Grade Sheet Changes
OSCAR Version 4 is hours away from being available. The merger with the Federal Law Clerk Information System (FLCIS) was the biggest change this year, however, there have been many other smaller changes. One of the more significant of these changes is the way applicants upload grade sheets.
The concept of grade sheets evolved over time as a solution to issues that we encountered with applicants scanning transcripts. We have tried several different methods to discourage the scanning of transcripts including significant reductions to the file size allowed. Despite our best efforts to educate the applicants and the law school community to stop uploading scanned transcripts, scanned documents were still being uploaded and were still causing problems.
This year you have developed a grade sheet template. It is essentially a grade sheet builder that allows the applicant to enter text in a series of fields. It is flexible and should be easy to use. There is a tip sheet available here.
Credit Units
I have two questions about inputting credit units: (1) Do we input the number of credits per class (i.e. 4.0) or do we input the number of credits earned (i.e. 4.0 x A = 16 credits)? (2) Do we input pass/not pass classes? Thank you very much.
Credit Units
You should enter the information the way it appears on your transcript. Each school is different so it's difficult to be more precise.
Undergraduate transcript has no professor names
Hi, just want to clarify: my official undergraduate transcript does not have the names of the professors for each course, even though the OSCAR grade template includes a blank for professors' names. Is it acceptable to leave this blank on the OSCAR form as well, or do I need to research the professors' names and add them into the template? (This would be quite onerous). Thanks!
Grade Sheet
The professor name is not a required field. It was not our intention to require applicants to enter information that is not currently on their transcript.
Do you have any idea how
Do you have any idea how inconvenient the new grade sheet system is for users? Do you even care? I have been using this system since last summer and signed in to apply to one additional judge, only to be informed that the grade sheets I spent hours typing up last year have been deleted because some other users were unable to follow instructions. I spent two hours this morning trying to input the information from my undergraduate transcript-- a ponderous process because your designers lacked the foresight to provide for more than one course line or session at a time, requiring lengthy system delays to input every line due to the slowness of the OSCAR site-- only to lose everything due to an Internet Explorer error. Am I now supposed to just start over? I am already clerking in district court and do not have all day to complete this process.
For a system that is supposed to facilitate the application process for applicants and judges, the user-unfriendliness and general lack of foresight pervading every aspect of the OSCAR design is appalling.
Grade Sheet Issues
We are sorry that you have experienced difficulty with the grade sheet but I suspect that you encountered and error. We have worked with the law schools and applicants on the application process for 4 years now. The reason that OSCAR now mandates a form is due to law schools and applicants that have repeatedly ignored the restrictions on scanned transcripts. What you may not realize is that judges often view a number of applicants together in a single packet. When one applicant uploads a scanned transcript, it is possible under certain conditions that their documents and those of their peers could become corrupted and unreadable in the packet. I'm sure you do not want the actions of your fellow applicants to prevent judges from reviewing your applications.
The system processed 2.2 million documents last year alone. The majority of our users have been very happy with the system. We are fairly confident in the design of the system.
If you require assistance with a specific issue, you can email the help desk by clicking here.
inconvenient recommendation system
currently clerking and am returning to the recommender well with concern.
the inability of OSCAR to permit a recommender to reply to all requests in one "REPLY ALL" action (much like the html macros for cover letters) disregards the time of all recommenders and creates an objectionable imposition for recommenders.
please don't respond that it allows recommenders to "customize" their missives. if they want to do so, that option is obviously available to them.
PS i agree with the prior remarks about the grade sheets and had to waste much of a saturday afternoon completing mine after having uploaded PDFs last year.
Recommendation Letters
Recommenders can reply to all requests. There are some recommenders
that use the merge codes in the on-line editor and create specifically
tailored recommendation letters. Some write general "To whom it may
concern" letters. Please refer to the Recommender user guide at http://www.oscar.dcd.uscourts.gov/files/Recommender_User_Guide.pdf.
Circuit glitch
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System Will Not Save Application
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