Are our GPAs "weighted" due to idiosyncratic classes? Forum

[engineered madness]

My law school mandates we take, in addition to Legal Writing, a quasi-clinical class which does not appear to have a parallel at the law schools that I am interested in transferring to. I was wondering if anyone had information as to whether law schools even consider these classes or simply look to the "meat and potatoes", doctrinal classes,e.g. Torts, Ks, Civ Pro, etc., for transfer evaluation? Hope this is clear. tyia

[UCLAtransfer]

They will look at your GPA/ranking, and that's about it w/r/t your transcript. I seriously doubt whether they care what your actual individual grades are, only the bottom line, which is where you placed in your class.

[engineered madness]

UCLA, thanks for the info.

[Bramwell]

My law school mandates we take, in addition to Legal Writing, a quasi-clinical class which does not appear to have a parallel at the law schools that I am interested in transferring to. I was wondering if anyone had information as to whether law schools even consider these classes or simply look to the "meat and potatoes", doctrinal classes,e.g. Torts, Ks, Civ Pro, etc., for transfer evaluation? Hope this is clear. tyia

I imagine you are referring to Lawyering at NYLS.

Be careful with what you describe as "idiosyncratic." Regarding its Lawyering program, NYU actually prides itself in being "the only top tier law school committed to giving sophisticated, in-depth attention, from the first year of legal study, to the interactive, fact-sensitive and interpretive work that is fundamental to excellence in practice." (see here: http://www.law.nyu.edu/academics/lawyer ... /index.htm

[vanwinkle]

I imagine you are referring to Lawyering at NYLS.

Be careful with what you describe as "idiosyncratic." Regarding its Lawyering program, NYU actually prides itself in being "the only top tier law school committed to giving sophisticated, in-depth attention, from the first year of legal study, to the interactive, fact-sensitive and interpretive work that is fundamental to excellence in practice." (see here: http://www.law.nyu.edu/academics/lawyer ... /index.htm

This post confuses the hell out of me. Are you talking about NYLS or NYU in your first line? They are vastly different schools.

[vanwinkle]

My law school mandates we take, in addition to Legal Writing, a quasi-clinical class which does not appear to have a parallel at the law schools that I am interested in transferring to. I was wondering if anyone had information as to whether law schools even consider these classes or simply look to the "meat and potatoes", doctrinal classes,e.g. Torts, Ks, Civ Pro, etc., for transfer evaluation? Hope this is clear. tyia

They mostly just look at your GPA. The sorting out of what classes transfer and what don't and actually caring about what you've taken so far only matters after you've been admitted.

[Bramwell]

I imagine you are referring to Lawyering at NYLS.

Are you talking about NYLS or NYU in your first line? They are vastly different schools.

The OP is referring to NYLS's first year Lawyering class. My point is simply that the OP should consider that NYU also offers such a course in its first year. Thus, the OP should not think that the schools at which he/she seeks transfer will disregard the score in Lawyering, just because it is "idiosyncratic."

[CCN-S Transfer]

I actually want to press a little more on this topic. for the people who have said that schools only care about overall rank and not individual grades, why do you say that? Do admissions offices really not care between a candidate with an A in civ pro and a B- in random quasi-law poli sci elective and another candidate with an A in random quasi-law poli sci elective and a B- in civ pro?

[vanwinkle]

I actually want to press a little more on this topic. for the people who have said that schools only care about overall rank and not individual grades, why do you say that? Do admissions offices really not care between a candidate with an A in civ pro and a B- in random quasi-law poli sci elective and another candidate with an A in random quasi-law poli sci elective and a B- in civ pro?

No, not really. If you have grades that are strong enough to transfer up, your Bs will be understood as the exception no matter what class they were in. As long as you have the 5-6 As necessary to be at the top of your class, they don't care which class or two you got your Bs in.