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I'm waitlisted at a few schools that I'd like to attend. I just graduated with a master's degree; however, in my last semester, my gpa went down because of a "B."

How will updating my file to reflect my finalized graduate school transcript affect my chances on a given wait list? Will this hurt? Anyone have any experiences/opinions? It went down from 3.81 to 3.74

I'm of the opinion that if your GPA got worse, you should not update, whereas if your GPA got better you should update.

No need to tell them you're a (slightly) lesser candidate than you were before

They don't give a shit. Doesn't effect them at all won't hurt you at all. Most grad programs give B's or better and knowing that I would think most law schools don't care about your master gpa unless its under a 3.0.

It shouldn't matter too much at all because it won't effect your LSAC GPA, which is what the school has to report. That being said, you don't need to update them with the transcripts (until you enroll and then it won't matter at all) maybe just email the schools alerting them that you've finished the program (without mentioning the grades) and reiterating your interest in getting off of the waitlist.

dingbat wrote:I'm of the opinion that if your GPA got worse, you should not update, whereas if your GPA got better you should update.

No need to tell them you're a (slightly) lesser candidate than you were before

I think this is conventional thought, too. I only ask because of it is a wait list, despite it being simply a graduate school transcript; it clearly makes an impact, I think.

principaltrumpet wrote:

dingbat wrote:I'm of the opinion that if your GPA got worse, you should not update, whereas if your GPA got better you should update.

No need to tell them you're a (slightly) lesser candidate than you were before

I think this is conventional thought, too. I only ask because of it is a wait list, despite it being simply a graduate school transcript; it clearly makes an impact, I think.

Generally, I think that when you're waitlisted any chance to contact the school or to remind them you exist is a good thing, but, I would never let them know that I'm a weaker candidate than what they have on file, even if it's minuscule.
Grad school doesn't get reported, so the numbers don't matter in that respect, and having the degree is a soft in and of itself.
However, they've probably got more people on the waitlist than there will ever be spots for and it tends to be full of very close candidates. You don't want to give them an excuse to scratch your name off the list.

edit: unless you're talking about a school where I'm also waitlisted. Then my advise would change completele