How LSAC Recalculates Your GPA for Law School
Two things surprise almost every applicant the first time they look into this: LSAC doesn't use your school's GPA scale, and it doesn't forgive a repeated class the way your transcript might. Instead, LSAC's Credential Assembly Service (CAS) rebuilds your GPA from scratch on its own 4.33 scale, using every graded attempt on your record. Want the number itself rather than the explanation first? The LSAC Law School GPA Calculator runs this same math from your actual course list.
CAS GPA vs. Your Transcript GPA
These are genuinely two different numbers, calculated two different ways, and it's worth seeing the contrast plainly before getting into why:
| Factor | Your Transcript GPA | Your CAS (LSAC) GPA |
|---|---|---|
| Top grade value | Varies by school (often 4.0 or 4.3) | A+ = 4.33 |
| Repeated courses | Often replaced or forgiven | Every attempt counts |
| Quarter-hour credits | Reported as-is | Converted × 0.67 |
The 4.33 Scale, in Full
CAS converts every letter grade onto a standardized scale before calculating anything. The full conversion: A+ = 4.33, A = 4.00, A- = 3.70, B+ = 3.30, B = 3.00, B- = 2.70, C+ = 2.30, C = 2.00, C- = 1.70, D+ = 1.30, D = 1.00, D- = 0.70, F = 0.00. Note the top of the scale — A+ at 4.33, not a flat 4.0. This is exactly why a strong transcript full of A+ grades can produce a CAS GPA that reads above 4.0, which looks unusual the first time you see it but is simply the scale working as designed.
The Repeated-Course Rule, With a Real Example
Here's where the CAS and transcript numbers can diverge the most. Say a student failed Torts (3 credits, F) in their second year, retook it the following semester, and earned an A. Their school's own transcript applies grade replacement, so the official record shows only the A — the F doesn't appear in the school's own GPA math at all. Across the rest of their 60 total credits, this produces a clean 3.50 transcript GPA.
LSAC doesn't apply that replacement. It adds the original F back in as its own separate 3-credit attempt, worth zero quality points, alongside everything else:
A 3.50 on the school's own transcript becomes a 3.33 CAS GPA — not because anything was miscalculated, but because LSAC is including an attempt the student's own school chose to drop.
The W vs. WF Distinction (Easy to Miss)
This single detail trips up more applicants than almost anything else in the process. A plain W— a clean withdrawal, with no grade attached — is generally excluded from the GPA calculation entirely. It shows up on your CAS report, but it doesn't contribute any quality points or credits to the math, so it neither helps nor hurts your number.
A WF(withdrew failing) or a similarly punitive withdrawal notation is a completely different case. Because it functions as a failing grade rather than a clean exit from the course, it's converted to zero — the same treatment an outright F receives. The same logic applies to other failure-style notations: Incomplete/Fail, Unsatisfactory, and No Credit/Fail all zero out, even if your own institution officially treats them as "nonpunitive." If you have any withdrawal on your record, it's worth checking exactly how your school coded it, because a W and a WF can land very differently on your CAS GPA despite looking similar at a glance.
Quarter-Hour to Semester-Hour Conversion
If any of your coursework was taken under a quarter system rather than semesters, CAS converts those credits before including them, using a standard multiplier:
A 5-quarter-hour course converts to 5 × 0.67 = 3.35 semester hours for GPA-weighting purposes. This keeps credit weight consistent across students who attended quarter-system and semester-system schools, rather than treating every course as if it carried equal weight regardless of the underlying academic calendar.
What's Excluded From the Calculation
A few categories of coursework don't factor into your CAS GPA math at all, even though they may still appear on your report:
- Post-bachelor's coursework.Anything completed after you earned your first bachelor's degree, including graduate school, is reported separately and doesn't feed into your primary undergraduate cumulative GPA.
- Pass/fail courses. A course graded only Pass or Fail (with no letter grade or Pass grades excluded) has no grade point to include and is left out of the calculation.
