"Padding" the LSAC GPA

[meggo]

jenesaislaw here was my thinking. The way my school works, you need 20 credits to graduate. Once you have fulfilled that, you are granted an undergraduate degree (of course meeting other requirements). If you take classes that go over this, they will come after your degree. I will be granted my degree as soon as I hit 20 credits. If I were to have credits go over this, they would be post-degree credits. Or are you saying that any class you take, regardless of whether or not it is a pre or post degree credit, as long as it was taken before an initial degree was awarded, it counts? Obviously I'm not trying to misinform anyone, this is just how I've understood it to apply.

[Ender Wiggin]

jenesaislaw here was my thinking. The way my school works, you need 20 credits to graduate. Once you have fulfilled that, you are granted an undergraduate degree (of course meeting other requirements). If you take classes that go over this, they will come after your degree. I will be granted my degree as soon as I hit 20 credits. If I were to have credits go over this, they would be post-degree credits. Or are you saying that any class you take, regardless of whether or not it is a pre or post degree credit, as long as it was taken before an initial degree was awarded, it counts? Obviously I'm not trying to misinform anyone, this is just how I've understood it to apply.

You don't have to apply for your degree?  Of course, I would think that, if the OP had already satisfied his/her requirements for the degree, it would be much more helpful to graduate and devote him/herself to the LSAT full-time. 

[meggo]

yes yes you do, of course you do, but anything beyond 20 credits isn't counted towards the degree. Perhaps they still exist pre-degree on the transcript and just ignored. I was under the impression it would be report as:

20 Credits
Degree Granted
Any extra credits.

But maybe it's just:
20 Credits
Any extra credits
Degree granted

Either way, it doesn't really affect me. I'm not trying to hijack the thread, just figure out how it'll work. I guess when I see my transcript, I'll know!

[Ender Wiggin]

yes yes you do, of course you do, but anything beyond 20 credits isn't counted towards the degree. Perhaps they still exist pre-degree on the transcript and just ignored. I was under the impression it would be report as:

20 Credits
Degree Granted
Any extra credits.

But maybe it's just:
20 Credits
Any extra credits
Degree granted

Either way, it doesn't really affect me. I'm not trying to hijack the thread, just figure out how it'll work. I guess when I see my transcript, I'll know!

I'm not really sure what your situation is, but I can't imagine someone getting more credits than they needed.  It just seems pointless (and expensive) to me.  One of the benefits of having a college math class was that I was able to figure out how many credits I needed to graduate and just take that many credits.  It was very helpful.

[meggo]

Well exactly. I'm not taking any extra classes. I'm a transfer student. Due to requirements at my present university, you are not allowed to take more than 7.0 first year credits. I therefore will have 0.5 credit that will not count towards my degree, that I will need to make up elsewhere. So at the end of the day, I will be +0.5 credits. It's not a big deal I just thought that this way of reporting possible extra credit was fairly standard. Clearly not.

[JeNeSaisLaw]

meggo, I don't think a school would look down on you for taking art classes over the summer (or any classes for that matter, even if it's obvious that you're doing it to boost the GPA). This is an uninformed (i.e. I'm not an adcomm) opinion, but it seems that you having a higher gpa benefits the school just as it benefits you. If you're really worried, maybe add a line to your resume for interests (and include art). After all, the law school resume is supposed to tell the committee more about you, not just detail your work experience (unless that's the only thing about you of course!).

In any case, Ender is right that you shouldn't take the classes if it will detract from your ability to achieve the highest score you are capable of on the LSAT. Personally, I only studied an hour or two per day (any more I don't think would have helped me given my method of studying), so a few art classes over the summer wouldn't have held me back any- only helped. I was in school full time and working 20-30 hours per week, along with ECs, however. I made myself fit in the time to study, and made sure I did so diligently for the few hours I devoted. Not everybody functions this way, but for me busy is better. For you, you might need 10 hours per day to study (or want to study like that)...for which it probably doesn't make sense to devote 4 hours per day with art.

[meggo]

Sorry, I think you guys might have me confused! I'm not the OP! I just commented after thinking, incorrectly, that how my university calculates degree standing (ie you reach 20 credits, you apply, they grant you a degree, an extra credits that do not go towards your degree would be excluded from this and not listed as pre-degree since they are not counted) is the norm. But I have no desire to take any more classes, believe me. I'm crunching it in as it is to graduate early. The OP however, is clearly able to take as many credits as he wants pre-degree. So maybe perhaps this is where some of the confusion is coming from ? 

[JeNeSaisLaw]

hmm, maybe I should get to bed.

[WashLaw]

JeNeSaisLaw, thank you so much for making that clear.  But would taking CC classes negatively influence my admissions process? Would adcom look at me and say "This kid clearly was trying to inflate his gpa so lets put him in the bottom of the stack." or would they not care at all? Should I write an addendum explaining my interest in art as a reason for taking summer classes?

Thanks alot.

absolutely not. its fine if you want to take the cc classes. law schools dont care. writting an addendum will hurt you because it will make them wonder why you REALLY took the classes. Grade boosting is much worse if you make it obvious that you did it.

[meggo]

I would also add that the more classes you take, the more diluted your gpa, the harder it becomes to actually raise it.