GPA reductions on LSDAS Law School Reports

Recently, I’ve gotten a few emails from applicants who have stated that the GPAs appearing on their LSDAS Law School Reports are lower than those that appear on their transcripts. Some have written in a panic, wondering if a mistake had been made; others wanted to know on which GPA we would rely. My general advice on this topic is for affected applicants to verify with LSAC that the calculations are correct, as we will rely on the GPA appearing on the report.

For those who may not be familiar with this phenomenon, here’s a little background:

LSAC has its own method of calculating GPAs that appear on LSDAS Law School Reports. And while I cannot explain the intricacies of their system, I can say that they are more conservative in their calculations than many colleges and universities.

In the Fall 2006 Edition of The Advisor by Recruit For Law School, Inc. (pre-law magazine), Jay Shively, Director for Law School Support Services at LSAC, wrote the following blurb on this topic:

A rather unpopular feature of the LSDAS is its grading scale used to evaluate applicant transcripts. When transcripts are submitted to the service, grades are converted to a uniform scale in order to assist law schools in comparing transcripts from different institutions. This conversion process does not account for any perceived quality disparity among institutions, but rather focuses on ensuring that institutional grading policies (e.g. “forgiveness” policies) do not unduly benefit some applicants over others. Unfortunately, the conversion sometimes lowers the GPAs of applicants—albeit slightly.

For more information about the LSAC’s grade conversion policies, you should contact them. (A link to their website is on the right-hand column.) In the meantime, if you are affected, there is no need to panic. The GPA reductions are usually very small and, thus, insignificant to us.