Comments on: “In Law Schools, Grades Go Up, Just Like That”

By: SPQR

SPQR — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:24:25 +0000

Sheesh, and I used to be proud of my Loyola Law School J.D. …

By: Platy

Platy — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:58:05 +0000

And prospective employers won’t know that the grades have been inflated because…?

Funny, when I was in nursing schools there was a kind of reverse inflation: an A was 94% or better, etc. I had an impressive GPA, it’s over ten years out, and I’m still waiting for somebody to ask me about it.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:22:11 +0000

Next time my Alma Mater (IANAL) calls and asks for a donation, I’ll ask them to make me a summa cum laude in return….

By: Jim Finkel

Jim Finkel — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:40:52 +0000

I went to Carnegie-Mellon University engineering a few years back. I would have loved an arbitrary “let’s inflate the grades.” The average GPA from C-MU even with that extra boost was still well below the standard university average. But we all know how well GPA correlates with success. Just look at FedEx. “Leveling the playing field,” never quite works.

By: DavidL

DavidL — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:55:40 +0000

If the logic were but valid, we could ease or addiction to oil by measuring fuel economy in kilometers per gallon. Any takers?

By: Anonymous Attorney

Anonymous Attorney — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:15:10 +0000

One of the more reliable currencies of law schools, at least where I was, in New York, was grades. I suppose at top-tier schools grades are less important, but at places like humble Brooklyn Law School, they’re desperately important. And the understanding seemed to be that an “A” was something special. By the distribution, it certainly was — I think A’s only took up a single-digit part of the class. It’s harsh, but an “A” student at Brooklyn Law could demonstrate himself to be on a par with higher-ranked schools.

Employers knew this.

With inflation, however, you end up hurting high-performing students at middle and lower-tier law schools.

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:03:03 +0000

Why don’t they just change the name of their law school to the Lake Wobegon School of Law?