Your courses
Counts: 3 semester hours at 4.00, 12 quality points.
Counts: 4 semester hours at 3.33, 13.32 quality points.
Counts: 3 semester hours at 2.00, 6 quality points.
Counts: 3 semester hours at 3.67, 11.01 quality points.
Counts: 3 semester hours at 4.33, 12.99 quality points.
LSAC CAS GPA, 2026-2027 cycle
3.46
16 graded semester hours, 55.32 quality points.
LSAC CAS GPA, 2027-2028 cycle on
3.26
13 graded semester hours once high-school credit drops out.
Which rule moved your number
| LSAC rule | What it did | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| A+ counted above 4.00 | 3 graded hours at 4.33 instead of 4.00 | +0.06 GPA |
| Retake averaging, no grade replacement | Both attempts count. This is the gap against keeping only your best attempt | -0.34 GPA |
| College credit earned in high school | Counts for 2026-2027 and drops out from the 2027-2028 cycle on | +0.20 GPA |
Your LSAC GPA is not the GPA on your transcript. LSAC recalculates every undergraduate grade you earned before your first bachelor's degree on a scale where an A+ is worth 4.33, counts both attempts of any course you repeated, and ignores whatever forgiveness policy your school applied.
That is why the number on your law school report can land a few tenths below the number you have been quoting, and why a strong transcript can come out above 4.00. The calculator above returns that number, and it tells you which rule moved it and by how much.
How to read the output
The tool gives you two GPAs, not one, because LSAC is changing what counts.
- 2026-2027 cycle: your CAS GPA if you apply in the current cycle.
- 2027-2028 cycle and beyond: your CAS GPA once LSAC drops college credit earned in high school.
Under those sits the rule attribution table. Each row is a GPA delta against a named comparison, so you can see where your points went:
| Row | What it compares |
|---|---|
| A+ counted above 4.00 | Your GPA against the same transcript with every A+ capped at 4.00 |
| Retake averaging | Your GPA against keeping only the best attempt of each repeated course |
| College credit earned in high school | Your 2026-2027 GPA against your 2027-2028 GPA |
| Quarter hours converted | The quarter credits you entered against the semester hours they became |
If the retake row shows a negative number, that is the exact cost of LSAC having no grade replacement. Your school may have let a retake wipe out the original grade. LSAC does not.
What LSAC counts and what it throws out
Every rule the tool applies comes from LSAC's transcript summarization page.
| Course | In your CAS GPA? |
|---|---|
| Graded undergraduate work before your first degree | Yes |
| Both attempts of a repeated course | Yes, both average in |
| A grade your school forgave or struck through | Yes, if it still shows on the transcript |
| A failing grade your school calls nonpunitive | Yes, as 0.00 |
| Dual enrollment or CLEP taken in high school | Yes for 2026-2027, no from 2027-2028 |
| AP course or test credit | No, reported as unconverted credit |
| Anything after your first bachelor's degree | No |
| Courses the transcript marks remedial | No |
| Pass, Credit, or Satisfactory grades | No, reported as unconverted credit |
| Nonpunitive Withdraw or Incomplete | No |
Two of those catch people out. The first is academic forgiveness: LSAC says plainly that a line drawn through a grade does not remove the course from the calculation. The second is the post-degree rule, which covers undergraduate classes too, not just graduate work. If you went back for a second bachelor's or took undergraduate prerequisites after you graduated, none of those grades help your CAS GPA.
The 2027-2028 dual-enrollment change
For the current cycle, grades for college credit earned in high school count toward your LSAC GPA. From the 2027-2028 cycle on, LSAC excludes them, and it applies that to everyone in the cycle, including people reapplying from an earlier year.
So if you have graded dual-enrollment or CLEP credit, you have two different GPAs depending on when you apply. The second card in the calculator is that second number. Students who did well in high-school college courses lose a cushion. Students who did poorly in them get a lift.
Quarter hours change your denominator
LSAC reports everything in semester hours. Trimester hours pass through unchanged, but quarter hours are multiplied by .67. Twelve quarter hours become 8.04 semester hours, so a quarter-system transcript typed into a calculator that assumes semester hours produces the wrong GPA. Set the credit system per row and the tool handles it.
Where this number sits in your application
Your CAS GPA is fixed the moment your transcripts reach LSAC. The LSAT is not. If the calculator hands you a GPA below the schools you are targeting, the LSAT is the only number you can still move, and it is the one that moves furthest.
Add your LSAT score to the calculator and it pairs your GPA with the official percentile for that score, drawn from LSAC's LSAT percentile table for the 2023-2026 testing years. For what those scores mean in admissions, read what a good LSAT score is and our breakdown of LSAT score percentiles. To turn a practice-test raw score into a scaled score, use the LSAT score converter. If you are deciding how much of a lift is realistic, how hard the LSAT is sets expectations, and our LSAT prep course reviews compare the options. Everything else LSAT lives on the LSAT hub.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my LSAC GPA lower than my school GPA?
Usually a retake. LSAC averages every attempt of a repeated course rather than replacing the first grade, and it counts grades your school forgave or struck through. It also counts courses your own registrar excluded from its calculation, such as credit-bearing physical education or ROTC classes.
Can an LSAC GPA be higher than 4.0?
Yes. LSAC converts an A+ to 4.33, so a transcript with enough A+ grades produces a cumulative GPA above 4.00. Your institution has to have actually issued the A+ on the transcript. If it only issues a plain A, select A and the premium row disappears.
Does LSAC count my dual-enrollment credit?
For the 2026-2027 application cycle, yes. Starting with the 2027-2028 cycle, LSAC excludes grades from all college credit earned while in high school, and the change applies to reapplicants from previous years as well as new applicants.
What happens to a repeat when the original grade is missing?
If the transcript does not show both the grade and the units for the first attempt, LSAC excludes that attempt from the GPA and reports its credits as unconverted credit hours. Choose the "Repeat, original attempt not shown" classification for that row.
Does this tool tell me my chances at a specific school?
No. It calculates your CAS GPA and shows your LSAT percentile nationally. Individual schools report their own LSAT and GPA medians, which vary widely, so use this for your own numbers and check each school's published medians separately.
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