W grade punitive or nonpunitive? Forum

[jkhalfa]

How is this determined for a particular school? I emailed LSAC asking about my college and all they said was "LSAC cannot comment on how a transcript will be evaluated until it has been received and processed by LSAC," which is probably the least useful answer I've ever heard.

Is there a list somewhere that I just can't find?

(I'm specifically interested in the University of Pittsburgh. According to our registrar W grades aren't counted at all for our school GPA, so I'm guessing LSAC would ignore them as well?)

[Nooblarzlarz]

I believe each school sets it somewhat arbitrarily. At my university, if you dropped a class within the first 15 days or so, nothing went on your transcript. If you dropped from that point up until right before midterm, it was a W. If you dropped after that point, it was a WF which is a withdrawal while failing. The W was non punitive and the WF was. Never got a WF so don't know how that affected GPA.

If your school doesn't consider it punitive, I'd bet the LSAC wouldn't either. My Ws had no effect on my LSAC GPA.

[rinkrat19]

Usually it has to do with "Credits attempted" for the class. If your school shows the credits attempted as 4 (or whatever), even if they don't count the class when calculating GPA, LSAC might. If your school shows attempted credits for a W as zero, you're likely ok.

But the only way to find out is to submit it. It's not like there's any other option, anyway. Speculation is kind of pointless.

[jkhalfa]

But the only way to find out is to submit it.

That may be true, but it's also completely useless. The point is to find out now so I can decide whether to withdraw or not.

My office of the registrar said this

"A University of Pittsburgh grade W, will not have any points and will not be calculated into your GPA."

so I assume I'm ok.

[rinkrat19]

But the only way to find out is to submit it.

That may be true, but it's also completely useless. The point is to find out now so I can decide whether to withdraw or not.

My office of the registrar said this

"A University of Pittsburgh grade W, will not have any points and will not be calculated into your GPA."

so I assume I'm ok.

Not necessarily. It could be zero points but four credits attempted and just not calculated into the total because it's a W. It all depends on how Pitt types it out on the actual paper transcript.

I'm not saying it's terrible likely (in fact, I think it's pretty unusual), but it has happened.

[jkhalfa]

I'm checking to see if I can just take the class pass/fail. That option would be preferable, since it would keep me on schedule for graduation and I think probably anyone who even attempts the work would pass the class.

I wish there was some authoritative source for this. The difference between not counting at all and failing is a pretty big difference. It's not something you can just take chances with, yet it's like LSAC wants you to play Russian roulette with your GPA.

[xylocarp]

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