NYU - International Students Forum

[Njdeh]

Hi, I'm a Canadian student hoping to apply to NYU Law/Stern MBA.
I heard that for international students, the GPA is thrown out? Your acceptance is based off your LSAT along with Personal Statements and References? What other strong factors come into play for international students?

[Ivan91]

Someone really deluded you about the GPA
You should ask your school send an official transcript to LSAC and they convert your grades to the 0.00 - 4.00 standard.
Problem solved.

[Njdeh]

Haha thats what I thought, so the criteria for international acceptance is the same as anyone then?

[cigrainger]

Someone really deluded you about the GPA
You should ask your school send an official transcript to LSAC and they convert your grades to the 0.00 - 4.00 standard.
Problem solved.

This is not true for most international applicants, but I believe you are correct for Canadian applicants (though I think it depends on the school's grading scheme). They absolutely do not convert you grades to a 4.0 scale for all other international applicants.

[iShotFirst]

Canadian here. Yes they convert your grades to a 4.0 scale, which sucks because its usually harder to get high grades in Canadian universities.

The international treatment you were talking about is only for other countries with very different education systems. Their GPA is assumed to be at the school median and they look at LSAT and their softs only.

[whymeohgodno]

Haha thats what I thought, so the criteria for international acceptance is the same as anyone then?

Well if by this you mean do they count your gpa then yes.

[zdayar]

LSAC does evaluate foeign transcripts and generates a summary for the shools you apply to. So I don't think they ever completely ignore your UGPA, regardless of where you received it.

I think you should point out your rank in your class to give more context to your UGPA. I did my undergrad overseas at an extremely competitive school and my UGPA is 3.54 but I was ranked 3rd in my graduating class of 80 students. And the top sudent's GPA was 3.74. A 3.9 or 4.0 GPA is unheard of in my undergrad university.

So I think it's all relative and you should explain that in an attachment or something. I added an explanation about my UGPA in all my applications where an additional attachment was allowed. And for others, I pointed it out in my resume or listed it among my academic accomplishments.

[kazu]

LSAC does evaluate foeign transcripts and generates a summary for the shools you apply to. So I don't think they ever completely ignore your UGPA, regardless of where you received it.

I think you should point out your rank in your class to give more context to your UGPA. I did my undergrad overseas at an extremely competitive school and my UGPA is 3.54 but I was ranked 3rd in my graduating class of 80 students. And the top sudent's GPA was 3.74. A 3.9 or 4.0 GPA is unheard of in my undergrad university.

So I think it's all relative and you should explain that in an attachment or something. I added an explanation about my UGPA in all my applications where an additional attachment was allowed. And for others, I pointed it out in my resume or listed it among my academic accomplishments.

The foreign transcript summary is only for non-Canadian foreign transcripts, I believe. Canadian transcripts get the same treatment a U.S. one does.

[canuck]

Canadian here. Yes they convert your grades to a 4.0 scale, which sucks because its usually harder to get high grades in Canadian universities.

One can only hope that most schools are aware of this. I'll take any boost I can get.

[zdayar]

LSAC does evaluate foeign transcripts and generates a summary for the shools you apply to. So I don't think they ever completely ignore your UGPA, regardless of where you received it.

I think you should point out your rank in your class to give more context to your UGPA. I did my undergrad overseas at an extremely competitive school and my UGPA is 3.54 but I was ranked 3rd in my graduating class of 80 students. And the top sudent's GPA was 3.74. A 3.9 or 4.0 GPA is unheard of in my undergrad university.

So I think it's all relative and you should explain that in an attachment or something. I added an explanation about my UGPA in all my applications where an additional attachment was allowed. And for others, I pointed it out in my resume or listed it among my academic accomplishments.

The foreign transcript summary is only for non-Canadian foreign transcripts, I believe. Canadian transcripts get the same treatment a U.S. one does.

Correct, Canadian transcripts get the same treatment as US ones. It may still help to put the GPA in context by giving your rank, etc.

[Ivan91]

OK, I am currently studying in an American liberal arts type of college in Europe.
My grading system is absolutely the same as the one in the States. How will I be treated when applying ?

[zdayar]

OK, I am currently studying in an American liberal arts type of college in Europe.
My grading system is absolutely the same as the one in the States. How will I be treated when applying ?

You will have that university send your official transcripts to LSAC and LSAC will analyze them and create a report to send to the law schools you apply to. If you feel the grading at your university is much tougher than a similar US institution, you may want to add a note in your application about this.

[Ivan91]

Nope, it looks just about the same.