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Will admissions councils view the decision to take extra classes in order to raise a GPA negatively? Can law schools even detect that sort of behavior?

Schools won't care. The final number is all that matters.

Put it this way: the only thing that gets reported to US News for ranking purposes is your overall undergraduate GPA, no matter how you got it. Now if you decide to take 5 courses in basket weaving end of junior year just to get your GPA up (and make some nifty christmas gifts) it will probably raise some red flags with anyone who scrutinizes your transcript. However, if you pad your schedule with an easy A class, it shouldn't be a problem.

antiworldly wrote:Put it this way: the only thing that gets reported to US News for ranking purposes is your overall undergraduate GPA, no matter how you got it. Now if you decide to take 5 courses in basket weaving end of junior year just to get your GPA up (and make some nifty christmas gifts) it will probably raise some red flags with anyone who scrutinizes your transcript. However, if you pad your schedule with an easy A class, it shouldn't be a problem.

In other words, you can take a bunch of 100 level courses in an array of subjects. I'd try to snag an African American studies class or two and a 100 level science class for non-scientists. Different schools put the later in different categories. When are you graduating? Don't forget that your school may also offer a winter semester.

mjsjr wrote:Will admissions councils view the decision to take extra classes in order to raise a GPA negatively? Can law schools even detect that sort of behavior?

Probably not. If your basket weaving classes bring you from a 3.44 to a 3.47, you might not benefit all that much anyways. However, if it'll get you from 2.93 to 3.01, I would do it even if the school views it negatively--especially if you end up scoring high on the LSAT.