How do you know class % in school without rank/grades? Forum

[animalcrkrs]

I'm at NU and we have grades here but don't have a 'class rank'...I mean, you know generally where you stand based on your GPA but what IS the top 10%, top 30%, bottom 30% GPA for reasons of figuring out proper OCI bids?

I ask because I've read through a lot of threads in this legal employment forum that call out "Sidley/Kirkland/Mayer" etc. take top x% from these schools, top x% from these schools...and have no clue what that actually means at NU or a similar school that doesn't give rank/real grades beyond 'pass/high pass' or whatever. (and of course the blurbs on the OCI site for the school also say meaningless..."must have above median", "in top 10% of class" etc.).

[thesealocust]

edit: n/m

[Tautology]

I would really like to convince someone to do some research and figure out the normal grade correlation between classes for individual students (if it does stay relatively the same across schools) so that such things could be well estimated just from knowing the curve.

[Renzo]

My school doesn't rank either, but OCS was happy to tell me (roughly) where I was unofficially.

[rayiner]

I'm at NU and we have grades here but don't have a 'class rank'...I mean, you know generally where you stand based on your GPA but what IS the top 10%, top 30%, bottom 30% GPA for reasons of figuring out proper OCI bids?

I ask because I've read through a lot of threads in this legal employment forum that call out "Sidley/Kirkland/Mayer" etc. take top x% from these schools, top x% from these schools...and have no clue what that actually means at NU or a similar school that doesn't give rank/real grades beyond 'pass/high pass' or whatever. (and of course the blurbs on the OCI site for the school also say meaningless..."must have above median", "in top 10% of class" etc.).

NU is hard to calculate, partially because the curve isn't even normally distributed really.

I'm not sure firms even calculate a precise rank-equivalent. Rather, they just look for people in particular GPA-bands. You can look at the GPA charts on the Symplicity page to get an idea. Basically, the breakdown seems to be:

3.3 - 3.4 (median)
3.4 - 3.5 (above median)
3.5 - 3.6 (more selective)
3.6 - 3.7 (selective)

Nearly all the firms are somewhere in these bands. A few are out at 3.7+ (eg: W&C at like 4.0+) but just a handful.

[animalcrkrs]

NU gives grades. WTF are you talking about?

Wow rude, welcome to my thread. Please re-read.

I'm at NU and we have grades here but don't have a 'class rank'...

We have grades but no rank. So you know your GPA is 3.52 or 3.76 which gives you a ballpark of how well you are doing obviously. But no rank or % in the class.

NU is hard to calculate, partially because the curve isn't even normally distributed really.

I'm not sure firms even calculate a precise rank-equivalent. Rather, they just look for people in particular GPA-bands. You can look at the GPA charts on the Symplicity page to get an idea. Basically, the breakdown seems to be:

3.3 - 3.4 (median)
3.4 - 3.5 (above median)
3.5 - 3.6 (more selective)
3.6 - 3.7 (selective)

Nearly all the firms are somewhere in these bands. A few are out at 3.7+ (eg: W&C at like 4.0+) but just a handful.

Oh Hi Ray! I've seen that little chart (it's 08 right? I think they are publishing the 09 soon...) but same thing...so does it make sense you think that...

3.3-3.4= 50%ish
3.4-3.5=top 40%ish
3.5-3.6=top 30%ish
3.6-3.7=top 20%?ish

and just for kicks...how would you even begin to do this for H's low/pass/high system?

[rayiner]

NU gives grades. WTF are you talking about?

Wow rude, welcome to my thread. Please re-read.

I'm at NU and we have grades here but don't have a 'class rank'...

We have grades but no rank. So you know your GPA is 3.52 or 3.76 which gives you a ballpark of how well you are doing obviously. But no rank or % in the class.

NU is hard to calculate, partially because the curve isn't even normally distributed really.

I'm not sure firms even calculate a precise rank-equivalent. Rather, they just look for people in particular GPA-bands. You can look at the GPA charts on the Symplicity page to get an idea. Basically, the breakdown seems to be:

3.3 - 3.4 (median)
3.4 - 3.5 (above median)
3.5 - 3.6 (more selective)
3.6 - 3.7 (selective)

Nearly all the firms are somewhere in these bands. A few are out at 3.7+ (eg: W&C at like 4.0+) but just a handful.

Oh Hi Ray! I've seen that little chart (it's 08 right? I think they are publishing the 09 soon...) but same thing...so does it make sense you think that...

3.3-3.4= 50%ish
3.4-3.5=top 40%ish
3.5-3.6=top 30%ish
3.6-3.7=top 20%?ish

and just for kicks...how would you even begin to do this for H's low/pass/high system?

It's a bit non-linear, so for the last two categories I'd add 5%, (ie: I think 3.65 is a good estimate for top 25% ish).

[Corsair]

..

[TTT-LS]

.

[rayiner]

Disclaimer on all of the above: I know next to nothing about statistics/math. As for selective, I'd bump that number up just a little higher, since the bigtime Chicago firms probably aren't hiring a lot of 3.6s ITE, at least without LR or a really strong pre-LS resume. If gollymolly or other rising 3Ls can get in here, they might be able to speak to that with greater accuracy. Certainly my 2L year 3.6 without LR was enough to land a great Chi firm, and even some of the stronger DC firms as well (e.g., Hogan).

Right. Just to clarify, my 3.6-3.7 = selective was for 2007-2008, which is the most recent year we have data for. Obviously, selective firms will probably bump their targets up for 2009-2010.

[altoidz]

rayiner your tar is so cute!!!

[rayiner]

rayiner your tar is so cute!!!

[animalcrkrs]

Thanks for the post TTT-LS