1L grade waiting thread Forum

[romothesavior]

I don't post a lot on law--as opposed to law school. Mostly I just try to keep things interesting.

you have failed at keeping things interesting.

[Borhas]

Con law A-
Torts B+
Statutory Elective A-
Contracts C

-----

I worked much less than first semester, and I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for K... which I thought was an exam i nailed... whatevs... Before the C my transcript was damn near pristine. Yeah, sure, I had some B+'s but they were more like beauty marks... imperfections that point to real, practical virtue... the C is not a beauty mark, it's a god damn face tumor.

I wasn't gunning for Big Law but this may foreclose some opportunities w/ federal PD offices for 2L summer.

[quakeroats]

I don't post a lot on law--as opposed to law school. Mostly I just try to keep things interesting.

you have failed at keeping things interesting.

Since I mentioned felony murder, here's an interesting statute:

Attempted felony murder.—
(1) Any person who perpetrates or attempts to perpetrate any felony enumerated in s. 782.04(3) [i.e., things like burglary, kidnapping, aircraft piracy, carjacking, agravated stalking, etc.] who commits, aids, or abets an intentional act that is not an essential element of the felony and that could, but does not, cause the death of another commits a felony of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment for a term of years not exceeding life, or as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084, which is an offense ranked in level 9 of the Criminal Punishment Code. Victim injury points shall be scored under this subsection.
--LinkRemoved--

[romothesavior]

Stupid B.S. no one cares about

I've only foe'd one person on TLS. You're about to become number 2.

[quakeroats]

Stupid B.S. no one cares about

I've only foe'd one person on TLS. You're about to become number 2.

Someone who tries to rob a store and gets life I prison might, but what does that button do anyway?

[beach_terror]

Stupid B.S. no one cares about

I've only foe'd one person on TLS. You're about to become number 2.

lol, nice

[starchinkilt]

Dammit, no Crim yet. You have three days lady, three days.

[thesealocust]

Helpful pointers from a 3L:

* Knowing GPA data about firms is helpful, but often short of useful because of tiny sample sizes. A random example would be a firm that did OGI at UVA and made roughly 5 offers from roughly 80 interviews, and something in the neighborhood of 10-15 callback invitations. Some call backs were denied, and the final GPA range of offers/CBs made was huge. There's no way to report it in a helpful way. You'd want to know if there was a GPA the firm didn't dip below, but no GPA was high enough to guarantee a callback or an offer, and while clustering was around higher GPAs there were still callbacks and offers lower in the spectrum. It's chaotic and for the most part each firm makes relatively few picks, so it's hard to read much into GPA data. Grades matter but aren't ever dispositive.

* [caution: opinion as opposed to fact follows] Interviews are strange beasts. Don't get too caught up in the idea of selling yourself. It's important, but shit-for-brains 2Ls are alarmingly fungible, as are big firm jobs, which means you can't really convince an employer you'll be the very most grindiest associate ever if only you get an offer. It's just hard to control, and in many cases the interview is much more about personality and presentation then it is about selling. That's my opinion, and I know some people disagree with it.

* Anybody looking for perspective on The Market should look into an NALP publication called Prospectives on (time) Law Student Recruiting. Warning: You'll probably want to be sitting down and/or have a stiff drink. It shows in vivid detail how bad it's gotten in recent years.

Speaking of OCI, what's a good number of firms to have coming for OCI?

It depends. Schools like NYU and Columbia can have relatively few firms and still kill it because their demographics weight towards wanting NYC and the NYC firms are happy to pick up sometimes a dozen plus associates each. Compare and contrast with a school like Harvard that sends scads to NYC but also relies on placing grads across the country, plus has one of the largest classes and thus the ability to actually place decent numbers in Chicago, LA, etc. as well.

To throw out a hard number, T14 OCIs usually have hundreds of firms. It's surprisingly hard to count though: If GDC is interviewing for CA, Chicago, DC, and NYC, is that 1 firm or 4? Same question but now it's a firm like S&C where one of those offices hires like 90 SAs and the others might not hire any. So it's hard to say with precision.

In 2006, UVA had a total of 888 "employers." Your guess is as good as man as to how they drew that line, but suffice to say fall 2006 was close booming compared to now.

[powerlurker]

I suck balls at math. Can anybody ballpark where a 3.51 would land on a strict 3.0 curve? I have no other data unfortunately, but I saw the grade distribution for each class and the curve looked pretty fat with not many A/A- (no A+s).

