Disciplinary and criminal records
When you apply to law school, you will discover that most applications ask you about your undergraduate disciplinary record and your criminal record. The questions are sometimes very open-ended: those about your disciplinary record might ask for information about any time you have been disciplined either for academic or non-academic reasons. The questions about your criminal record may specifically ask you to describe any incident, even if you were not convicted, were a juvenile, or the record was expunged or sealed.
In addition, some schools, including some of the most popular schools for UMass applicants, require an independent report on your college disciplinary record, called a “Dean’s Letter” or “Dean’s Certification,” which will be compared against your answers.
The first thing you need to know in answering these questions is that minor violations or convictions will not keep you out of law school. On the other hand, misrepresenting your disciplinary record or arrest record will be taken very seriously both by law schools and by the bar admission authority of the state in which you eventually seek to get licensed. Therefore, the guiding principle you should keep in mind as you respond to these questions is that you be completely forthcoming and honest. Any misrepresentation will hurt you far more than the underlying offense.
Dean’s Certification or Letter
A handful of law schools still require a “Dean’s Certification” or “Dean’s Letter” as part of the application process. This is a letter from the undergraduate institution that details the applicant’s disciplinary record (if any) and, in some cases, confirms the applicant’s grade point average and...read more »
Criminal records
All law school applications ask about your criminal record. One purpose of these questions is to fulfill the schools’ mandate to ensure that applicants for the Bar are of “good moral character”. Depending on the states in which you eventually apply for law school admission, your application materials may be...read more »
University Discipline
Law school applications ask about both academic and non-academic sanctions. These questions are generally open-ended enough to include everything from a suspension for failure to maintain a minimum grade point average to an R.A.’s warning for violation of the bathroom policy. All end up on your disciplinary record...read more »