Credential Assembly Service Instructions
There are 3 parts to this document:
1. Instructions for using the LSAC’s Online Applications
2. Letters of Recommendation and the Credential Assembly Service (CAS) [p. 4]
3. Transcripts and Applying to Law School [p. 8]
First, note that before you can actually submit material or apply to any law school you
must register and pay for the Credential Assembly Service—the law schools require it—
no exceptions. This fee is IN ADDITION to the fee for the LSAT, and once paid the
registration is good for five years.
However, you can do quite a bit to organize and set up your CAS file before you pay this
fee! We suggest you create a free account NOW and get started. Register here:
https://os.lsac.org/Release/Logon/SignUp.aspx. Then try out some of the procedures
below on your computer.
To pay the fee when the time comes, check the text box on the right frame of your
account “homepage” entitled “My Account Activity”. There should be a notice there
stating “CAS: not purchased.” Click on that link and you’ll be able to pay for the
account.
I.
Instructions for using the LSAC’s Online Law School Applications
Introduction:
The Credential Assembly Service drastically changed its online procedures in August of
2011, and has been more-or-less constantly updating and tweaking them. While these
instructions are as accurate as they can be at this point, unexpected problems and
“bugs” may well emerge. Please let HPPLC know of any issues that come up. If we don’t
have a solution already, we would like very much to know where the problems are. Just
email a brief explanation to hpplc@indiana.edu. Thanks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note: about 18% of schools ask for a “Dean’s Certification” form. If your major is in the
College of Arts and Sciences, take a hard copy of this form to the Academic Assistant
Deans’ Office in Kirkwood Hall 012; telephone (812) 855-8245; Fax: (812) 855-2060. All
others should take it to the Office of Student Ethics, 705 E. 7th Street, phone # 812-8555419. Both will send it to the law schools for you.
FIRST STEP in setting up your free CAS account: Be sure your popup blocker is turned
off for this site! For Internet Explorer, click the “Tools” folder. For Firefox, click
“Tools,” then choose “Options,” then go to the “Content” tab, and uncheck the first box
(entitled “Block pop-up windows”).
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Before you can apply to a specific school, you must first add the name of this school to
your “School List.” You can add or delete schools from this list at any time, and you do
not have to actually submit applications to any of the schools you have put on this list.
Nothing will be sent to a law school, and no information will be able to be accessed by a
school, until you actually submit the application. This will happen much later in the
process. It is clear when this happens. There is no chance an application will be
submitted accidently.
1. Log into your account as a “future JD Student” with username and password.
2. If you have NOT yet selected any schools to which you will apply, go to the
section entitled “My Law Schools/Applications, and click the “School Search” tab
(If you already have a list, skip to #5 below).
3. Select your schools by clicking on the appropriate tab. If you know the schools
you want already, click “Add Member Schools” to choose from an alphabetical
list of every ABA-approved US law school.
4. After you “check” your schools, click “Save Selections to School List.” Your list
will appear.
5. If you already HAVE selected your schools, click “View School List.” Your list will
appear.
Once you have a list, you can start to fill out the individual application for any particular
school. Simply click on the name of the school: three short columns under the school’s
name will appear. Under the middle section entitled “Apply/My Applications”, click the
dark blue box called “Start/Continue Application.”
It’s pretty self-explanatory from there. First, you will check the semester for which you
intend to begin your studies—usually the fall of the following year. Then “Select one
method to apply.” Most law schools prefer that you “Apply and Submit Online,” which
is the default selection. If this is your intended method (it is for 95+% applicants), click
“Apply”.
A very large “drop down” menu will appear under the name of the school with the
following three numbers under the “Applications” column:
1. “Step One Complete application forms.” Click the “Application” tab. You will see a
rather long list of application subject items, such as “Instuctions” “Biographical,”
“Demographics,” “Employment,” etc. First, be sure to read the instructions
(COMPLETELY, CAREFULLY, AND BEFORE YOU PROCEED!)! You will be asked to check a
box at the bottom of the page stating “I have read and agree to the application
instructions,” or the equivalent. Once you have done that, fill out each individual
application section.
NOTE: when you fill out the application for your NEXT school, information that you have
provided on this first application will magically appear in the proper place. Thus you will
have increasingly less information to fill out as you complete more applications. Just
make sure that all questions have appropriate responses.
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At the bottom of the list of application items will be links to click in order to upload
required and optional attachments, such as the personal statement, resume, diversity
essay, etc. Note that the system can only upload Word documents, not PDF’s.
