'm just writing because that was really surprising to me. Holy cow...they flunk out so many that there are 12-16 that apply for readmission each year?  That's just shameful that a school would do that, and it really does make me wonder whether the motivation truly is an extra year of tuition money, as one poster alluded to earlier.  I mean, I understand maybe dismissing 1 or 2 a year for truly bad grades, but if they're flunking out 5, 10, 15, 20 whatever it might be (I presume that all 12-16 readmission applicants each year might not necessarily be from the same class and also that not all dismissed students reapply, so who knows what the annual number really is), then that's B.S.  No "academic-probation" either?  Sorry, I know this post wasn't helpful to your question, I just wanted to express my indignation at your situation. 

I'm past my own indignation, but appreciate your expression.
To be clear: my school has a one semester tolerance threshold and fails out approximately 30-40 students per year.  In many schools, particularly the better ones, there seems to be very little if any academic dismissals.  My school academically dismisses more students per year than all the other law schools in the states COMBINED.

It is, quite clearly, a money thing.  They have no problem dismissing 30-40 students per year.  Their excuse is bar passage rates and some nonsense about increasing said rates, but their bar passage rate seems to be fairly steady over the last decade or so.  The truth is probably more business oriented than academic in nature.  If you enroll 30-40 students for one year that you anticipate dropping, you make that much more tuition without putting too much of a strain on the institution.  Then, of course, you end up with people like me who are determined to come back and repeat that coursework, meaning they get me to pay for my first semester twice.  Not a bad deal.

Now I don't doubt that of the 15 or so students that were academically dismissed, most deserved it because after looking over some of the names there are few surprises.  However, when I was dismissed, it was a shock.  I remain in touch with many of my classmates and all of them were absolutely shocked to hear about my predicament.  Please understand, this is a systemic issue.  The school requires that Prof's give 10% of the class D's or F's. 

Yet another compelling argument for my readmission is that I scored similarly on every test.  I would understand if I got one bad grade, but every test result was practically identical.  We have a blind grade, so each of my Prof's were besides themselves when I showed up and told them my scores/grade.  Each wanted to help and each was denied that ability after meeting with academic services.  All of my prof's offered to write me a letter of recommendation for readmission, which I think speaks pretty highly of their opinion regarding my abilities and knowledge.

It sucks.  I agree.

[TheDudeMan]

LoL.  Become a lawyer as quickly as possible so you can go sponge off daddy.  I wonder if he will keep you around because you are his son, or boot you when you prove to be a moron, which you obviously are considering that Cooley was even an option for you.