Unusual BA.

[sirjake]

This is long.  My apologies.

I'm about as non-traditional as they come.  I was home schooled through high school, screwed around in community college for a semester and still got all A's (though I did withdrawal-passing from a few classes), before taking an internship with a catalog company. After that, I attended for a single year at a private (NON-accredited) college where I had an LSDAS determined GPA of 3.07.  My GPA was that low primarily due to a freakin' F in science (first science exposure, really) and their non-grade inflation policy--self-consciously keeping grades lower except for "exceptional" work.  I did *very* well in the class that is probably most applicable to LS (rhetoric) garnering a rare SCL in my final quarter there and getting good grades the other quarters.

After the year there, my dad's salary was cut by more than half (airline pilot), so I got a job, left the college, and have been working full-time since then.  I got my degree through a fully-accredited (regional accreditation--the highest level of accreditation) via CLEP and other proficiency exams.  Because it was almost exclusively attained via proficiency exams (I had 8 credits from the community college transfer in and nothing else), I did not have a GPA like one normally would.  The college does not assign a grade to proficiency exams, only assessing a pass/fail.  I passed all without a fail, I should add...  To make up for this, I enrolled in another similar college (same level of accreditation) that DOES grade some of those exams before my degree was completed and had grades assessed for a fair portion of those exams: 33 A credits.

The long and short of it is that my LSDAS GPA is 3.66, but I only have about 61 "converted" credits (the rest are termed "unconverted" on my LSDAS GPA due to the pass/fails).  Oddly, that works out to something like 194 total credit hours.

I have been working full-time and have excellent recommendations from that for the past 4 years, and I will probably get a very strong recommendation from one of my profs from the year at the private college (if I decide to ask for it).  That year was 2003-2004, though.

My December LSAT was 163, but I'm planning to retake in June.

Does anyone have *any* clue how adcomms are going to look at this?  I can see several possible scenarios:
1. They won't care very much.  The 3.66 LSDAS and my LSAT score is all they'll care about. 
2. I'll get dinged severely because I'm more of a question mark.
3. I'll get props for being a non-traditional and work experience.

But I have no idea how all of this may play out because I've never heard of another applicant having a history anything like this.

Thoughts anyone?

[I am Penny Lane]

An addendum could cover all of this and potentially answer a lot of adcoms' questions.

[MahlerGrooves]

An addendum could cover all of this and potentially answer a lot of adcoms' questions.

Indeed.  I'd also wait to see how the retake comes out.  If you get high 160's, there may be no need to mention anything.  And if you are in the 170's, don't bother writing anything.  The LSAT score will answer the questions about work ethic, etc.

With a super high LSAT and a damn good GPA, I'd only do the "Why I had to Interrupt Education" addendum.

[sirjake]

Thanks for all of the responses, guys.  Encouraging not to have a "I was in the same boat; you're screwed" response.   I appreciate the comments.  I'll try to find this post when I know where I'm going to update for posterity.