Highschool GPA and Transfer GPA Questions Forum

[JohnV]

This is a 2 part question and I very much appreciate all the help I get.

First, does your highschool gpa have any affect in the admissions process? I'm under the impression that you are not required to send a HS transcript in with your undergraduate studies but I'd like a clear answer. Personally I wish I could just erase that 4 year span academically as it does not reflect my current level of motivation or interest at all .

Second, I attended my freshmen year of college at another University than the one I currently am enrolled in and will attend for the next 2 and a half semesters (Currently a Sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin). I made a 4.0 at the first college (University of Texas at San Antonio) and I'm wondering if those grades will be counted the same as my Austin grades. UT Austin is a more prestigious than UTSA is and the classes are much more rigorous here, will that change in difficulty be noted? Any and all information on this area would be extremely helpful.

Thanks.

[Rand M.]

This is a 2 part question and I very much appreciate all the help I get.

First, does your highschool gpa have any affect in the admissions process? I'm under the impression that you are not required to send a HS transcript in with your undergraduate studies but I'd like a clear answer. Personally I wish I could just erase that 4 year span academically as it does not reflect my current level of motivation or interest at all .

Second, I attended my freshmen year of college at another University than the one I currently am enrolled in and will attend for the next 2 and a half semesters (Currently a Sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin). I made a 4.0 at the first college (University of Texas at San Antonio) and I'm wondering if those grades will be counted the same as my Austin grades. UT Austin is a more prestigious than UTSA is and the classes are much more rigorous here, will that change in difficulty be noted? Any and all information on this area would be extremely helpful.

Thanks.

Welcome to TLS!

To answer your first question, you are not required to submit your HS transcripts. The most anyone will do is ask what school you went to or ask you to report your GPA; neither of these things will have any material effect on admissions.

With regards to your second question, your first year will count. All of the credits you have taken will be factored equally into your GPA and will produce a recalculated GPA for you. The prestige of one undergrad institution or another will not have any real effect.

[JohnV]

No affect? That hardly seems fair given the difficulty of the two Universities, certainly community colleges are much easier than larger state universities. In that case, would it be accurate to say a 3.2 from Harvard Undergrad is less impressive to Law School admission officers than a 3.8 from a local community college?

Also, my freshmen college didn't work on the plus/minus grading system (some classes even changed the grading system to 85+ = A) so how will LSAC be able to tell rather I had an A or A+?

[Lonagan]

Little about law school admissions is fair. Your GPA is your GPA.

[ToTransferOrNot]

No affect? That hardly seems fair given the difficulty of the two Universities, certainly community colleges are much easier than larger state universities. In that case, would it be accurate to say a 3.2 from Harvard Undergrad is less impressive to Law School admission officers than a 3.8 from a local community college?

Also, my freshmen college didn't work on the plus/minus grading system (some classes even changed the grading system to 85+ = A) so how will LSAC be able to tell rather I had an A or A+?

Impressive? No. A higher number to boost their USNews stats? Yep.

LSAC has what amounts to an arbitrary way of determining your GPA. If your school didn't have A+s, you're out of luck. If you had classes where 85+ = A, you're in luck.

Where you went to school is essentially a soft in this whole process.

Also, this should be on the admissions board.

[JohnV]

Sorry for putting it in the wrong place, I'm sure there's a mod around here who can move it.

So, according to everyone here, there is practically no benefit to going to a tougher school and it would be a good idea to transfer down to an easier school because GPA is a much bigger factor than the school you get your degree from? I just find that hard to believe because that would mean all the top law schools would be filled from kids from community colleges. I went to UTSA and practically didn't even go to class the entire time I was there because they were easy enough for me to just stay home everyday and just go in on test days and ace them after a night of reading. Surely there are some benefits to challenging ones self other than receiving a better education because this is starting to depress me lol.

[JohnV]

Oh, I'm not literally considering transferring down, even if this means getting in is tougher I enjoy the school I'm at and the quality of the education isn't something I'd pass up just to get a higher GPA.

[JohnV]

Oh, I'm not literally considering transferring down, even if this means getting in is tougher I enjoy the school I'm at and the quality of the education isn't something I'd pass up just to get a higher GPA.

I know someone that went to MIT, still did really well, but had to xfer into T14 because of GPA - then excelled. admission's a bitch, then you die.

I might have to do that as well. I have a 3.5 from my first semester, at least here they do A+ so that's one advantage I have gotten.

[JohnV]

Oh, I'm not literally considering transferring down, even if this means getting in is tougher I enjoy the school I'm at and the quality of the education isn't something I'd pass up just to get a higher GPA.

I know someone that went to MIT, still did really well, but had to xfer into T14 because of GPA - then excelled. admission's a bitch, then you die.

I might have to do that as well. I have a 3.5 from my first semester, at least here they do A+ so that's one advantage I have gotten.

Don't plan on being able to transfer in law school. You can hope - but don't plan.

Alright, good advice, thanks. I plan on bringing up these questions with my Pre-Law adviser too.

[englawyer]

No affect? That hardly seems fair given the difficulty of the two Universities, certainly community colleges are much easier than larger state universities. In that case, would it be accurate to say a 3.2 from Harvard Undergrad is less impressive to Law School admission officers than a 3.8 from a local community college?

Also, my freshmen college didn't work on the plus/minus grading system (some classes even changed the grading system to 85+ = A) so how will LSAC be able to tell rather I had an A or A+?

this is a major reason for the LSAT. since the Harvard undergraduate students are presumably smarter/hard working/etc. they will score higher on the LSAT and somewhat "rectify" that unfairness

3.2 Harvard/ 170 is better off than 3.8 community college / 150 from an admissions perspective.