Policies Regarding Personal Enrichment Credit Correspondence Courses

[PsycLaw]

I am completing my master's degree this spring and subsequently starting my legal education this fall. I have already been admitted and placed a seat deposit. My graduate GPA changes every semester as I complete courses. Being paranoid, I always try to expedite updating LSAC CAS and my law school on changes.

In any event, I would like to take a few self-paced, credit correspondence courses for personal enrichment reasons. The courses I am looking at do not follow the academic year (they have a nine-month time limit with possible extensions). I intend to take them over summers, though they would overlap with my legal education insofar as self-paced courses can.

I have a few questions relating to correspondence courses:

• Does the ABA impose limits (e.g. maximum number of credit hours) on taking courses from external institutions?
• My understanding is that I have to write LSAC's CAS to get them to add a new institution to my account. Should I expect a review/audit when I report grades for correspondence courses?
• Would undergraduate correspondence courses change my LSAC GPA?
• Could any GPA changes (undergraduate or graduate, calculated or otherwise) jeopardize my admissions status in law school after I am already admitted? I don't expect to suddenly fail this semester or when I take individual courses, but I want to be fully informed.

Thanks,
PsycLaw

[Julie Fern]

only credits from regionally-accredited institutions transfer.  this not sound good.

[jonlevy]

It  isn't exactly clear to me what you are asking but if you take some non law courses over the summer after being admitted to law school; how would the law school even know? And why would it be any of their business if it was in a totally different field of study like psychology?  Unless these are continuing education courses needed to keep a professional license current, you would be well advised just to concentrate on your first year law courses.

[SaraJean]

Two things:
First, your correspondence courses will not affect your UGPA.  Once you finish your first undergraduate degree, LSAC calculates any subsequent coursework, including undergraduate coursework, as graduate coursework.  Graduate coursework doesn't go into calculation of UGPA.

Second, if you're already admitted, you probably should check with the academic dean at your law school.  If you fail to disclose something you were supposed to disclose, that can cause headaches when you go to take the bar exam.