- Audits and clean withdrawals. An audited course carries no grade to convert, and a plain W is excluded as covered above — both remain visible on your report without affecting the number.
2026-2027 Timely Update: Dual-Enrollment Credits
For the 2026-2027 application cycle, dual-enrollment coursework completed while still in high school is still included in your CAS GPA calculation the same way any other undergraduate credit would be. That is scheduled to change starting with the 2027-2028 cycle, when dual-enrollment credits will be excluded from the calculation going forward. If you're applying in the current cycle, this doesn't change anything for you yet — but it's worth knowing about if your timeline stretches into next year's cycle.
If Your CAS GPA Comes Out Lower Than You Expected
A CAS GPA below what your own transcript shows is common, not a red flag — it's usually just the repeated-course rule or a credit conversion doing exactly what it's designed to do. A couple of realistic, well-established paths forward if your number is lower than you'd like:
- The GPA addendum. Most law school applications include an optional addendum where you can briefly explain specific circumstances behind a lower grade or semester — an illness, a family situation, or a rough initial adjustment to college. This is a normal, expected part of the process for many applicants, not an admission of failure.
- Leaning on your LSAT score.Admissions committees weigh GPA and LSAT together, not GPA alone, and a strong LSAT score is a well-documented way to offset a softer GPA — often called being a "splitter" in admissions discussions. It's a genuinely viable strategy, not a consolation prize.
Calculate Your Estimated CAS GPA Now
See where your own coursework lands using the same 4.33-scale, every-attempt-counts method.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does LSAC forgive repeated classes the way my school does?
No. Whatever grade forgiveness or replacement policy your school applies to your own transcript, LSAC's CAS process doesn't inherit it. Every graded attempt at a course counts separately in your CAS GPA, including ones your school has already "replaced" on its own records.
Can my LSAC GPA be higher than 4.0?
Yes — this is one of the more pleasant surprises in the process. Because CAS values A+ at 4.33 rather than capping it at 4.0, a transcript with several A+ grades can produce a CAS GPA above 4.0. It's not a bug or a rare edge case; it's just how the scale is built.
Does a withdrawal (W) hurt my LSAC GPA?
A plain, clean W is typically excluded from the GPA calculation entirely — it doesn't count as an attempt with a grade, so it neither helps nor hurts the number. A withdrawal that your school codes as a punitive or failing withdrawal (sometimes shown as WF) is a different story and is generally treated as a zero, just like an F. The distinction between the two matters a lot and is easy to miss.
Do community college classes count?
Yes. Any undergraduate coursework completed before you earned your first bachelor's degree counts toward your CAS GPA, regardless of which institution granted the credit — community college, a study-abroad program, or a transfer course from another four-year school all count the same way.
Does graduate school GPA affect my LSAC GPA?
No — coursework completed after you've earned your first bachelor's degree, including graduate coursework, is reported separately and does not factor into your primary cumulative CAS GPA the way your undergraduate record does.
What GPA is competitive for law school?
It depends heavily on which schools you're targeting and your LSAT score, which is weighed alongside GPA rather than in isolation. There's no single number that applies across all programs — a GPA that's solidly competitive at one school may be below another's typical range, so research your specific target schools' recent admitted-student profiles rather than relying on one universal benchmark.
Will my LSAC GPA match the GPA my school reports on my diploma or transcript?
Often not exactly. Between the standardized 4.33 scale, the inclusion of every repeated attempt, and the quarter-to-semester credit conversion, small (and sometimes not-so-small) differences between your official transcript GPA and your CAS GPA are common and expected, not a sign something went wrong.
Does LSAC show just one GPA number on my report?
No — your CAS report includes more than a single figure. Alongside your overall cumulative GPA, it typically breaks results down by year and by institution attended, giving law schools a more detailed picture of your academic record than one number alone would.