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Alright, I am an undergraduate student close to graduation and I have a low, low gpa 2.37, but a 176 on the LSAT. When I had an appointment today with an academic advisor she informed me of a course repeat policy at the University, that she thought might help when sending in transcripts to LSAC. (I doubt it will help me, and in fact, I am asking to see if it would hurt me)

At my school, if you take a leave of absence for 2 semesters, there is an academic forgiveness policy that states the following in the University guidelines (see below) ...


"If the students maintain a GPA of at least 3.00 through the term that encompasses the 15th hour of graded coursework after returning to the university, the Academic Forgiveness Policy shall be implemented and the following steps taken with regard to the students' academic record:

All courses in which grades of C-, D+, D, F, NF, SF, M or U were received in the previous period of enrollment will be retained on the academic transcript with the notation of an "E" in the repeat column, which denotes courses excluded from GPA calculation, and the official grade will be changed to X* (e.g., XC-, XD, etc.), which denotes academic forgiveness.
All cumulative calculations of hours attempted, quality points earned and cumulative GPA also will be adjusted"


Now my questions:

1). If I take my leave of absence and return to the University, even though the original grade will be changed to example XC- and wont be calculated in the gpa, will LSAC still count the C- because its on the transcript with an X in front of it? And
2). These are C- grades, but will LSAC count say the C- grades turned into an XC- as an F when computing LSAC gpa?


Id appreciate any help. Thanks!

With such a specific question it would be a good idea to ask someone at LSAC. Surely someone from your school has submitted transcripts to them before, so you might even be able to get some info from your pre-law adviser.

My inclination though is that C- and XC- will be treated the same way. Also, no way is an XC- going to be counted as an F. At least not if I'm understanding your school's policy correctly.

It seems to me it would be neutral, but in general, WTH kind of policy is that? Why not forgive B's as well while they're at it?

The grades that the policy covers are grades for which you can't get credit in your major (at a lot of schools, anyway). Technically a C- or D+ or the like won't prevent you from graduating unless it drops your overall GPA too low, but if you get one in a course that's required for your major, it won't count and you have to retake to graduate in that major. If you get a C or higher, the course will count for your major so you don't need any kind of way to redo it. (If the course isn't required in your major you don't have to retake, of course, though you still could.)

..

sublime wrote:IIRC LSAC counted both grades when I retook a course for grade forgiveness. So they counted the C- and also the A, so it helped a bit. My UG's policy was a bit different then yours though, but I have almost universally heard that if a grade shows up on a transcript, even if it was forgiven at your UG, LSAC is going to use it.

Same happened with me.