CHAPTER 5: TRANSCRIPTS AND THE ASR

SENDING TRANSCRIPTS TO LSAC

As part of your law school applications, you will need to submit your academic transcripts through the LSAC Credential Assembly Service. You will download from the LSAC website a transcript request form for each institution you attended and send the form to the school(s). The school(s) will then send your transcripts directly to LSAC (NOT to you). It usually takes LSAC about three to four weeks to process your transcripts, on top of however long it takes for your school to send them out, so plan accordingly and take care of this step early in the process.

Law schools require transcripts from your primary undergraduate institution as well as any other institutions from which you received college-level credit:

▪ Community colleges

▪ Undergraduate and graduate institutions

▪ Law/medical/professional institutions

▪ Institutions attended for summer or evening courses

▪ Institutions attended even though a degree was never received

▪ Institutions from which you took college-level courses in High School

▪ Institutions that sponsored overseas study

▪ International Transcripts

You can find more information about submitting transcripts and which transcripts you need to submit on the LSAC website.

ACADEMIC SUMMARY REPORT

Once all your transcripts have been received, LSAC will create an Academic Summary Report that summarizes your undergraduate work using an index based on LSAC’s data of all students from your undergraduate university that have ever applied through LSAC. The ASR will be sent to your schools along with a copy of all of your transcripts.

An important thing to understand is that LSAC may compute your GPA differently from your undergraduate college for several reasons. First, LSAC will include summer school courses, study abroad courses, and repeated courses in your GPA, even if your college didn’t factor those into its own calculation of your GPA. You can find a complete listing of policies here. Second, many colleges use different types of grading curves and practices. LSAC attempts to put your GPA into the context of your own school’s practices. It does that by comparing your GPA to other students from your college who applied to law school and assigns you a percentile for comparison purposes. Lastly, LSAC will calculate and list your GPA by year as well as cumulatively for each year you attended an undergraduate institution. It will also show how many credit hours you took that year. This allows schools to track your progress throughout your undergraduate career to see any improvements or changes in workload.

FACTORS SCHOOLS TAKE INTO ACCOUNT

Every law school admissions officer will tell you that your undergraduate GPA is a primary factor in admissions decisions– this is why LSAC provides detailed statistics comparing you to other applicants from your undergraduate institution– but there are some additional factors that schools take into account when assessing your academic record. It helps to understand these other considerations because you can use them to your advantage, either to highlight strengths or mitigate weaknesses in your record.

Quality of School. There is obviously a big difference between a 3.3 GPA from a top ten school and a 3.8 GPA from a less demanding school. If you have a low GPA but went to a top school or a school known for significant grade deflation, admissions officers will take this into account. This is why LSAC includes statistics about all students from your school that have applied to law school, so you can be compared against your peers and have your grades put into context. That said, just because you went to a good school (or conversely if you went to an average school), don’t think that the numbers themselves don't matter– a student with an impressive record from an average school is very likely to be more attractive than someone from an Ivy League who clearly didn't put in much effort once they arrived. Make sure you also choose recommendation letter writers who can highlight your strengths as a student and compare your work ethic and performance in the classroom to those of your peers. Admissions officers are aware that Service Academies have deflated grades relative to other schools and will take a lower GPA into consideration, within reason.

Choice of Majors. There is a perception among admissions officers that Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) courses are much more difficult than humanities and social sciences courses. Accordingly, a low overall GPA as a Computer Science major may look better than a high GPA in Communications. Keep in mind, though, that admissions officers want to see how well you did in courses that required skills similar to those you use in law school. So while they may cut you some slack for low grades in STEM courses, the same cannot be said for humanities or social science courses you took. Bottom line: even if you were a STEM major, if you performed poorly in Political Science/History/English/Sociology/etc. classes, be prepared to explain why.

Course Load. Another factor that is taken into account is your course load. Did you take more than the required number of courses? Much more? Did you do extensive independent research to supplement your normal courses? Transcripts alone do a poor job of communicating those kinds of things clearly, so you might ask your recommender to spell some of that out or find a way to incorporate these aspects of your academic record into your resume and essays. Make sure the admissions committees have a clear picture of you as a student and how you stack up against the competition.

Work Experience. Your GPA also may not reflect your true potential if you worked part-time during college. Make sure you list any work experience on your resume, especially if you had to work in order to fund your education. This is another good topic for your recommender(s) to discuss.

Performance Trend. Lastly, admissions officers will look positively upon an upward trend in your academic performance. Even if you struggled in the first year or two of college (as many people do), showing significant growth and improvement over time and finishing strong can redeem a low overall GPA. The trend in your performance should be obvious from your transcript and your Academic Summary Report, but you can also write an optional addendum if you want to explain any shifts or anomalies. You should definitely consider doing so if you had a downward trend over time and there are good reasons for it (i.e. you had to start working part-time or took on a brutal workload). Otherwise, you leave it to the admissions committee to wonder about whether or not you can handle a rigorous academic program.

If any of these factors apply to you, emphasize them in your application. You can either explicitly address them in your addendum essays (more on this in Chapter 7), or use your resume and recommendation letters to cover them. The important thing is to ensure that the admissions officers understand why your academic record looks the way it does.