Hey guys! I am planning to apply to Law schools and I come from an international background, so my university evaluates our grades on a 10-point scale.
I wanted to know how it will be converted/evaluated for US Law Schools !!
Anybody else also coming from an international background, hmu !
2
7 comments
One technical note that hasn't been mentioned is that - yes - your transcript will be evaluated by LSAC as superior, above average, etc. However, you will not have a reportable GPA that will be used when my class calculates its medians. Put another way, you'll have a "blank" GPA. This is neither a good nor a bad thing. It just means that that one stat won't get factored into my medians for my class.
This is one way that you can suss out the amount of international students in a class. If you check out their ABA information forms (here: https://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/requiredDisclosure) you can see how many GPAs the admissions office is NOT reporting for their incoming class. If they enrolled 200 1Ls but are reporting only 190 GPAs in the median, that tells you that 10 incoming 1Ls did their undergrad work outside the US/Canada. Admittedly, one of those 10 could be an American citizen who went to Oxford for undergrad, but the macro trend is worth taking into account.
@JacobBaska So if my GPA isn't of any major value, then I need to just focus on getting the best LSAT score?
@Nishitha Your grades are still important (so don’t go and bomb any classes) but I’m just saying that you won’t have a reportable number. So keep doing well academically AND got out and do great on the LSAT.
If you plan on applying this cycle, I highly recommend you get your transcript translated and sent to LSAC asap. They need to send it off to a third party to have it evaluated and that takes time. Unless your school participates in an online service, they'll have to mail it to LSAC as well. I am still waiting on mine to process, despite it being roughly 1.5 months
You submit your transcript to LSAC and they re-evaluate your GPA for you. They score it on 4 categories: Superior (A), Above Average (B), Average (C), and Below Average (D/F).
At the end of the day, because your GPA won't be an American/Canadian GPA, the GPA has less weight. Rather, your LSAT Score will be weighed more.
https://www.lsac.org/applying-law-school/jd-application-process/cas/requesting/international-transcripts/international
@DaisukeKaga Thank you so much !! Im planning to start applying in 2027 so by when is it ideal to start this GPA process?
@Nishitha If you buy a CAS then you can request the transcript form the school needs to send in with your transcript. It depends on where you went to school, if it needs translation, etc. Earlier the better. CAS lasts for 5 years