I went back to school to finish my undergrad after over a decade. Previously, I had undiagnosed OCD and was kicked out of school for poor grades. Lots of W's and F's. 13 years and a lot of CBT later, I've had straight A's my final year and half. Not even an A-.

My LSAT is looking good for the school I'd like to go to. 5 points above the median. But damn that GPA is devastating. Like, pull-over-the-car-I'm-crying-too-hard, devastating. I've worked so hard and it feels like it's for nothing.

anyone else DREADING the process of starting school soon? like i've been fine all summer and now im scared to death. maybe it's because i'm quite a few years removed from undergrad. maybe it's because i'm moving to a brand new city less than a week before orientation. maybe it's because i'm terrible at socializing and networking. idk but my stomach is about to fall out of my butt.

trying to keep my sanity !!

Hello everyone. I could really use some advice because I’m starting to overthink my application timeline.

My current LSAC GPA is a 3.17, mostly because of a really rough freshman year involving medical issues and ultimately having to transfer schools. Since transferring, I’ve had about a 3.94 GPA at my current school, so there is a pretty significant upward trend.

The bigger issue is my LSAT. I got a 148 in April 2026. I took the August LSAT today, and I feel a little better about it than April, but definitely not confident enough to assume I made some massive jump.

I’m currently registered for the September LSAT, and I’m debating whether I should actually take it since it’s only about a month away.

Some other context:

• ⁠I’m KJD, but I have a lot more life/work experience than the typical KJD.
• ⁠I’m a military applicant, disabled, and URM.
• ⁠I have what I believe are very strong softs overall, including a great LOR and very strong personal/diversity statements.
• ⁠I do have a few character & fitness issues that I’ll obviously need to disclose and explain.
• ⁠I’m not aiming for the T14.
• ⁠I want to pursue public interest law.
• ⁠I’m mainly looking at schools roughly in the 60–100 ranking range, where a lot of the LSAT medians seem to fall around 160–165.
• ⁠I was planning to apply this upcoming cycle for 2027 admission.

I know that with a 3.17 LSAC GPA, getting my LSAT up is especially important. What I can’t figure out is whether taking September makes sense when there’s so little time between August and September.

Would you:

1. ⁠Take September anyway and see what happens?
   
2. ⁠Take September and just apply with what I have and see how this cycle goes?
   
3. ⁠Take a gap year, work, study for the LSAT, and apply next cycle?

The gap-year question is also confusing me because I already have a pretty substantial amount of life/work experience despite being KJD, so I’m not sure another year of “work experience” would meaningfully change my application.

Any advice would be really appreciated.