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Would a law school take something like vitiligo into account for an applicant?


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For those who dont know: vitiligo is an autoimmune disorder that depigments your skin, either in large patches or a bunch of small spots scattered around. This effects your physical  health in no way, but for people with darker skin (like myself) this can be very mentally taxing.

I dont mean vitiligo strengthening an applicant's admission chances, more so how it affected me mentally during my undergrad. Context into my case:

I developed vitiligo right before my first year of undergrad. White spots spread around my body and my face. Due to this I developed body dysmorphia, depression, anxiety and I started taking SSRIs. I didnt want to go to my lectures and my anxiety was so bad that I would refuse to walk into a lecture if I was late because I didnt want people to look at me. I didnt join a single club or so any ECs. I had a poli sci class where I had to present with a group and I skipped the presentation day because I couldnt bare to be in front of so many people. The SSRIs (while they may work for many people) made me numb to everything and as a result, unmotivated. This caused a whole bunch of personal problems as well that I'll save you guys. My grades werent where they should have been given my law school aspirations, not even close.

Thankfully due to light therapy the condition got a lot better. My face is completely free of spots for a while now and after a tough year I learned to live with it. Depression/anxiety I spent a lot of time to overcome. This brings me to my concern. Due to my bad first year, my cGPA is unimpressive but my L3 and B3 are above median for every law school in Canada. I would love to explain the bad first year in my personal statement, but I doubt this would sway any admissions officers. Also, what are these law school's protocols for ensuring that applicants are truthful? I could definitely see some people giving false reasons for a bad academic year to these law schools. I doubt a doctor's note would do anything. Vitiligo wrecked my mental health, but I doubt these institutions would be very lenient to a skin condition when they get applicants with physical ailments which are much more serious.

It would be great to know your thoughts, either people that had a situation even remotely comparable or those who have knowledge on the admissions process. Thanks.

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SpaceTigerX
  • Law School Admit

First off, don't diminish what you went through because other people have more serious conditions. At the end of the day, you encountered a serious health condition which had a direct impact on your performance. Are there people that have more serious problems, absolutely. There is also people who have never encountered anything resembling your condition. 

Your situation is not a weakness, and it can be used as a strength. Not only did you have to learn to live with a condition that you can't hide (at that point), you had to over come the depression and anxiety and other issues. Not to mention the side effects of the SSRIs and you managed to finish with above median grades at the end of the day. 

Depending on which schools you apply to they may not even look at your first year and some schools will drop an x amount of your lowest grades in the calculation of the cGPA. Some will only look at your B20,L30,L20,L10 so you definitely have options for applying in the regular category - depending on the school you can apply through non-regular categories and they will evaluate you in the regular category first and if you aren't successful in that category will look at your application based on the category you applied under. Plus your performance in 3xxx and 4xxx courses speaks more to your ability than a 1xxx class to the schools that look at the entire application, unless you majored in finger painting... those classes might be easier in the 3xxx and 4xxx level.

Also, your LSAT will play a much larger role in your admission than those first year classes. 

While there are definitely people with "fake illnesses that doctors are more than happy to issues notes for" ask your primary physician and any specialists you saw to write a specific letter outlining the impact of the condition, length and etc. At the end of the day, there is nothing stopping these schools to reach out directly and verify the information you submit. 

You can also reach out to the admission folks to ask what documentation they look for to support the explanation, if there is any specific format and etc. Some schools have it clearly outlined on their websites/regulations some are super secretive like CSIS about everything and may not be that much help. Some schools don't even want to know what the ailment is, they just want to know the impact/etc. Getting the information out of them can honestly be more exhausting than writing 3 exams in a day and if you are able to, try to get the responses in writing so if there is ever a dispute or someone dismisses it, you can take the appropriate action. Also, make sure to cc yourself when you're sending the emails that way you have a back up of what you sent it just in case someone says well that's not what you said... 

Do your research, ask questions and make the best case you can for why those grades are not a complete reflection of your abilities. 

I personally felt the same way you did with my issues and wasn't going to try to explain my grades thinking they won't care. Some may not, but at least you can say you did your due diligence to present yourself. 

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46 minutes ago, SpaceTigerX said:

First off, don't diminish what you went through because other people have more serious conditions. At the end of the day, you encountered a serious health condition which had a direct impact on your performance. Are there people that have more serious problems, absolutely. There is also people who have never encountered anything resembling your condition. 

Your situation is not a weakness, and it can be used as a strength. Not only did you have to learn to live with a condition that you can't hide (at that point), you had to over come the depression and anxiety and other issues. Not to mention the side effects of the SSRIs and you managed to finish with above median grades at the end of the day. 

Depending on which schools you apply to they may not even look at your first year and some schools will drop an x amount of your lowest grades in the calculation of the cGPA. Some will only look at your B20,L30,L20,L10 so you definitely have options for applying in the regular category - depending on the school you can apply through non-regular categories and they will evaluate you in the regular category first and if you aren't successful in that category will look at your application based on the category you applied under. Plus your performance in 3xxx and 4xxx courses speaks more to your ability than a 1xxx class to the schools that look at the entire application, unless you majored in finger painting... those classes might be easier in the 3xxx and 4xxx level.

Also, your LSAT will play a much larger role in your admission than those first year classes. 

While there are definitely people with "fake illnesses that doctors are more than happy to issues notes for" ask your primary physician and any specialists you saw to write a specific letter outlining the impact of the condition, length and etc. At the end of the day, there is nothing stopping these schools to reach out directly and verify the information you submit. 

You can also reach out to the admission folks to ask what documentation they look for to support the explanation, if there is any specific format and etc. Some schools have it clearly outlined on their websites/regulations some are super secretive like CSIS about everything and may not be that much help. Some schools don't even want to know what the ailment is, they just want to know the impact/etc. Getting the information out of them can honestly be more exhausting than writing 3 exams in a day and if you are able to, try to get the responses in writing so if there is ever a dispute or someone dismisses it, you can take the appropriate action. Also, make sure to cc yourself when you're sending the emails that way you have a back up of what you sent it just in case someone says well that's not what you said... 

Do your research, ask questions and make the best case you can for why those grades are not a complete reflection of your abilities. 

I personally felt the same way you did with my issues and wasn't going to try to explain my grades thinking they won't care. Some may not, but at least you can say you did your due diligence to present yourself. 

This was very helpful, thank you. I do plan on explaining my issues during my first year and I will ask for all relevant medical records. If I apply in the regular category to say, UCalgary (as an example) which only takes L2, would they even take into account my first year? And yes, people always tend to minimise vitiligo (maybe to make me feel better?) but anybody would be devastated to get spots all over their body. Anybody who says vitiligo isnt a big deal has never been stared and pointed at by an entire rec centre swimming pool lol. I honestly wish I could do a video interview with admissions officers, I think that vitiligo made me a much more empathetic person and the fact that I overcame so many things at the age of 18 (not just vitiligo) gave me very thick skin. I might hire someone to help me convey this in my PS. Thanks for your advice and have a good day.

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