3.483 at Michigan--Rank? Forum

[Anonymous User]

School doesn't rank us nor give a quartile estimate to figure it out. Any insight? 1L here.

[flem]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=157992

[Anonymous User]

But, as I said, UM doesn't give us another reference point to use in the calculation.

[Tree]

There's nothing you can do as a 1L to determine your rank, but you are very competitive going into OCI this fall.

It should be quite easy for you to pull off Magna as long as you pull it up above 3.700 by graduation. Not hard to do from your current placement.

Also, on the law.umich.edu website, there's a "Class Ranking Letter" that explains the average ranking cut-offs for the top half of the class for the previous five years. You can find it on this page as long as you have student log-on credentials: --LinkRemoved--

This should give you a decent idea of where you stand and where you want to end up (depending on your aspirations (or perhaps "aspie-rations").

[Anonymous User]

Thanks, Tree. Do you think it's safe to say top third? What about top 25%?

[Tree]

Thanks, Tree. Do you think it's safe to say top third? What about top 25%?

It's "safe" to suggest top third in a private sense of the word, but it's not safe to suggest any relative class rank before the official numbers come out after graduation and I'll explain why.

Employers who receive OCI transcripts will know the median GPA for your class, and will understand that you are comfortably above it. With some vowels and no B's or B-'s on your transcript, a potential employer will probably receive you with open arms as long as you interview comfortably.

Also, guestimating a rank is not a good idea. It's impossible to know (and will be for two or three more years) what your rank is. Even the school's administration won't have information to give out if you approach them directly. I guess this is done for your protection and the protection of everyone else.

Finally, it is worth noting that the school recently modified its elective "pass/fail" system for upper-level courses (making the conversion from a letter grade to a P retroactive for all upperclassmen). I believe this will inflate grades somewhat (putting upward pressure on rank cutoffs from the letter I showed you). So, even if that letter was gospel for the last five years, it's probably going the way of the dinosaurs beginning with this year's graduating class.