Ep 65: Can I Go To Law School If I've Been Arrested Show
Have a criminal record? That shouldn't stop you from applying to law school! In this episode, Associate Law School Consultant Alice Foley talks about how to go about the law school application process with a criminal record. She explains what the admissions staff are concerned about and demonstrates what to clarify for your application.
Episode Highlights
Having a criminal record will typically not bar you from becoming an attorney or going to law school
Every law school application, if not all of them, have a part of their application that's called the character and fitness questions. They are typically touching on a variety of subjects, asking questions such as:
Are you currently under indictment or have you ever been convicted, placed on probation or given a deferred adjudication or diversion program for criminal offense?
Have you ever been arrested or cited for a criminal violation?
Read your instructions carefully. Read the questions that you are asked carefully.Some law schools are going to ask for very specific things. They may only wanna know anything on your criminal record from the last five years or only want to know things that weren't sealed or expunged. If something happened when you were a minor, they may not want to know about it.
You're going to be asked to provide some information and some documentation. Try to answer it completely at minimum. What is needed from the admissions committee for any of these disclosures is that you need to explain the date of the incident, when it happened, and the location of where it happened. Factual details.
If you have questions at the end of all of this, ask your admissions officers. These things will vary school to school.
Tweetable Quotes
“There are many, many, many successful attorneys that were arrested before they applied to law school or spent time in jail before they went to law school. There are some that have even gone on to receive MacArthur Genius grants and become award-winning authors.
Law schools at this point are evaluating the importance of character and fitness questions, specifically with regard to criminal histories. The landscape here is changing, and who knows what’s gonna be asked of your application or how important it’ll be going forward.”