LSAC GPA scale and grading policy
Quick answer: Law School Admission Council (CAS GPA) uses the lsac uses the cas (credential assembly service) gpa on a standardized 4.33 scale. a+ = 4.33, a = 4.0, a- = 3.67, etc. every grade you ever received in undergrad is included, even retakes — repeated courses are not replaced. LSAC recalculates every applicant's undergraduate GPA from their transcripts using the standard 4.33 scale. Pass/fail grades, withdrawals, and grade replacements are normalized to LSAC's conventions. The resulting CAS GPA — not your school's reported GPA — is what law schools see.
| Metric | LSAC Standard |
|---|---|
| Typical admit GPA | Top 14 law schools: 3.7 - 3.9 CAS GPA |
| Good standing minimum | 2.0 (varies by law school) |
| Dean's List threshold | 3.5+ for most law school merit scholarships |
| Scale type | LSAC uses the CAS (Credential Assembly Service) GPA on a standardized 4.33 scale. A+ = 4.33, A = 4.0, A- = 3.67, etc. Every grade you ever received in undergrad is included, even retakes — repeated courses are NOT replaced. |
How LSAC recalculates GPA for admission
LSAC recalculates every applicant's undergraduate GPA from their transcripts using the standard 4.33 scale. Pass/fail grades, withdrawals, and grade replacements are normalized to LSAC's conventions. The resulting CAS GPA — not your school's reported GPA — is what law schools see. The number you submit on your transcript and the number LSAC uses in its admission decision may differ. Use the calculator above to model both — switch the preset to match LSAC's policy.
Maintaining a good LSAC GPA
- LSAC does not honor grade replacement. If your school replaced a D with a B on retake, LSAC averages both grades. The replacement-policy assumption that pre-law students bring from undergrad is the most common CAS GPA shock.
- A+ counts as 4.33, raising CAS above your school number. If your school caps an A+ at 4.0 (or doesn't report A+), the LSAC translation can run your CAS GPA above your undergrad GPA. Confirm your transcript shows the A+ explicitly.
- Late-undergrad upward trend won't fix early-undergrad damage. Top-14 admissions read the entire transcript, and one straight-A semester senior year doesn't undo three years of B-/C grades. The math of CAS-GPA recovery is much harder than at the undergrad level.
Admit-range and policy data verified against LSAC's official admissions page.