Grad School Grades and Law School Admissions Forum

[lser90]

Hi Everyone,

I know there are a ton of threads that already exist about this topic, but I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to how much graduate school grades matter when one's program doesn't employ "traditional" grades. The university I'm attending for graduate school uses only H/HP/P, (without + or -). Although it's easy to see these as equal to A/B/C we've been told time and time again that that's not the case (although a "P" is looked at as VERY poor performance). Additionally, none of these marks carry a GPA weight--so one wouldn't leave my program with a numeric value attached to their already untraditional grades.

My real question is, would law school look at a non-traditional grad school transcript in tandem with other applicants holding advanced degrees from institutions that do employ traditional grading methods, or would they simply see the advanced degree and pay less attention to the transcript since it can't be read as you would a traditional one? (Yes, I'm aware that advanced degrees/grad school grades (if the the latter are considered at all) are really just "soft factors.)

[Cobretti]

Coming out of a MBA program myself... and the sad truth seems to be they don't take grades into consideration very much either way. They definitely won't quantify it, so your grading system likely won't affect you at all. Either way its a solid soft and it will help you, just maybe not as much as you (we) would hope.

[tabula rasa]

They matter just as much as any other grad school's grades—not at all.

[Honey_Badger]

They matter just as much as any other grad school's grades—not at all.

This question was posed at the LSAC Forum in Miami the other week and the panelists all agreed that while grad GPA did not play a major factor into the initial equation, they DID say if there is a discrepancy (i.e.: UG GPA is shit, grad GPA is significantly better) that applicant should write a GPA addendum and address the jump, which would be helpful.

[EvilClinton]

They matter just as much as any other grad school's grades—not at all.

+1