GPA on LSAC Academic Summary Report Forum

[fuzzyvoice]

I submitted my transcripts and LSAC generated an Academic Summary Report with a cumulative GPA of 3.18 and degree GPA of 3.51.

And I'm not satisfied with the results.

LSAC's Transcript Summarization states under Grades Excluded from Conversion has the following: "Those given for remedial courses only if the transcript clearly indicates they are remedial."
https://www.lsac.org/applying-law-schoo ... marization

I went to a community college and took Beginning Algebra once and Intermediate Algebra twice. I got a C in Beginning Algebra and an F the first time I took Intermediate Algebra and a C for my second time. These courses are clearly remedial and they were not a part of my Bachelor's Degree coursework and were not transferable to a university. I took them following a math placement exam. These classes were prerequisites for various college-level courses, including College Algebra and Statistics. But for some reason, LSAC included my remedial algebra courses in the Academic Summary Report. My cumulative GPA without those courses is a 3.41 but with those remedial courses included, it's at a 3.18.

Is there something I can do about this? I was hoping that LSAC would recalculate my GPA and not include remedial courses just like how its policies state.

[nixy]

How does LSAC define remedial, and how does that match with your courses?

[mysonx3]

Were these classes worth credit at your community college, e.g. towards an associates degree there? What does the transcript say about them?

[fuzzyvoice]

I'm not exactly sure how LSAC defines what is and isn't remedial. But I figured that it would be obvious to them that courses named Elementary Algebra and Intermediate Algebra, equivalent to high school-level courses, are remedial.

My transcript includes the section “CSU GE”, which the transcript key defines as “California State University General Education. The CSU General Education enables a student to fulfill the lower division requirements to any California State University.” There is also the section “IGETC”, which the transcript key defines as "Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum. IGETC enables a student to fulfill the lower division GE requirements to either the California State University system or the University of California system” Both Intermediate Algebra and Elementary Algebra did not meet these transfer requirements. And this is indicated on my transcript.

At my community college, both courses had semester hours and I was given grades for them. It appears that Intermediate Algebra met the requirements for an Associate's Degree but Elementary Algebra did not.

[cavalier1138]

I'm not exactly sure how LSAC defines what is and isn't remedial.

You might want to call/e-mail and find out.

But also, re-read LSAC's policy: "Those given for remedial courses only if the transcript clearly indicates they are remedial." That doesn't mean courses that you consider to be remedial; the transcript has to actually say that the course was remedial. Whether they were considered as credit towards your degree(s) is irrelevant.

It's fairly well known that if you retake a course after receiving a for-credit grade, the first grade is counted by LSAC. You may not be satisfied with the results, but tough luck. Focus on the part of your application you can control: the LSAT.

[mysonx3]

Whether they could've transferred to CSU is completely irrelevant. If they were for credit at the CC, they are not remedial. Intermediate Algebra in particular is not always remedial. My school offers it as a standard 100 level course, for instance. Is there anything on your transcript to indicate that they are remedial (not being able to transfer is no the same thing)? If not, you're probably out of luck.

[fuzzyvoice]

Whether they could've transferred to CSU is completely irrelevant. If they were for credit at the CC, they are not remedial. Intermediate Algebra in particular is not always remedial. My school offers it as a standard 100 level course, for instance. Is there anything on your transcript to indicate that they are remedial (not being able to transfer is no the same thing)? If not, you're probably out of luck.

My transcript does not explicitly state that the courses are remedial. All my transcript shows is whether a course is transferable to a four-year universities.

My community college's catalog, however, describes the courses as, "This course is the equivalent of the traditional first year of algebra in secondary school and is designed for students to review their algebra.” and “This course is the equivalent of Algebra II as traditionally taught in one year of secondary school”. And I was hoping that I can persuade LSAC to not include these courses in my GPA, as I have heard from other applicants that their intermediate algebra courses were not counted by LSAC.

[nixy]

In this context, “remedial” is a term of art with a really specific meaning, not just what you think it means. Usually I think that entails not being completed for credit (often they’re numbered with a 0 at the beginning rather than 100-level or up). If you could get credit at your community college for them they’re likely not going to count as remedial for LSAC’s purposes. I would look on their website or call them and ask for the definition of remedial. They will have criteria, but they’re going to be more specific than “intended to review material from secondary school.” There’s not likely to be a lot of wiggle room for you to persuade them otherwise, but it’s possible, I suppose.

[fuzzyvoice]

I've found out that courses I took in community college, Beginning Algebra and Intermediate Algebra, counted as credit towards an Associate's Degree at my community college. Neither were transferrable to a university and didn't count as credit for a Bachelor's Degree. About 2 years after I completed the course, my community college made Beginning Algebra not applicable towards an Associate's Degree.

My transcript shows that the algebra courses aren't transferrable to a university but does not have a code for them to denote "non-degree applicable", so it looks like those grades will stick in my LSAC GPA, which I'm not happy with, as my GPA could have been a 3.4 without those courses instead of a 3.2