<p>Do top law schools look at what college you are graduating from. If so, would Boston University and NC State be a good school to get into top law school (all of this is assuming that GPA is pretty high and you had around the average score on the LSAT which is about a 150).</p>
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all of this is assuming that GPA is pretty high
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<p>First, it is a unsound to assume that one will earn a high GPA at BU, which is famous for its grade deflation.</p>
<p>Second, unless you are a URM, a 150 is not going to get you into a top law school, unless you are using "top" in an ambiguous way.</p>
<p>To rephrase, without meaning to speak for the OP:</p>
<p>Say the OP is shooting for a top-14 law school.</p>
<p>What kind of numbers would he need had he gone to Harvard? How much higher would they have to be given that he seems to be going to BU?</p>
<p>My answer: There should be little difference, given that the LSAC feels comfortable estimating your odds based on your LSAT and GPA alone. For example, perfect LSAT score and GPA (practically speaking, nobody achieves this) gives you a 95%+ chance at most of the top 14.</p>
<p>My point is not that you should aim for that and then have 95% odds.</p>
<p>The point is that the LSAC feels comfortable giving you an estimate based on those two factors alone, something the AAMC or College Board would never, ever feel comfortable doing.</p>
<p>This should tell you that numbers are much more impt. in law school than for undergrad or (hypothetically) med school admissions.</p>
<p>I wonder if grade deflation at BU repels future law school students.</p>
<p>I understand that law schools will take into consideration BU's grading policy, but law schools are fairly numbers oriented. gpa is a component of the US NEWS ranking which schools would like to increase.</p>
<p>I've got a related question, which should perhaps be its own thread, but:</p>
<p>I'm aware that laws schools are very numbers-oriented. What do they do about these discrepancies in grading (as exemplified by BU's notorious grade deflation)? And furthermore, is GPA all that matters, or do they look at your actual grades? </p>
<p>I ask this specifically because I'm currently attending a top-20 university that factors + and -'s into GPA. For example, an A- is a 3.6 instead of a 4.0, while an A- at other universities is (obviously) a 4.0. As a first semester freshman, I have no actual GPA yet, but if I hypothetically graduate with something like a 3.7 yet have never earned below an A-, will my university's discrepancy in GPA calculation be accounted for in law school admissions?</p>
<p>Thanks so much.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, many of the top law schools recalculate a candidate's GPA (formally or loosely, meaning that these law schools most certainly notice from where the grades come) based on the transcripts that LSAC provides to them (which the applicant provides to LSAC) so that the GPA that law school reviews meets with their criteria (I know of at least one T14 law school that recalculates GPA based upon grades earned at your university, disregarding, for example, grades earned in summer courses taken at local community colleges). </p>
<p>You can safely assume that a T14 school is aware of schools with rampant grade inflation/deflation and majors that may be more difficult than others. So, yes, while grades and LSAT scores are very significant in the law school admissions process, they are not necessarily taken at face value in the form presented to them by LSAC.</p>
<p>BTW, BU has one of the top law schools in the country. My friend's dad went to Yale undergrad and BU Law.</p>
<p>when LSAC sends your transcript to law schools, they also include a fact sheet which shows the distribution of gpas at your undergrad school. so law schools know what percentile your undergrad gpa falls into for your particular school.</p>
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For example, an A- is a 3.6 instead of a 4.0, while an A- at other universities is (obviously) a 4.0.
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<p>Not true. Schools that grade on a +/- system an A- is not the equivalent to or has never been a 4.0. </p>
<p>Depending on the school the GPA calaculation for an A- ranges anywhere from a 3.6 to 3.7 (some schools calculate it as a 3.66)</p>
<p>On Page 27, you will see how the LSDAS calculates grades</p>
<p>I can think of a couple schools that still calculate an A- as a 4.0 (at least according to what the students there have told me)</p>
<p>If you colleges that calculates a grade of A- as a 4.0 on a 4 point scale those schools are few and far between (seriously grade inflated). When a student sends their transcript to LSDAS it will be converted to a 3.67</p>
<p>to answer your hypothetical question the LSDAS will convert your 3.7 gpa to 3.67</p>
<p>If I could expand on what people here have already said: in addition to recalculating your gpa so that all A-'s are counted the same for all schools, the LSDAS calculation includes all undergraduate institutions which you have attended, creating a combined undergraduate gpa. For instance, if you start at one school, get all A's, then transfer to another school and get all B's, the LSDAS will take the transcript of each school, and calculate a combined gpa for the entire undergraduate record. This can be either a wonderful gift, or a nasty surprise for students who have attended multiple schools.</p>
<p>I have a question on GPA calculation for law school. Does the LSDAS take into account how many units each course is when factoring the GPA. For example, If I get an A in a 2 unit class, will that count the same as an A in a 4 unit class when calculating the law school GPA?</p>
<p>Of course it's not going to count the same. It's going to count half as much.</p>
<p>It seems that the whole GPA recalculation effort is largely based on a schools reputation for being severely grade inflated or deflated... anyone feel competent enough to come up with a list of schools notorious for grade inflation or grade deflation?</p>
<p>Schools notorious for grade deflation:
UChicago
Reed
Swarthmore
MIT
Caltech
William and Mary
Princeton (no mistype)</p>
<p>Anymore?</p>
<p>gradeinflation.com is not the most complete site in the world but I use it for questions like these.</p>
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It seems that the whole GPA recalculation effort is largely based on a schools reputation for being severely grade inflated or deflated
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<p>I don't see how. They're not making any subjective determinations about the relative worth of grades at particular schools, they're just converting them all to the same scale and incorporating grades that the degree-granting school gave credit for but didn't count in calculating the GPA. It has nothing to do with adjusting for "grade inflation."</p>
<p>I guess Georgetown in not grade deflated?</p>
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I guess Georgetown in not grade deflated?
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<p>It depends on the school and department. The SFS is definitely deflated, as well as some of the departments in the college.</p>