Epilepsy and Admissions?

[epicac]

Hi everyone, I'm not really sure where to put this, but it's a question I've had for awhile.  Halfway through college, I suddenly got this rare form of epilepsy, which involves eye twitching and loss of speech, but no convulsions.  It happens once every 4 or so months, but is important because it has proved to be near-fatal  I was on medicine that affected my thought processes, and my GPA went from a 3.5 (not bad in Bioengineering) to around a 2.8.  My last semester, off most of the meds, I did great, in some really impressive sounded classes, ending with a 2.91.

I've been working the past few years as a technician in a neuroanatomy laboratory, am on new meds, and have a couple of great recs from my boss, a neuroscientist, and my college advisor.  Both know of  my condition and talk about it positively in their LORs.  I don't tell my story for any type of sympathy, I know we all have challenges, but I'm just wondering how this will affect my chances, if anyone can help me out with an estimate.

I took the Sept LSAT and got a 161, right around what I was shooting for.  My dream school is Cardozo, but since it gets competitive each year, I'm not so sure about it.  I'm hoping for St John's, preferably with a little monetary help.  Thanks for any thoughts, and good luck to everybody, this waiting game is maddening! haha

Drew

PS If you are interested in my condition, here is 6 seconds of one of my seizures that I put on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6VdORfOgrY
And here's the Wikipedia entry I had to create, as it's a pretty rare condition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_partial_status_epilepticus

[bamf]

So, I'm not clear if you wrote an addendum to schools explaining the influence your old medication had over your period of low GPA.  If you did not do so, I would absolutely do this.  Explain how the new meds work differently and whatever else you think is relevant.  I think that most law schools will see this as a compelling reason to accept your low GPA.
Good luck.

[clairel]

i agree. a medical situation and resulting care is an absolutely legitimate reason for an addendum and should mitigate, if not eliminate, a lower gpa.

good luck!

[epicac]

Oh, right, I forgot to mention that I did bring it up in my Personal Statement.  Not as an addendum because I wanted to explain the experience in a larger context, where I talk about how I had never considered Law School until after I'd overcome a lot of problems.