LSAC and repeated courses in GPA

[stevec949]

Hello,
My problem is regarding how the LSAC will total my GPA. I have read the wording on the LSAC website however i was wondering if anyone knows first hand.Here is my story. I was 18 at community college and I enrolled in 5 coruses and never went and thus got F`s. I have since repeated them getting all A`s and applied for "academic renewal". The grade is still rpesent however under "units attempted" for that semester it says "0" and does not factor those F`s into my gpa at all. I am hoping this is the case with LSAC GPA calculation. I turned my academic life around and only that semester is bad, I currently have a 3.8 as a senior at a UC school and am considering law. I am jsut worried that thsoe f`s from when i was 18 will come back to destroy me,then I took 2 years off school to work( i am now 24).I figure I cant be the only kid who screwed up a semester fresh out of h.s. If LSAC factors them my gpa falls a great deal. Has anyone been through this before? I highly doubt law school would deny me based on one semester fresh out of h.s and I hope would focus on my current grade trends. I mean will these schools read my transcripts even if my gpa is low and look at my current grade trends? I appreciate any information.

[jacy85]

lsac will factor those Fs in.  They will also factor the As you received when you retook them.  They don't look at them like "repeated" sourses.  They factor them in as 8 different classes.  So your cumulative gpa will show 4 Fs adn 4 As.

On the plus side, you definitely have a trend, you took time off to get your head together, and have now done really well in school.  So write yourself an addenda explaining what happened, what you learned from it, and throw in some concrete examples that prove your new path in life (like your current 3. and you should be ok.  (provided you do decently on the lsat!)

Good luck.

[stevec949]

the only thing im wondering is would these courses fall into this  Excluded Grades Category which on lsac.org says "The original grade for a repeated course when the transcript does not show both the grade and the units for the original attempt. The total number of credits assigned to these grades will appear on the applicant’s LSDAS summary, but will not be included in the GPA calculation."
since the credits show but do not show as being attempted in my semester or cummulative units attempted. I am really just wondering and hopeful that if these do factor in they will actually look at my transcripts and see "hey this is what happened and he has turned it around". I mean I doubt I would get into a great undergrad school with those CC grades first and then be turned down at any law school I apply to because of thsoe CC grades (i will take anything in the top 100 in california =)

[maricutie]

This is a little more sneaky, but you could always just not send in transcripts from that JC. you wont get credits for the As there, but you wont get the Fs, either. And I think it's a stupid LSAC policy anyway.

[stevec949]

yea I cant do that the transcript contains more credits than just those. I am just hopeful that the law school will take the time to look and see ok hey his uc gpa is a 3.8, and his grades are all a`s and b`s exept for that one semester at cc which is draggin his LSAC gpa down we shouldnt say no because he didnt drop some courses 6 years ago at a CC. I am just afraid I wont get in anywhere because of some stupid CC screwup. I am hopeful I figure since ucsd/ucla/ucb let me in as a CC transfer with these on my record that later in life law school would deny me over it. Has anyone out there been through this? I need some reassurance. I havent taken my lsat yet but i am looking in the range of uc hasting / loyola / usd / pepperdine / santa clara and hope they will see past this stuff.