When you click on each item, you will have the option of including either: 1). an
existing document that you have previously uploaded for a different school [click
“choose an existing file”], or 2). a new document [click “upload a new file”].
You will then “describe the file” [e.g., “resume,” “personal statement,” “personal
statement for New York Law School,” etc.].
Next, you will be asked if you would like to make this particular document part of your
list of common files for potential use in subsequent applications. If so, check the box
labeled “add this file to My Common Files List.”
Finally, you will “Attach (the) file” by clicking the tab labeled “Attach.”
NOTE: Many schools will also have a category for “Miscellaneous” or “Supplemental
Material” or some similar catch-all category through which you can upload documents
such as letters of addendum (e.g., history of outperforming standardized tests, a serious
illness or personal/family issues in a given semester that distorted your cumulative GPA,
etc.). However, many do not have such a category. This does not mean they do not
want to receive addenda. It merely means they forgot to include it. If you have
supplementary material to submit to these schools, you must call their individual
admissions offices and ask for instructions. Virtually all schools welcome such material.
2. “Step Two Preview application”. Be sure to take a look. Make sure EVERY question
has a response. Proof your material carefully. Assume that some admission officials will
not tolerate even a single error.
3. “Step Three Pay fees and submit”. You will be able to click “Continue” to initiate
this step only when the application itself is complete. It begins a series of final steps by
which you pay the CAS Report fee, pay the individual school’s application fee or provide
the code for an application fee waiver, and sign the application, for example.
A few schools ask for a “signature page” or “certification page,” which you are to print
out as a hard copy, sign, and mail under separate cover to the law school. This page will
usually appear only AFTER you submit the application itself (it contains the date and
time you applied—and it can’t know that until after you have actually submitted the
application). Thus you will not be able to find it before you click the “submit” button.
But once you do it will appear on its own immediately afterwards.
That’s it! Congratulations!
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II. Letters of Recommendation and the Credential Assembly Service (CAS)
Introduction: Each letter of recommendation (LOR) in your CAS account must be
accompanied by its own CAS LOR form when it is sent to the LSAC. If a letter arrives
without this form, it will be returned to the writer. Note that each form will contain the
name of the writer of the letter to which it corresponds. Thus you will need a separate
LOR form for each of your writers: e.g., if you have 3 LOR, you will need 3 forms—one
for each writer.
These forms can be transmitted as hard copies or electronically via email. You must
make sure that whoever will be sending your letter to the LSAC includes the form with
the transmission, whether electronic or postal mail.
--If your writer will be sending his/her letter directly to your CAS account, make sure
s/he has a copy of this form.
--If HPPLC will be sending your letters, make sure you give the receptionist copies of all
corresponding CAS forms.
--If Interfolio will be sending your letters to the CAS, you will need to upload a copy of
this form to your Interfolio account yourself. See “How to Upload Your Credential
Assembly Service LOR Form to Interfolio” at
http://hpplc.indiana.edu/documents/Howtouploadd.docx.
Instructions: You will first build your own individual “master list” of potential letterwriters on your CAS letter of recommendation page. This list can be as long or as short
as you like. Note that just listing a person does not mean that you are committed to
asking this person for a letter, let alone sending their letter to any particular law school.
Law schools will never have access to this list. Only you will see it.
At a different point in the process, you will also assemble a list of law schools to which
you will be applying (see Part I to this document, above). You will then have to “assign”
specific letters to be sent to each individual school to which you will apply.
As you enter the LSAC site and follow the instructions below, the procedures should
become increasingly intuitive. It’s a bit clunky at first, so hang in there!
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1. First, log onto your LSAC account with your username and password:
https://os.lsac.org/Release/Logon/Access.aspx.
2. Be sure your popup blocker is turned off for this site. For Internet Explorer,
click the “Tools” folder. For Firefox, click “Tools,” then choose “Options,” then
go to the “Content” tab, and uncheck the first box (entitled “Block pop-up
windows”).
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3. On the next page, see the section entitled “Credential Assembly Service.” Click
the second link under this section, called “Letters of Recommendation.”
4. You will be taken to your own personal “Letters of Recommendation” page.
5. Click on the first blue box on the left side of the page, called “Add/Edit My
Recommenders/Evaluators.” (found under the link for “My Report Status).
6. Click on the tab marked “Add NEW Recommender/Evaluator”
7. Choose whether your writer is a “Recommender” (meaning that they will be
supplying a traditional hard copy of a LOR); or “Evaluator” (meaning that the
writer will fill out an evaluation webform available online and will not submit an
actual letter); or “Both”.
