• Your GPA and the LSDAS
• What exactly does the LSDAS do?
• A few LSDAS pointers

Your GPA and the LSDAS. Your undergraduate GPA is probably the most important element of your law school application, followed closely by your LSAT score. Most schools will ask you for your GPA (calculated on a 4.0 scale) on their application form. In addition, however, you must also submit an official Harvard transcript through the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS), which is yet another "service" of the LSAC. Dunster House does not handle transcripts -- you must order your transcript from the Harvard College Registrar.

• LSDAS Home
• LSDAS Fee Schedule
• LSAC Home
• Harvard College Registrar (transcripts page)

Students often ask if there is any way to avoid the LSDAS, which is shockingly expensive. The answer is no. The LSDAS is unavoidable. It is also probably a violation of federal antitrust laws -- every year we marvel that they continue to get away with this scheme. But they do!

Because the LSDAS handles transcripts for law schools, it is generally unnecessary and inappropriate to send your transcript directly to law schools yourself. Exception: if you have not heard from a law school by the time you receive your senior fall grades, you may choose to send an updated transcript directly to that school (but only if your senior fall grades are likely to help!).

What Exactly Does the LSDAS Do? The LSDAS packages the "essential information" about you for law schools. It works like this: after forking over their absurd registration fee, you send them a single copy of your Harvard transcript (if you are a transfer student, send them a copy of each of your transcripts). They re-process your transcript to adjust your GPA to a fixed baseline, thereby facilitating law schools' efforts to compare the GPAs of students from different schools. Yes, this means that a Harvard GPA of 3.3, in theory, looks the same as a 3.33 GPA from a less impressive/pretentious school! But don't worry about this point: law schools will not fail to notice that you went to Harvard and not some other school, and you will get credit for the increased level of academic rigor. Note, also, that when the LSDAS reports your GPA, they also report the average of all Harvard GPAs over the last 3 years. This gives law schools a way to evaluate your GPA relative to other Harvard applicants.

The LSDAS then packages this "academic summary" with an original copy of your transcript and a copy of your LSAT score report, to which the LSDAS (as a service of the LSAC) automatically has access. It will release this package only to the schools you designate (and pay for). Note that the LSDAS does not mail these packages to law schools automatically -- instead, law schools receive your application materials, call up the LSDAS and order your package. This gives the LSDAS a bit more time to process your materials.

• LSDAS FAQ. From the LSAC.

Remember: Although your House file includes an unofficial copy of your transcript, the College does not permit Dunster to produce the official, certified copies that the LSDAS requires. You must order your transcript directly from the Harvard College Registrar and have it sent directly to LSDAS.

A Few LSDAS Pointers.

• Register early for the LSDAS. There's no point putting it off, since you can't apply to law school without it, and your registration lasts for 5 years. You do not need to register for the LSDAS at the same time that you register for the LSAT. You can find more information on the LSDAS registration page.
  
  
• Send them your transcript as soon as possible. The LSDAS can take several weeks to process a transcript, and the Harvard Registrar can take a few days as well. Don't let this built-in delay hold up your applications. And don't forget to use the correct address for submitting transcripts to the LSDAS.
  
  
• Check your biographical and transcript information carefully. The LSDAS will send you a confirmation notice that contains all of the information that law schools will see. Check to make sure they got your name, grades, etc. right. Mistakes have been caught! The data is entered by bored and probably underpaid humans. Given the importance of your GPA to your law school applications, it is worth taking the time to check. You can also track the status of your LSDAS file online (click here and follow the link at the bottom of the page).


• Don't submit foreign transcripts unless you completed more than a year's worth of study. Effective November 20, 2006, LSDAS registrants are instructed not to list attendance at foreign institutions if the total amount of work completed at foreign institutions combined is the equivalent of one year or less of undergraduate studies in the US, its territories, or Canada. Applicants who studied overseas for a summer, a semester, or an academic year will not be required to submit transcripts for this work.
  
  Applicants with less than one year of overseas study who listed foreign institutions as part of their LSDAS registration will get an email telling them that their files will be considered complete without waiting for any foreign transcripts that have not already been received by LSAC. Should their transcripts arrive within the current reporting term, they will simply be scanned and sent to the JD CAS-requiring law schools to which they have applied. These transcripts will not be evaluated by AACRAO.