Summer School classes and GPA

Rigid Designator

Since we're compelled to report them to the CAS, do Summer School classes factor in to your undergrad GPA even when the Summer classes weren't part of your undergraduate degree?

Example: I earned a BA at University X. I took unrelated summer classes at University Y during the penultimate summer of my BA course. These summer classes contributed nothing towards my BA degree from University X.

JustDoIt

Hi!

So I think a few things matter here. The first is whether or not your school factors it in. The reason that I say this is because in LSAC's GPA description they literally say "All undergraduate" work. Even if it contributed nothing towards your degree, it may still be a factor when it comes to GPA. So I assume that if your university will factor it in, so will LSAC. But this may or may not be right. I would advise you contact LSAC directly and ask them. Their policies are below.

http://www.lsac.org/aboutlsac/policies/transcript-summarization

Rigid Designator

@JustDoIt said:
Hi!

So I think a few things matter here. The first is whether or not your school factors it in. The reason that I say this is because in LSAC's GPA description they literally say "All undergraduate" work. Even if it contributed nothing towards your degree, it may still be a factor when it comes to GPA. So I assume that if your university will factor it in, so will LSAC. But this may or may not be right. I would advise you contact LSAC directly and ask them. Their policies are below.

http://www.lsac.org/aboutlsac/policies/transcript-summarization

Hey, thanks!

Reading that page seems to confirm my original understanding, that they will include it.

I've sent the LSAC an email to confirm one way or another anyway. I'll post an update to this thread in case any one else is interested.

JustDoIt

Glad to help! Looking forward to your update

Rigid Designator

So I got a fairly wordy but speedy response from the LSAC. I've reproduced the relevant part below:

"Because 60 credits are required in order for GPA calculation to be completed, this would not be done for your Summer semester in the US. However, your prospective law schools would see all credit received on the transcript, when they receive a copy of it within the law school reports."

My interpretation of this is that since I took too few summer classes, I did not earn enough credits to merit the LSAC calculating a GPA for me at that school.

However, since I earned a BA unrelated to these summer classes, I will have a GPA calculated for work done for that degree.

This all seems to go against what their website says:

"LSAC calculates a GPA for each year and a cumulative GPA for each undergraduate institution that issued a transcript for you. A cumulative GPA that includes all undergraduate work is also calculated and reported. A cumulative GPA for a school within an institution cannot be calculated."

It seems like it's not sufficient for the production of a GPA that the school issued a transcript for you!

Not really a big deal, but it's good to know I suppose.

Hope this helps someone

JustDoIt

Interesting...thanks for posting!

Law schools will see it and that is what matters most at the end of the day