In most situations applicants will be fine designating all writers only as
“Recommenders”.
[However, for the record, there is a tiny number of schools that will let you
“sneak” in an extra letter or two if you designate some of your writers as
“Evaluators”. For example, a given school might state that it will “accept up to 3
Recommendations and/or 3 Evaluations for a total of no more than 6.” Thus if
you have 5 writers, for example, for this school you could designate three as
“Recommenders” and the other two as “Evaluators” -- and thereby submit all 5.]
On the other hand, many schools will not accept Evaluations at all.
Normally you will only discover late in the process (often when you are filling out
applications) if one of your schools will accept an “extra” letter from an
Evaluator. The good news is that you don’t have to designate anyone as an
Evaluator until later—when you have investigated the situation for all of your
schools. At first it is fine to designate all writers as “Recommender Only”. Later
ask one or more to provide an “Evaluation” only in the rare case that you
discover one of your schools allows this type of extra input. Please contact a
HPPLC Prelaw Advisor if you have questions about this.
8. Fill out the information that appears next—it consists mostly of contact
information for the WRITER (i.e., NOT you).
9. “Number of letters from this recommender” refers to the number of versions of
a LOR that this writer will supply. Most writers (98%) provide a single LOR that
will be used for all law schools. For them, check “1.”
The CAS then asks for your “Description” of the letter. You might mention the
writer’s name, and “for all law schools” if the letter will be sent to multiple
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schools. You only have 30 characters available for this description. Note: the
law schools will see your description.
Occasionally you will encounter a writer who has attended one of the law
schools to which you are applying. If possible, and if the writer agrees, it may be
useful for such a writer to compose one letter targeted specifically to their alma
mater, and a second, general letter for all other schools. For such situations
check “2.” Each LOR will need its own distinct LSAC LOR form, with its own
description. Therefore, if you do check “2”, two description slots will
immediately appear—see next step below—and you will need to provide
different descriptions for each (e.g., “Prof. Jones for DePaul Law only”; and “Prof.
Jones general letter”)].
10. When finished, click the “Submit” button.
11. You will then arrive back at your “Letters of Recommendation” page---but the
“Recommender Name” column should now contain the name of the writer for
whom you just filled out the contact information. The “Letter ID/Description”
column should also now contain your description of the letter. There will be tabs
on the far right column that say “Print” and “Email.”
a. IF your writer will be mailing the letter directly to your CAS account,
indicate whether you would prefer to email this form to your writer or
print it out to hand-deliver it.
b. IF Interfolio will be sending your letters to the CAS, you must print out a
hard copy of this form and upload it to your Interfolio account. See “How
to Upload Your Credential Assembly Service LOR Form to Interfolio” at
http://hpplc.indiana.edu/documents/Howtouploadd.docx.
c. IF HPPLC will be sending your letters to the CAS, you must print out a
hard copy of this form and bring it to the HPPLC office.
12. Thereafter, a page will immediately appear asking whether or not you will waive
your right to read the letter that will be written by this writer. The Federal
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) gives you the right to read any
letter written on your behalf, but you can waive this right. Law schools generally
prefer that you waive your right. But the choice is completely yours to make. If
you do waive your right, however, you will never be able to read this letter.
After you make your choice, click “Continue.”
a. If you clicked “Print,” a copy of the LSAC’s LOR form should finally appear.
You can now print a hard copy of this form. Give it to whoever will be
sending the letter to your CAS account.
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b. If you clicked the “Email” tab, a confirmation page will appear. Doublecheck all information displayed—especially the email address. If the
information is correct, click “Send E-mail;” otherwise, click “Edit.”
Eventually (this can be done much later) – you’ll select a tentative list of law schools to
which you’ll apply, and this list of schools will automatically appear at the bottom of
your “Letters of Recommendation” page, underneath your list of LOR writers.
To begin the process of assigning specific letters to individual law schools, you’ll first
have to click on the “Add Term” button for each individual school on the list and then
select the semester you intend to begin law school. If you have already opened an
application for that school, however, this tab will not be there, but the “Assign” tab will
be there already—read on for details.
After you select the “term” for a given school, an “Assign” tab will appear in the far right
column. After you click the “Assign” tab there will be a short explanation of that
school’s LOR requirements and policies (for example, the minimum and maximum
number of letters). Then just click on the letters you want to go to this school from the
drop-down menu, click submit, and the “Letter ID” column on your “Letters of
Recommendation” page will now indicate your LOR assignments (“L1”, “L2”, “L3” etc.)
for that school. You must go through this process for every school!
