LSDAS GPA

[Hammerstein]

Great explanation by Hammerstein. My only quibble is that withdrawals do not count as 0.0 if they are "non-punitive" (so not "withdraw-failing"/WF). I can attest to that firsthand, as I had a W and it didn't count as anything. The only difference between my real GPA and my LSAC GPA was that my school counted A- as a 3.7, rather than a 3.66 or whatever. Very marginal changes, assuming your school has a fairly typical grading scale.

My mistake!  Corrected now in case anyone reads my post in the future.

[vjm]

No.  The only way it really comes into play is if there is a significant difference in the two that can be explained with a valid reason (sickness, switched majors, family problems, etc.).  Otherwise you should consider your LSDAS GPA when making your application decisions.

An excellent point. I had 13 years between the first two years of undergrad (which ran the gamut from A+ to D+) and my last two. My current school folded these years into my transcript, counting credits but not using the grades to calculate my GPA. Since I have a 3.9 in these last years, I thought I had the makings of the perfect crime. My bad years would disappear like magic. I even called my schools and asked if they wanted the earlier transcripts. They all said no.

But not LSAC. They wanted them all. 3.4X for me.

Lesson: Your past will come back to haunt you.

Adcomms: j/k about the "perfect crime". I thought it was kosher since none of y'all wanted the other transcripts.

[igs88]

This is a great discussion.

I understand the grading breakdown for LSDAS (A+=4.33, A=4.0, etc.), but how does unit count factor in?  For example, will an A in a 2-unit class count less than an A in a 4-unit class?  After reading the LSDAS site I couldn't find any mention of it.  Perhaps it's assumed?

[AshleyNicole]

Will having W's on your transcript affect your LSAC gpa at all? I have an entire semester of W's my first year of undergrad.  Also, I have an F on my transcript for a class I dropped online, but I guess it never processed.  I ended up getting an F, but retook the course and got an A.  Will the F still be converted as an F even though I retook that same class?

[PIZZAMAN86]

The F counts when LSAC is calculating your LSDAS GPA even if the school you are at replaces the F with the grade you earned in the course the second time around. The same thing happened to me. I took a math class my first semester, and I received an F in the course. I came back the following spring and made an A in the course. While my school disregarded the first grade after I retook, LSAC still counted it and it killed my GPA. You should be ok though if you just have one F, and since it was fairly on in your college career admissions people are likely to be more forgiving than if it happened in say your senior year.

[vjm]

Hi guys,

In the same vein, should I send another transcript to LSDAS now that I have graduated? I sent them to the school I where I am accepted, and to my two waitlists, but is there any advantage to LSDAS recalculating my GPA? Will they even recalculate it?

I did very well Fall and Spring semester, so it will bump me up a bit.

[limegreen]

Hi guys,

In the same vein, should I send another transcript to LSDAS now that I have graduated? I sent them to the school I where I am accepted, and to my two waitlists, but is there any advantage to LSDAS recalculating my GPA? Will they even recalculate it?

I did very well Fall and Spring semester, so it will bump me up a bit.

I sent another one.  One of my WL schools said to send in your final grades and to send a final transcript through LSAC as well.  I would assume that if your GPA went up and you would like for them to take that into account it would be helpful if they had it through LSDAS because I think that's the official GPA they have to use.

[vjm]

Thanks limegreen! I had already sent them individual copies, and it suddenly occurred to me that they need to report official UGPA as stated by LSDAS.

[JumpTheMoon]

Probably a far strech, but I'm hoping someone has an asnwer to this:

For Canadian schools, a 50 is a pass whereas for American schools it is 60. Therefore, if I have a few 50's on my transcript (D for us - an A is 80-100%) they are going to be counted as F for American schools and thus make my UGPA terribly low. Do they take anything like this into consideration??  Our grading systems are obviously very different.

[limegreen]

I'm pretty sure number grades don't show up on your transcript- just letter- so they wouldn't know the difference.