Grad School Grades Forum

[spb2822]

How do admissions committees view grades in graduate school?

I received a Master's degree from a top school in NYC. I graduated with a 4.0 which I would think would be factored in somehow during the admissions process, but all I ever read about is the 2 things really considered are UGPA and LSAT score. My UGPA was only a 3.1. Just wondering what my chances are at law schools in NYC area? LSAT 166

NYU (obvious reach)
Columbia (obvious reach)
but what about Fordham, Yeshiva, Brooklyn, Rutgers-Newark, Seton Hall?

[mteevin]

law schools are unable to put much weight into graduate degree grades because LSAC does not provide them with information about the institution you are attending. for instance, on your academic summary report, mean GPA and mean LSAT for your UG institution is listed, in order to give law school adcoms a chance to compare relative grade inflation across schools. this information is not provided for graduate institutions, meaning that adcoms have absolutely no way to gauge the relative difficulty of your particular program, making them awfully wary.

[patrickd139]

Predictions:

NYU-Out
CLS-Out
Fordham- WL;Out
'Dozo-In
BLS-In
Rutgers-In
Seton Hall-In

Grad school grades are (at best) a soft factor. Most people get As, and the post above explained how the grad schools don't submit aggregate academic summary reports to compare your 4.0 with the other 4.0s your grad school gives out. Advice: retake.

[spb2822]

Any thoughts about if I applied to the P/T program at Fordham? Any better luck?

[NYC_7911]

Any thoughts about if I applied to the P/T program at Fordham? Any better luck?

Fordham's PT program is pretty competitive in its own right. I went to an info session there, and the rep told us that because so many people were transferring from PT to FT (in other words, using PT as a back door into the FT program) that they were going to cut the number of PT acceptances in half (from 160 to 80) in order to cut down on that attrition. That does NOT mean that students won't be able to transfer from PT to FT; they are just doing it in order to cultivate a PT class that is, on the whole, there because they really want to attend law school PT. Point of this being that it seems likely that there will be even less difference between PT and FT candidates than there is now.

[wileyman02]

These are actual quotes from directors, associates deans, and assistant deans of various admissions offices in response to the question of how much weight an advanced degree has in admission decisions:

"A graduate degree is a definite plus factor" (Berkeley, Director of Admissions)

"Post-college graduate experience is helpful; we treat it more or less equivalent to work experience. STRONG PERFORMANCE can help offset a weaker undergraduate record" (Duke, Senior Admissions Officer)

"A graduate record can help overcome a lower undergraduate GPA but it will have no impact on a low LSAT score." (George Mason, Associate Dean and Director of Admissions)

"...likewise, graduate study can often compensate for a less-than stellar undergraduate record. It's much harder to compensate for a weak LSAT." (George Washington, Associate Dean for Admissions)

"...having completed another degree is helpful. Also, because trend in grades is important, having additional education lets me see whether the candidate's grades continued to rise as he or she progressed through school.: (Georgetown, Assistant Dean of Admissions)

Obviously, advanced coursework and degrees can have an pretty good impact. Don't listen to anyone who tells you it has no effect or value whatsoever-- that's a load of horsesh*t, especially if the graduate coursework resulted in the attainment of a degree. It might be the case at a few schools, but most schools will treat it as a very good "soft," particularly in your case b/c your grades into graduate school showed a strong upward trend in academic performance. And sure, if you got a master's degree in, let's say, Education from Adelphi University, I am not sure if that is going to help much. But if you received it from NYU or Columbia and excelled in the program, schools are definitely going to hold that as a big plus on your application. And although your LSAC academic summary report does not factor any graduate work into your LSDAS GPA, LSAC sends a copy of all of your graduate school transcripts to each school that you apply to. So they will see all of the graduate school coursework you have taken.

[rayiner]

^^^ LOL at your life.

Admissions deans don't control law school admissions, silly girl, USNWR does.

[wileyman02]

^^^ LOL at your life.

Admissions deans don't control law school admissions, silly girl, USNWR does.

--ImageRemoved--

[whymeohgodno]

^^^ LOL at your life.

Admissions deans don't control law school admissions, silly girl, USNWR does.

--ImageRemoved--

No shit it can but the real question is HOW MUCH will it help and it's pretty much negligible if you have weak numbers to begin with.

[homestyle28]

I was in nearly the same position last cycle. I don't think any schools actually took my graduate work into account AT ALL. I had a 175 LSAT and 3.07 LSDAS, but a ~3.95 graduate GPA. No one cared. There were a number of Tier 1 and 2 schools that didn't offer any scholly money and the only t14 I got into was NU.

[Kohinoor]

I was in nearly the same position last cycle. I don't think any schools actually took my graduate work into account AT ALL. I had a 175 LSAT and 3.07 LSDAS, but a ~3.95 graduate GPA. No one cared. There were a number of Tier 1 and 2 schools that didn't offer any scholly money and the only t14 I got into was NU.

I think that it does matter. To the extent that your graduate GPA is below a 3.9 it probably hurts you.