Note: most applicants will send the same letters to all schools (the one variable would
be the number of letters that each school will accept).
That’s it!
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If the above procedure doesn’t work, call the LSAC directly at 215.968.1001 (push 0 to
speak to a human being). They should be able to walk you through it.
But please let the LSAC (and HPPLC) know about any problems you encounter.
Meanwhile, do not hesitate to send us your questions!
III. Transcripts and Applying to Law School
The Credential Assembly Service (“CAS”---formerly known as the Law School Data
Assembly Service or LSDAS) needs original transcripts from every undergraduate
institution you have attended. (All IU campuses are covered by IUB’s transcript, and any
study abroad programs only require transcripts from the domestic sponsoring
institution. But otherwise, EVEN IF your courses and grades have transferred and
appear on your IUB transcript—you MUST get an original. They are very strict about
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this—if you don’t, a hold will be put on your applications.). To obtain transcripts, you
will need to give each institution its own individual “Transcript Request Form”.
First, you must register and pay for an account with the CAS. This is NOT automatic
when you register and pay for the LSAT, or when you create an account with the LSAC.
You must specifically register for the CAS and pay an additional fee (note that
registration with the CAS is absolutely required of ALL applicants—no exceptions). For
instructions on how to pay, see the top of this document.
Note as well that you can obtain LOR and transcript request forms without paying or
registering for the CAS. But you cannot submit either of these documents, nor apply,
before you pay the fee.
Here’s how to obtain a Transcript Request Form:
First, be sure your popup blocker is turned off for www.lsac.org! For Internet
Explorer, click the “Tools” folder. For Firefox, click “Tools,” choose “Options,” go to the
“Content” tab, and uncheck the first box (entitled “Block pop-up windows).
Next, log onto your LSAC account with your username and password:
https://os.lsac.org/Release/Logon/Access.aspx.
This will take you to your CAS “My Home” page.
Look for the section on that page entitled: “Credential Assembly Service”
Under this will be a link: “Transcripts”. Click on that.
At the top of the page that appears, take a look at the beige strip that contains a link
that says something to the effect of “CAS Overview to add institutions”. Click that link.
On the resulting page, under the section entitled: “Bachelor's Degree-granting
Institution,” click the tab entitled “Add Institution.” Enter the information for IU.
If you have attended any other undergrad institution go to the section entitled “Other
Institutions” and click the “Add Institution” tab there. [For overseas study only list the
domestic institution, if any, that sponsored your trip. If you directly enrolled in the
foreign university on your own, only add it if you attended for more than one year—if
you attended for one year or less they do not require, nor will they accept the foreign
transcript. Contact LSAC at 215-968-1001 if you have any questions about this.]
When you are finished adding institutions click “Continue.” The resulting page will list
the school(s) just entered, and at the bottom left will be an icon for the “Transcript
Request Form” for each school. Print out a copy of this form for each institution.
For IUB transcripts, take this form to the Registrar in the Union Street Center, 408 N.
Union St. Bloomington, Indiana 47405. Phone: (812) 855-0121. Email:
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registrar@indiana.edu. Have them forward your official transcript to the Credential
Assembly Service according to the instructions and address on the form. The CAS will
not accept transcripts sent directly from applicants!
You will only need to submit one transcript from each institution attended. LSAC will
send copies to all law schools to which you apply.
Note that at peak times it may take the registrar several days to process your request. If
the delay is too long, you can jump to the head of the line by paying for a FedEx mailing.
If you are outside Bloomington, you can still arrange for IUB transcripts to be sent to the
CAS. Go to the IUB Registrar's website at http://registrar.indiana.edu/.
If you need help, call the Registrar’s Transcript Information Line at (812) 855-7505.
Expect to be put on hold.
You will need to similarly arrange for original transcripts to be sent from every
undergraduate institution you have attended that is outside of the IU system, EVEN IF
these grades transferred and appear on your IU transcript! For study abroad programs,
you will only need the original transcript from the domestic sponsoring institution, not
the foreign university.
If you encounter any problems with the above procedures, call the LSAC directly at
215.968.1001 (push 0 to speak to a human being). They should be able to walk you
through it.
Good luck!
Remember, let your HPPLC Prelaw Advisor know if you have any questions, concerns,
problems, etc. Email hpplc@indiana.edu or call 812.855.1873.
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