LSAC Website vs LSAC Email Forum

[bbsg]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if you have any experience with this. In any case I'll come back and update this once my GPA conversion is completed for future people to see in case they come across it.

I was in touch with LSAC about a few things to do with transcripts. The one thing I found most alarming is that the LSAC representative was saying they count 1 credit at School A the same as 1 credit at School B even if the schools don't approach credits the same. I responded that my home school uses "1 credit = 6 semester hours" and that another school I attended for one course uses "1 credit = 1 semester hour." However they both require the same amount of semester hours for a degree (120) -- 20 credits at my home school, and 120 credits at the other school.

This means 6 credits at the other school = 1 credit at my home school. This became a concern because I have a 3.86 GPA (hopefully a 3.89 after my summer courses, but we'll ignore all that for now) at my home school but took *one* course at the other school where I received a 3.5 GPA. If they are indeed treating 1 credit identically at both schools, as the LSAC representative stated unambiguously after I'd asked for clarification, this one course is worth more than an entire years' worth at my home school.

If 1 credit = 1 credit, my new cumulative drops from 3.86 to 3.77.
If 1 semester hour credit = 1 semester hour credit, my new cumulative drops from 3.86 to 3.84.
3.84 and 3.77 is a notable difference for T6 schools.

Now the LSAC rep is saying 1 credit = 1 credit, even when I said "is it 1 credit = 1 credit or do you consider semester hours?" However, after having sent the email I came across the LSAC Policies Related to Transcript section that deals with this.

Course Credits
All credits are reported in terms of semester hours. All earned credits not reported in semester hours are converted to that system. Trimester hours are treated as semester hours; quarter hours are multiplied by .67 to arrive at semester hours. Credits recorded in other units are converted to semester hours using the formula supplied by the college issuing the transcript.

Do you think I'm safe here, or would the representative likely be more informed with the actual practice of how these conversions are done?

I'm hoping someone else has been in this situation and can enlighten me. Otherwise I suppose I'm just playing the waiting game.

[Yardbird]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if you have any experience with this. In any case I'll come back and update this once my GPA conversion is completed for future people to see in case they come across it.

I was in touch with LSAC about a few things to do with transcripts. The one thing I found most alarming is that the LSAC representative was saying they count 1 credit at School A the same as 1 credit at School B even if the schools don't approach credits the same. I responded that my home school uses "1 credit = 6 semester hours" and that another school I attended for one course uses "1 credit = 1 semester hour." However they both require the same amount of semester hours for a degree (120) -- 20 credits at my home school, and 120 credits at the other school.

This means 6 credits at the other school = 1 credit at my home school. This became a concern because I have a 3.86 GPA (hopefully a 3.89 after my summer courses, but we'll ignore all that for now) at my home school but took *one* course at the other school where I received a 3.5 GPA. If they are indeed treating 1 credit identically at both schools, as the LSAC representative stated unambiguously after I'd asked for clarification, this one course is worth more than an entire years' worth at my home school.

If 1 credit = 1 credit, my new cumulative drops from 3.86 to 3.77.
If 1 semester hour credit = 1 semester hour credit, my new cumulative drops from 3.86 to 3.84.
3.84 and 3.77 is a notable difference for T6 schools.

Now the LSAC rep is saying 1 credit = 1 credit, even when I said "is it 1 credit = 1 credit or do you consider semester hours?" However, after having sent the email I came across the LSAC Policies Related to Transcript section that deals with this.

Course Credits
All credits are reported in terms of semester hours. All earned credits not reported in semester hours are converted to that system. Trimester hours are treated as semester hours; quarter hours are multiplied by .67 to arrive at semester hours. Credits recorded in other units are converted to semester hours using the formula supplied by the college issuing the transcript.

Do you think I'm safe here, or would the representative likely be more informed with the actual practice of how these conversions are done?

I'm hoping someone else has been in this situation and can enlighten me. Otherwise I suppose I'm just playing the waiting game.

Did you submit a transcript yet? Official transcripts usually have the conversion for semester hours written out somewhere on it. This is one of the reasons LSAC wants official transcripts from each undergrad institution. You might be surprised to find its not a problem at all and it'll be taken care of when your transcript is processed.

[bbsg]

That's what I'm hoping for. I realize there's no way to know "for sure" until they process it, anyway. 70% of the rationale for this post is so that one exists in case people have questions in future cycles. Questions I've had have often been answered by Google searches that end up bringing me back to TLS, after all.

I've sent my main UG transcript in for processing. The other one hasn't been sent yet because all of their links to various forms pointed to 404 pages so I needed to contact the registrar's office. I sent an email but was told to call so I'll do that today. Also apparently I need to send the school a letter via registered mail with my signature on it before they mail off the transcript. I feel like it's still 1970 in Quebec.

[bbsg]

They've been processed. As one would probably expect (but neurotic applicants are keen to second-guess) it all worked out in the end. LSAC knows what it's doing. My degree GPA is what I thought, and the extra courses only accounted for a 0.02GPA drop.