Disclose Disability on Law School Applications?

lbalestrieri

Long story short, I consider my application fairly weak. I received a 157 on my first LSAT attempt in December and retook in February hoping to score closer to my PTs which were around 162. My GPA is fairly low at 3.169. I struggled in the beginning of my undergraduate career, but improved and got mostly A's and AB's in my major classes the last year and a half. This is because I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during the middle of my undergrad and got on medication that stabilized me. I am currently very stable and don't consider my disability debilitating at this point due to my medication.

My question is whether or not I should disclose my disability on my application. I feel I have a few options to do this - I could address it in my personal statement and consider it overcoming an adverse situation and address how overcoming this makes me a strong candidate because of what I've learned and how hard I had to work. I could include a diversity statement regarding my disability. I could include an addendum offering an explanation of my weak grades in the beginning of my undergrad. Or I could not address it at all in my application.

I realize there is still a stigma around mental health, and I'm a little nervous that disclosing my disability could negatively impact my chances of admissions, even though legally I don't believe they can discriminate. On the other hand I feel disclosing it would help them understand me and my weak GPA.

I would really appreciate any advice or feedback regarding this.

jdawg113

tough spot to be in but good for you for overcoming and working through. I generally dont recommend TLS but there is a forum on it for professional advice and there are plenty of admin counselors and that you can post asking about what they think with adding something like this. It is generally something you want to do if it truly affected your performance(addendum/referencing this situation) and that which it sounds like it did but I'm no admissions expert so I would ask people who have been in the seat looking at the apps

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=43

emli1000

Maybe include an addendum offering an explanation of your weak grades in the beginning of undergrad.

[Deleted User]

Explain your grades in the addendum. If you don't feel comfortable, don't say anything about mental health. Say you were ill. If you took the test under disability circumstances then I believe schools are already aware of your disability.

blah170blah

@royaimani I actually don't know if the latter point is true. I know that LSAC was recently involved in a law suit because students who took the LSAT under disability conditions, received an asterisk on their record, indicating that a student had a disability -- a practice which has seen been held unlawful.

Anastazia

I think you should address the reason your grades were not where you would have liked them. At that time, you were not dumb just disabled. And you are not alone. You speak for many.

[Deleted User]

@blah170blah I have actually read about that as well, but since it was posted on a random blog I didn't know how much of it is true.

jdawg113

@royaimani yeah they used to mark the scores of those who took under special conditions but they are no longer marked bc of the law suit

[Deleted User]

@jdawg113 Ok.

lbalestrieri

I appreciate all of the feedback everyone. @jdawg113 I will definitely check out TLS, thanks for the advice. I think I will disclose it considering how much of an impact it had on my grades at the beginning of my undergrad, I'm just struggling at this point regarding how and at what point to do so. I'll consult TLS and hopefully I can get some answers there! Thanks everyone!

Allison M

I disclosed a mental health condition on my applications. The circumstances were similar: I had been diagnosed and received treatment part way through my degree, and my academic performance turned around immediately thereafter. On the strength of this application, I got into the law schools that I applied to. One school even dropped the grades that I'd received pretreatment for the purposes of scholarship adjudication. So in my case, it was definitely to my benefit to disclose.

I included this info as part of a discretionary application (not sure if this is a thing in the U.S.). I also included a letter from my psychiatrist, who confirmed the details of my diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.

I think the important thing is to stress the fact that you've successfully dealt with the problem and that you're a stronger student because of it.