I went to a CC right after high school and only took like 2 classes there. I did poorly in those classes. I then went on to a 4-year college without using any of the info from the community college. I applied as if I was going straight from HS and never used the CC transcripts or credits. I’ve never used them for anything and pretty much have disregarded them. I’m not going to report them to LSAC b/c those grades never reflected on my UG gpa or anything. Can they or the law schools I’ll be applying to find out if I don’t report them?
No, the law schools can’t find out. I have known others who have done that.
The better question is do you think you should be a lawyer if you have a tendency to hide or omit relevant information? Let the honest people be lawyers so that we can clean up the bad stereotypes associated with lawyers. You should think about being a politician, your disposition might actually improve their image.
And this is the real troll. The law schools can find out, and if for some reason they don’t, like emkay said, it will come back to haunt you. Regardless of the ethical or moral issues, you won’t get away with it.
I’m legitimately curious: how would they find out? It doesn’t seem like they could. Is there some master file somewhere of every school he’s attended?
If you’re acting amorally, it’s just a gamble, dude–is it worth it or not? The result could be bad (can’t go to a law school) to catastrophic (can’t be a lawyer, etc.), but I’m not sure there’s a great chance they’d find out.
I would guess there is some way to check based on social. Every school I’ve ever attended has required my social security number… and I can’t think of why other than storing it away in some database for some reason I’m not entirely sure I want to know. All I know is this: If schools are collecting socials, there has to be a way to track every school a person has ever applied to/enrolled in.
i would actually think this is exactly the kind of thing FERPA prohibits. i found a couple websites with administrative guidelines for universities to never disclose to outside entities without consent, but i don’t really have enough interest to go and check if the law actually prohibits such disclosures.
If not because you just posted this on a public forum, you should probably disclose.
To be fair, I don’t think LSAC has a way of tracking the information down. But I wouldn’t trust some rando on TLS with something that could mean getting kicked out of school/disbarred/whatever down the line.
I think most schools have you sign something at matriculation authorizing them to check this stuff with any other school. With that said, I think it’s unlikely that they will blanket every CC with transcript requests. I don’t think they’d really find out unless they had a reason to look.
C&F committees WILL find out though. They do a much more sophisticated search. They’re going to ask for every address you’ve ever lived at. That will give them a good idea what schools you might have go to. Also, they’re going to run your credit. A non-disclosed school better not be anywhere on that report or in your financial aid info from lenders. If you didn’t disclose a school you went to – ESPESCIALLY if non-disclosure improved your chances of getting in to law school – I doubt you’ll ever sit for the bar.
Disclose everything is ALWAYS TCR.
*It’s also the right thing to do and probably won’t hurt you much.
Yes, the general consensus in here is correct. The school probably won’t find out, but C&f will… so you’ll spend a ridiculous amount of $ and 3 years, and then be told you can’t be a lawyer