"W"s on transcripts counted as F's for LSDAS GPA?

[kaygirl1]

Are W's counted as F's when using the LSDAS GPA conversion?

[just dot]

Yes, they are.  That is why my GPA is so low.  I have two full semesters of dropped courses due to two family emergencies and LSAC is counting them all as F's.  I wrote an addendum and I'm hoping the adcomms will take that into consideration.  I should be more like a 3.3 (still not steller but not quite as bad).

[rtqw]

Typically no - Withdrawls are not counted provided they are considered by the school to be 'nonpunitive'

[Guiness19]

If your school has W's AND WF's then W's are not counted as F's. If it wasn't punitive at your university it won't be by LSDAS standards.

[jason_perrlx]

I have one W on my transcript and it was not counted as an F in calculating my GPA.  It wasn't counted at all.

[. . . . . .]

I have two W's on mine, and neither was counted as an F

[lauralaw]

same here. i had a bunch of w's for one semester because i had to drop out to work.

none counted as Fs. they just didn't count at all because my LSAC gpa and transcript GPA are   not different.

[just dot]

What? Geez, that makes me so mad.  I got hosed.  Why are my W's counted as F's???  Is it my school, you think?  I looked on my transcript and they said "W."

[jason_perrlx]

It doesn't seem fair at all to me either.  You should call LSAC and ask.  Even if they insist that it is fair or refuse to change it for some other reason, you should go ahead and write an adendum explaining the situation and be sure to include what your GPA would be w/out the W's counted. 

If you do find out it's because of your school... when the smoke clears and you're set to go to law school... you should give your school's pre-professional counselor a call. Tell him/her that the way they report grades to LSAC is really creating problems for their students.  I can't believe they're doing that on purpose.  Let them know that many other schools do not report W's as F's and that you have to compete with students from those schools.

[Guiness19]

What's your school's policy for withdrawing? Did you withdraw because you were failing/ going to get a really bad grade?

The way it works at my university - you can drop a class for the first week to 10 days w/ no "penalty", you can withdraw and get a W in the first 6 weeks (approx), and then after that if you withdraw it becomes a WF (whether you're failing or not). So when peoeple have W's on their transcript (at my university) it's usually not because they were failing the class or definitely going to get a bad grade - it's just that the drop period has passed and for whatever reason they want to get out. Yes, their grade might not be great but they still have 6+ weeks to bring it up.

Last fall, our classes started the Tuesday before labor day. I had a class that was only on Monday. So no Monday class the 1st week b/c they started on Tuesday, nomonday class the 2nd week because it was labor day, and by the third monday when I acutally went to the class, hated it, and decided to drop, I had to take a W.

I would just look into your school's policy and whether or not it's a W because you were going to fail.