GGrade and GPA Calc
Last Updated: May 2026
Law School

LSAC GPA Calculator — How Law Schools Recalculate Your GPA

Law schools do not use your college GPA. LSAC rebuilds it from every graded credit you ever earned.

When you apply to law school, the number admissions committees see is not the GPA on your college transcript. The Law School Admission Council builds its own figure through the Credential Assembly Service, and that CAS GPA is what gets reported.

The biggest difference is that LSAC counts everything. Every undergraduate course from every school you attended goes in, including community college classes, summer courses, and study abroad credits taken before your first bachelor's degree.

The second difference is that forgiveness policies disappear. If your school let you retake a class and replace the old grade, LSAC still counts both attempts. The F you thought was erased is back in the average.

For most applicants the CAS GPA lands close to their transcript GPA. For students who repeated courses, withdrew under a punitive policy, or transferred between schools, the gap can be several tenths of a point in either direction.

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What Counts

Courses countedAll undergraduate work at every school attended before the first bachelor's degree
Repeated coursesBoth attempts count; grade replacement and academic forgiveness are ignored
WithdrawalsA withdrawal counts as an F only when the transcript or its legend marks it as punitive
Plus and minus gradesCounted, so an A- is 3.67 and a B+ is 3.33 on the LSAC scale
Pass and fail gradesA pass is excluded from the GPA; a failing pass/fail grade is converted to an F and counted
Graduate workNot included in the CAS GPA, though schools may see it separately
Grades without credit hoursExcluded when the transcript assigns no units to the course

Requirements change from year to year. Confirm the current rules with Law School Admission Council before you rely on them.

How to Calculate It

  1. 1Gather transcripts from every college you attended, including dual enrollment and community college credits earned in high school.
  2. 2List every graded course with its credit hours. Include repeats, failures, and any withdrawal your transcript legend defines as punitive.
  3. 3Convert each grade using the LSAC scale: A+ and A are 4.00 and 4.33 where your school awards A+, A- is 3.67, B+ is 3.33, B is 3.00, and so on down to F at 0.00.
  4. 4Multiply each grade value by the course credit hours to get quality points, then add all the quality points together.
  5. 5Divide total quality points by total graded credit hours. That is your CAS GPA, and it is the number law schools report.

Run the Numbers

→ Weighted GPA
AP, IB, and honors bonuses
→ High School GPA
Weighted and unweighted
→ Raise My GPA
Credits needed to hit a target
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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, both attempts. Many colleges let you retake a class and drop the original grade from your GPA. LSAC does not honor that. It counts the first grade and the second grade as two separate entries, so a repeated F stays in your average forever. Students who leaned on grade replacement often see their CAS GPA come in noticeably lower than their transcript GPA.
Only when they are punitive. A plain W with no grade value is left out of the calculation. But if your transcript or its legend marks the withdrawal as failing, such as a WF or a W issued after a deadline that your school treats as an F, LSAC converts it to a 0.00 and counts the credits. Read your transcript legend to see which kind you have.
Community college grades are included if they were earned before your first bachelor's degree, and that includes dual enrollment classes you took while still in high school. Study abroad depends on how the credit was recorded. If a US school issued the grades on its own transcript, they count. If the foreign institution granted them directly, they usually appear as a separate notation instead.
No. The CAS GPA covers undergraduate work only, up through your first bachelor's degree. Graduate coursework is summarized separately in your report. Admissions committees can see it and a strong master's record can help explain a weak undergraduate stretch, but it will not move the number that gets reported in the school's admissions statistics.
Both are reported by every law school, and both are used in national rankings, so schools watch them closely. The LSAT generally carries more weight because it is a single standardized measure, while GPAs vary by school and major. A strong LSAT can offset a below median GPA at many schools, and an addendum explaining a specific bad semester is far more effective than a general apology.
Not really. Courses taken after your first bachelor's degree do not enter the CAS GPA, so post graduate classes cannot raise it. What you can do is take a strong post baccalaureate or master's program to show current academic ability, raise your LSAT score, and write a short factual addendum that explains what happened during the weak period.

Other GPA Rules

UC GPA Calculator — University of California GPA RulesCSU GPA Calculator — Cal State Admission GPA ExplainedNCAA GPA Calculator — Core Course Eligibility GPAHOPE Scholarship GPA Calculator — Georgia GPA RulesBright Futures GPA Calculator — Florida GPA RequirementsLatin Honors GPA Calculator — Cum Laude GPA Requirements
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