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Do I need to send my masters degree or PhD transcripts to CAS or WES or OLSAS?

srija1991srija1991 Alum Member
edited April 2020 in Law School Admissions 30 karma

Hi,

This might be a stupid question to those who are familiar with law school application process. However I am a very confused international student, so here is my question.

I have a masters degree and currently pursuing PhD. While sending my transcripts to CAS or OLSAS for evaluation, do I need to send these transcripts as well as my undergrad transcripts ( if these push my law school a little bit)? Does these qualification help in application (given that my application won’t have any GPA but only LSAT) ?

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Comments

  • livesofotherslivesofothers Alum Member
    22 karma

    Why not? If anything, it gives insight into how you've spent the past ~5 (potentially more) years.

  • srija1991srija1991 Alum Member
    30 karma

    @livesofothers said:

    Thanks ... actually as I am an international student, WES or CAS asks to send my transcripts directly from my university. Now my university charges 50$/transcripts so that means undergrad 3 transcripts, masters 4 transcripts and PhD 1 transcript... that makes a total of 400 for WES (OLSAS) and another 400 for CAS. So just wanted to be sure that these will actually help in application or not.

  • livesofotherslivesofothers Alum Member
    22 karma

    @srija1991 said:

    @livesofothers said:

    Thanks ... actually as I am an international student, WES or CAS asks to send my transcripts directly from my university. Now my university charges 50$/transcripts so that means undergrad 3 transcripts, masters 4 transcripts and PhD 1 transcript... that makes a total of 400 for WES (OLSAS) and another 400 for CAS. So just wanted to be sure that these will actually help in application or not.

    I will never understand why schools think it's reasonable to charge by transcript and not by request. I have two master's from the same university and the university charged me about similar for each of my degree. Not quite as much as you paid in total but I feel your pain.

    I don't know if it will help your application. But (and this is a strictly personal opinion) I think that it could hurt not to send it. Maybe your situation is different since you're in a Ph.D. program and probably have research products/papers on your resume, but when I was thinking about the same thing in my situation, I tried to imagine how an admissions officer can react. And I think my reaction upon seeing a grad school transcript (or five) would be, 'Oh look, they're here.' But when I don't see a transcript, my response would be 'What are they trying to hide?'

    I don't know. Maybe I just have a terrible impression of law school admissions officers.

  • Hopeful9812Hopeful9812 Member
    872 karma

    I think these transcripts would be useful for admissions officers. On the LSAC website, it states that Law schools require transcripts from undergraduate and graduate institutions that you have attended. If you are unsure, I would recommend reaching out to the admissions officers for the schools that you are interested in to confirm. Good luck!

  • srija1991srija1991 Alum Member
    edited April 2020 30 karma

    @livesofothers said:

    @srija1991 said:

    @livesofothers said:

    Thanks ... actually as I am an international student, WES or CAS asks to send my transcripts directly from my university. Now my university charges 50$/transcripts so that means undergrad 3 transcripts, masters 4 transcripts and PhD 1 transcript... that makes a total of 400 for WES (OLSAS) and another 400 for CAS. So just wanted to be sure that these will actually help in application or not.

    I will never understand why schools think it's reasonable to charge by transcript and not by request. I have two master's from the same university and the university charged me about similar for each of my degree. Not quite as much as you paid in total but I feel your pain.

    Yes that's the issue, I dont understand why they need to charge each transcripts. I would be okay somewhat it they would charge at least course by course

    I don't know if it will help your application. But (and this is a strictly personal opinion) I think that it could hurt not to send it. Maybe your situation is different since you're in a Ph.D. program and probably have research products/papers on your resume, but when I was thinking about the same thing in my situation, I tried to imagine how an admissions officer can react. And I think my reaction upon seeing a grad school transcript (or five) would be, 'Oh look, they're here.' But when I don't see a transcript, my response would be 'What are they trying to hide?'

    That's the point why I have doubt about whether to send my other degrees. I mean they can just think those degrees are not true or not from legitimate universities ( just speculation) if I dont send all of them. But if sent they might not even look at it with such importance.

    I don't know. Maybe I just have a terrible impression of law school admissions

    Oh no even I have the same impression. I hope they pay a little attention to those transcripts cause it is going to cost me a fortune.

  • srija1991srija1991 Alum Member
    30 karma

    @Hopeful9812 said:
    I think these transcripts would be useful for admissions officers. On the LSAC website, it states that Law schools require transcripts from undergraduate and graduate institutions that you have attended. If you are unsure, I would recommend reaching out to the admissions officers for the schools that you are interested in to confirm. Good luck!

    Thank you for your reply. I was just making sure if I understood correctly. As rules are little bit different for international students.

    I will surely take your advice and will get in contact with the schools as well.

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