Hi,
In short, my undergrad institution only counts 6 first year credits both for credit and towards GPA. I have 1.5 credits above this limit that are marked extra and not for credit on my transcript, although the grades are still listed; nonetheless, I assumed LSAC would ignore these in GPA calculations as they are not assigned credit. However, this was not the case, and when I called to ask about this, I received a letter stating that GPA is calculated on the basis of all undergraduate courses. This seems contradictory to the policies of transcript summarization posted online by LSAC; is it worth calling again, given that the inclusion of these courses drops my GPA from 3.83 to 3.7, making a significant difference relating to my reach schools and scholarships?
LSAC GPA Forum
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UVA2B
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- Joined: Sun May 22, 2016 10:48 pm
Re: LSAC GPA
LSAC GPA is all that matters. You'll be painfully unsuccessful if you try to show your UG does grades and transcripts differently. UGs use all sorts of different GPA formulas, so LSAC does its best to normalize across all schools. It's not perfect, but they're not going to bend to your particular problem.
You'd be better off trying to get your UG to redesignate your first year credits according to their policy. If they're willing to take the remaining 1.5 credits that is changing your GPA and reclassify those credits, then problem solved. I sincerely doubt they will, but that goes back to the above problem.
You want to believe you deserve a better LSAC GPA than LSAC thinks you have, which is perfectly rational. But it makes zero sense for LSAC to consider it on an institutional level for you individually. You have a 3.7 LSAC GPA. Kill the LSAT/GRE (extrapolating the reach of the GRE here for completeness of advice) and it won't impede your career in the slightest. a 3.7/173 LSAT is still going to have really strong options. In fact, I doubt a 3.7/173+ LSAT has substantially different outcomes from a 3.8/173+ LSAT. And in this case, I'm talking about eventual career, not the school you get into or the scholarship you receive.
You'd be better off trying to get your UG to redesignate your first year credits according to their policy. If they're willing to take the remaining 1.5 credits that is changing your GPA and reclassify those credits, then problem solved. I sincerely doubt they will, but that goes back to the above problem.
You want to believe you deserve a better LSAC GPA than LSAC thinks you have, which is perfectly rational. But it makes zero sense for LSAC to consider it on an institutional level for you individually. You have a 3.7 LSAC GPA. Kill the LSAT/GRE (extrapolating the reach of the GRE here for completeness of advice) and it won't impede your career in the slightest. a 3.7/173 LSAT is still going to have really strong options. In fact, I doubt a 3.7/173+ LSAT has substantially different outcomes from a 3.8/173+ LSAT. And in this case, I'm talking about eventual career, not the school you get into or the scholarship you receive.
