Question about how GPA is calculated? Forum

[1Mommylawyer]

My college has voted to institute a different grading policy this semester in light of COVID.
It is as follows:
Satisfactory Pandemic/No Record Pandemic with a GPA boost for Spring 2020. Under this policy, no letter grades will be given. A Satisfactory Pandemic (SP) is defined as a minimum passing grade of D-. For each course that a student passes, an SP will appear on the transcript, but each SP will be recorded in the GPA as equivalent to an A.

My question is: how is this computed into my GPA with LSAC? Also, will law schools look down on this? They are not giving an option for letter grades at all.
Thank you so much!

[UVA2B]

Literally no one knows the inner workings of LSAC here. But considering this is a novel problem, you can temporarily assume they will treat these grades as p/f, meaning they won’t affect your CAS GPA.

[QContinuum]

Literally no one knows the inner workings of LSAC here. But considering this is a novel problem, you can temporarily assume they will treat these grades as p/f, meaning they won’t affect your CAS GPA.

While no one here has inside info from LSAC, it really looks like the only thing LSAC could reasonably do is treat a SP as a "Pass" (with no impact on LSAC GPA either way) and a NRP as a "Fail" (with impact on LSAC GPA). And I can't imagine any law school would hold a string of SPs against you - especially when many/most law schools themselves have gone to pass/fail grading this semester.

[UVA2B]

That said, if your official transcript shows an A and not an SP, you can probably expect it’ll be calculated as an A.

[QContinuum]

That said, if your official transcript shows an A and not an SP, you can probably expect it’ll be calculated as an A.

Agree. My read was that the official transcript would show "SP" or "NRP", with "SP"s being treated as A grades for the university's GPA calculation/academic honors purposes. In that case I expect (though obviously can't guarantee) LSAC to treat "SP" as a "Pass" grade with no impact on LSAC GPA.

But if the official transcript shows "A" or "NRP", then agree that I would expect (though again, can't guarantee) LSAC to treat those "A"s as "normal" As in calculating LSAC GPA.

[1Mommylawyer]

Thank you all. My transcript will say SP, not A. I will inquire with LSAC, but am thinking it will be treated as a pass then. I was really hoping for the boost to my gpa because I would have gotten all A's this semester, but I understand that we're in difficult times.

[dmanion19]

Hello!

I am a sophomore in Undergrad and becoming a Lawyer has been a dream of mine as long as I can remember. I have a 3.95 at my undergrad and will begin studying for the LSAT in a couple of months. That being said I started reading about how the LSAC GPA is calculated and I found out Dual Credit from high school is included in that as well. I only took one Dual Enrollment class and earned a B in it. My question is will this be a factor -at all- in my application to Law Schools. And because it was earned while I was in high school will my other high school grades be seen as well? I really worked hard in college because I was told that was what mattered and I don't want these skeletons in my closet to hold me back..

[nixy]

The B will count in your overall UGPA. It won't make the slightest bit of difference (I mean, it might possibly lower your GPA a smidge, but no one will blink at you having a dual enrollment credit). They won't see any of your other high school grades. And a B as a high school student is fine.

[cavalier1138]

Hello!

I am a sophomore in Undergrad and becoming a Lawyer has been a dream of mine as long as I can remember. I have a 3.95 at my undergrad and will begin studying for the LSAT in a couple of months. That being said I started reading about how the LSAC GPA is calculated and I found out Dual Credit from high school is included in that as well. I only took one Dual Enrollment class and earned a B in it. My question is will this be a factor -at all- in my application to Law Schools. And because it was earned while I was in high school will my other high school grades be seen as well? I really worked hard in college because I was told that was what mattered and I don't want these skeletons in my closet to hold me back..

1. Slow down. I'd strongly recommend not going straight from college to law school. But even if you ignore that advice, you can take a little more time to, you know, be a college student before you start losing sleep over The Next Big Thing.

2. Yes, the B will be counted by LSAC. No, that does not mean that your high school grades will be counted. Your LSAC GPA includes all courses taken for college credit up to the granting of a bachelor's degree. But the good news is that a single B is not going to kill your application.

3. Slow. Down.

[JS623]

I agree with the others. This is not a big deal, just focus on maintaining a good GPA overall.

I applied two years ago with ~28 hours of dual enrollment, one of which was a B. I also had 50 hours of transfer credits overall and only 75 from the school I actually attended for undergrad. I felt I performed mostly on par with what my LSAT and GPA scores said I should have done.