Hi there,

I am hoping someone may be able to asnwer my questions - what is the benefit of me submitting my transcript to the LSAC credential service? What do they mean by 'evaluating' your transcript? Do they accept the 'class rank' statement? Finally, do I need to submit my high school results with them (not so good :-) )??

Thanks very much,
Jess

It seems to me like you noticed the major problem with LSAC credential assembly service: the "evaluation" they refer to.

In my case, this evaluation was complete nonsense, so I finished up not using their service at all (which is kind of dumb for the price you have to pay in order to register and the paperwork you need to do). By evaluation, they mean a two-page report on how good or bad your university results are.

Oh and by the way, if you notify them that you do not agree with one or more statements on their evaluation, then you must of course first pay a fee!

If you still want to use their service, you will just need to submit your final high school diploma, not your grades.

One last thing: just get your University to issue as many copies to you as you need, and send those things to the Universities you are applying to, won't cost you a dime. The only thing that you will pay for, is the TOEFL report. But how many of them do you need to send in order to make this LSAC credential assembly service a good deal? Just do the math...

Thanks for that - just another question though, do the universities look more favourably on applicants using the LSAC service? Some seem to 'strongly recommend' its use, and as much as I don't want to use them, I also don't want my application discounted because I sent my results direct.

Thanks,
Jess

Nothing to fear. When LSAC sends their evaluation to the Law School, they attach copies of your documents. So in any case, the University you are applying to gets all your documents.

If you use LSAC:
- the University gets an evaluation of your credentials
- the University gets your credentials (records & TOEFL)
- all the documents arrive some time after your application, so they need extra processing
- you don't have any influence over whether the University will rely only upon the evaluation or whether they will also look at your original credentials.

If you don't use LSAC:
- the University gets your credentials
- the documents all arrive together, so they are easily processed
- obviously the Admissions Committee can only rely upon your credentials, which is the best solution (those people know very well how to evaluate them, certainly a lot better than LSAC)

Thus, I suggest is not to use LSAC, except for those Universities who declare that it is MANDATORY.

DocJ

Righto - I am convinced! Thanks for that, much appreciated. Are you studying somewhere or in the application process?

I am currently studying at Columbia. To give you some statistics: I was admitted to 7 out of 8 universities while not using the LSAC service (Columbia, University of Chicago, NYU, UPenn, Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern - no from Harvard). I was put on waitlist at the only university where I used that service (Michigan). I would say that this speaks for itself..

Thanks for this, really helpful. And yes, that puts my mind at ease - my friend is just starting at Harvard and she used the service and got in everywhere, so I was thinking perhaps it was something special!! Although she just sent me the report and it doesn't actually do much for the $185 does it?!

What country are you from if you don't mind me asking?

May I ask you which "evaluation" you received? Just as a reference. Thanks