<p>Mr. B asked a similar question below but I didn’t see a definitive answer.</p>
<p>D’s undergrad college treats Semester/Year abroad courses as S/SU on her transcript.</p>
<p>But presumably the abroad schools issue their own grades…do those foreign grades get reported on LS apps or are the S/SU grades as given by the student’s undergrad college the only ones that count.</p>
<p>Specific case in point: D may be taking a semester in Budapest for three Math classes and one class in Beginning Hungarian.</p>
<p>If the link doesn’t work, go to <a href=“http://www.lsac.org%5B/url%5D”>www.lsac.org</a>. Click on FAQ. Click again to download the general information booklet without forms. </p>
<p>If the explanation is unclear, call the phone number listed on the first link given above.</p>
<p>Your D’s college (you’ve said which she attends in the past) has a very good pre-college advisor–or at least it did a year or two ago. That advisor can answer questions like this.</p>
<p>(Fwiw, page 21 of 26 has a statement to the effect that coursework abroad under the sponsorship of the home school does not require getting a separate transcript from the foreign institution. Which means the S/SU grades are what would show. Which in turn means the GPA for the other seven semesters is proportionately more important.)</p>
<p>Jonri, at this point D is focused on getting into Budapest. LS is one of three options she’s contemplating after completion of undergrad. I’m just trying to understand the terrain ahead of time.</p>
<p>She’s thinking of getting a Law degree and a Master’s in Public Policy but I don’t think she’ll know for sure that that’s what she wants to do until after the end of her junior summer.</p>
<p>My gut feeling is that if she goes for both the Law degree can come first and can at least provide some income while pursuing the MAPP. Given her interests, I’d guess that she can pursue the MAPP part-time at Georgetown or GW.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m just contemplating the roadmap. The fact that her Abroad grades will be S/SU takes some uncertainty out of guessing what LS she might be aiming at. Correction, not aiming at, but have reasonable expectations for.</p>
<p>TheDad: With LS first, the pressure could be on earning $$$ for those hefty loans (if they are needed), not to mention the long hours expected of new associates if she goes the large or medium law firm route.</p>
<p>That’s a bad game plan, IMO. It’s better to do one of the joint programs. She’ll save time and $$$. For example, if she has the grades for Harvard Law, she might want to do the joint program with the Kennedy School of Government. I assume Georgetown has the same deal. </p>
<p>It’s early days and she doesn’t have to decide, but if she’s uncertain, she’s still better off applying to one of the joint programs–which usually requires applying to both schools and being admitted to both. It may end up deciding which LS for her.</p>
<p>Since it sounds like public service is her field of interest, loan forgiveness programs will be important. Played the right way, there’s a chance that the cost of the MPP will also be eligible for forgiveness.</p>
<p>Huh. All good stuff to consider, hadn’t even thought of joint programs.</p>
<p>CD, she’s interested in going the public policy route. She’ll probably have two internships on Capitol Hill before Senior Year and that will have a lot to say about whether she wants to go in that direction. She’ll also need to confirm what academic credentials are/are not needed for what she wants to do. Working on the legislative side, which is where her interests lie, make a law degree very desirable. </p>
<p>Jonri, there’s many a slip between cup and lip but so far her grades are making HLS a possiblity if coupled with a requisite LSAT score. Considering that one of her majors is mathematics, I’m actually slightly unnerved, a sense I would not want to convey to her, but I digress.</p>
<p>The other major question is whether to aim directly for law school or to work for a year or two first and stash some cash. Complicating the equation is how much prep time she will need for the LSAT and thus when to take the LSAT, factoring in the fact that she probably wouldn’t return from Budapest until May or so of her junior year and then have an internship. I know that a lot of the law schools have rolling admissions and that an early test date is therefore desirable but there’s little point in taking the LSAT if she hasn’t done the prep.</p>
<p>All this stuff is still a bit far out but it’s not <em>that</em> far out…about 18 months at this point.</p>
<p>TheDad, I think that math majors historically do better on average on the LSAT than any other major.</p>
<p>" PHILOSOPHY MAJORS received higher scores on the LSAT, for instance, than students in all other humanities areas, and higher scores than all social and natural science majors except economics and mathematics, and higher scores than all applied majors."</p>
<p>I would advise working for a year or two before law school. Not only will that give her time to LSAT study and research/apply to law school (which can be fairly time-consuming) as well as to decompress from college. Four+ years of post-graduate study can be tiring… why not a year to enjoy being young, make some money, and do the law school process?</p>
<p>CD, every LA I knew had a JD, too. Bunch of sharp cookies. But this is something that D needs to explore and confirm for herself. She also can see how much use/not use a MA in Public Policy is; it might be more useful on some committee staffs than as an LA. There I have no idea. I can readily visualize her locking in on the LA job as a target but she has to get her feet wet in that environment. Actually, I can see her loving that job as much as any job that has its share of intense frustrations.</p>
<p>Aries, were it me, I think you have the right idea. D may prefer to just stay broke. </p>
<p>DRab, that’s interesting about Math majors. I’m actually holding my breath more about her GPA than vexing about LSAT score.</p>