If you’re dead set on going to law school, you’ll learn very early on that there are many, many rules, and all of them must be followed. All law school applicants must provide accurate and complete information to the schools they’re applying to for admission. If you thought you could apply to law school without all of your dirty laundry being publicly aired to admissions officers, think again. What happens if you decide to “fix” your past and lie on your application in order to look more appealing to those who will be poring over it?
According to Michelle Kim Hall of Stratus Admissions Counseling, if you were to do such a thing, you could find yourself in a rather sticky situation. Application misconduct and irregularities during the submission process are taken very seriously, and those who are caught may have their law school acceptances swiftly revoked. Here’s more from Hall’s recent article on acceptance revocations in U.S. News & World Report:
Application misconduct or irregularity during the submission process includes cheating on the LSAT; falsifying transcripts, letters of recommendation or your resume; and “misleading statements or omissions of information requested … on individual law school application forms.” …
While you may be tempted to omit certain aspects of your past, it is imperative to disclose such information when requested on the application.
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If you’re thinking about lying on your law school application — or making a lie by omission — please be mindful of the fact that a charge of misconduct or irregularity can be made at any time, be it prior to your admission to law school, after you enroll, or after you’re admitted to practice law following graduation. This is a ghost that can and will come back to haunt you, repeatedly. You’d almost be better off getting caught in a lie early on and having your law school acceptance revoked than to have the truth discovered much later, when you’ve got six figures of debt to your name, and now find yourself unable to practice law because you lied on your law school application.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, say you’re a perfect student without any skeletons in your closet, but you just want to maximize your chances of going to the best law school possible. Another great way to get your law school acceptances revoked is by submitting multiple seat deposits. Prospective law students are free to submit as many seat deposits as their wallets allow, but they need to notify the schools they’ll eventually be rejecting in a timely fashion, lest they want to say sayonara to their acceptances.
[S]tarting May 15, LSAC will start notifying schools of an applicant’s other enrollment commitments.
LSAC’s website explains that applicants must “be aware that a law school is not required to maintain an offer of admission if it discovers that the applicant has accepted an offer at another institution.” …
While LSAC does not prohibit multiple seat deposits, individual schools are permitted to revoke enrollment offers under this policy if you have made multiple seat deposits.
If you’ve lied on your law school application, you should correct that situation as soon as possible (and perhaps reconsider your law school aspirations if you’ve already got such a laissez-faire attitude about following the rules and being ethical). If you’re thinking of submitting multiple seat deposits, you need to let the schools you deem unworthy of receiving your loan dollars know as soon as possible that you won’t be enrolling. If you follow this advice, you likely won’t get any of your law school acceptances yanked.
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Good luck this application season!
Reasons Law Schools Can Revoke Admission Offers [U.S. News & World Report]
Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.