[dailygrind]

I suck balls at math. Can anybody ballpark where a 3.51 would land on a strict 3.0 curve? I have no other data unfortunately, but I saw the grade distribution for each class and the curve looked pretty fat with not many A/A- (no A+s).

it's really difficult to tell without 1 more data point for estimation (one which includes the rank of a certain gpa). at this point, your guess is as good as mine.

[Borhas]

I suck balls at math. Can anybody ballpark where a 3.51 would land on a strict 3.0 curve? I have no other data unfortunately, but I saw the grade distribution for each class and the curve looked pretty fat with not many A/A- (no A+s).

top 5-15%

[Baylan]

Final grades came in, though I'm still waiting for the last one to show up on the actual official grade site (could still be a bump up/down based on participation)

Property: A+
Con Law: A
Contracts: A
The Regulatory State: B-

One of these is not like the other...

Puts my overall GPA at a 3.52 at a school with a median of ~2.85. Probably about top 15% based on last year's data. Pretty happy overall... But unfortunately, no transfer options from my TTT - but I'm happy to stay in the market I'm in.

[beach_terror]

Puts my overall GPA at a 3.52 at a school with a median of ~2.85. Probably about top 15% based on last year's data. Pretty happy overall... But unfortunately, no transfer options from my TTT - but I'm happy to stay in the market I'm in.

Top 15% high five, bro

[random5483]

A+, A, A, A- (contracts...I knew this material best!), B+ (2 unit class). 15 units total.

[happy187]

Last grades posted. firmly placed at median at TTTT. Looks like I need to seriously change up some things.

[kaiser]

For whatever reason, my section had a top 10% cutoff that dipped much lower than other sections. As a result, my GPA is top 10%, but appears on face value to be a good amount lower than other students who are NOT top 10% in their sections. Would it be safe to assume that employers will only look at ranks when assessing our grades? I only ask because the disparity is pretty crazy between sections at my school.

[3ThrowAway99]

For whatever reason, my section had a top 10% cutoff that dipped much lower than other sections. As a result, my GPA is top 10%, but appears on face value to be a good amount lower than other students who are NOT top 10% in their sections. Would it be safe to assume that employers will only look at ranks when assessing our grades? I only ask because the disparity is pretty crazy between sections at my school.

Huh. Wow- I've never heard of this before. I thought top 10%/25% etc was always the same GPA# for each 1L/2L/3L etc class... I've never heard that section differences are accounted for in this way. Does anyone know how common this is?

[kaiser]

For whatever reason, my section had a top 10% cutoff that dipped much lower than other sections. As a result, my GPA is top 10%, but appears on face value to be a good amount lower than other students who are NOT top 10% in their sections. Would it be safe to assume that employers will only look at ranks when assessing our grades? I only ask because the disparity is pretty crazy between sections at my school.

Huh. Wow- I've never heard of this before. I thought top 10%/25% etc was always the same GPA# for each 1L/2L/3L etc class... I've never heard that section differences are accounted for in this way. Does anyone know how common this is?

Last year, all 1L sections had the same top 10% cutoff GPA. This year, it varies by almost .1, which is huge.

[missinglink]

Wow. I've never heard of different curves for each section.

I would imagine that employers will look at your rank, though.

[Rock Chalk]

.

[3ThrowAway99]

Wow. I've never heard of different curves for each section.

Seems like a terrible idea. Being in a section with more legitimate superstars would suck more than it already would in a normal system.

Actually, I was thinking that it would mitigate it (that it may require a less high GPA to be top 10% in the harder section)...

[romothesavior]

Wow. I've never heard of different curves for each section.

Seems like a terrible idea. Being in a section with more legitimate superstars would suck more than it already would in a normal system.

It happens (although to a lesser degree) even at WUSTL. A combination of differing means (86.5-87.5) between professors and the tightness of curves can have an effect. I wouldn't be surprised if my section was a little underrepresented in the top 10% last semester, and certainly underrepresented in the top 5%. It's nothing too significant though.

[keg411]

Wow. I've never heard of different curves for each section.

Seems like a terrible idea. Being in a section with more legitimate superstars would suck more than it already would in a normal system.

It happens (although to a lesser degree) even at WUSTL. A combination of differing means (86.5-87.5) between professors and the tightness of curves can have an effect. I wouldn't be surprised if my section was a little underrepresented in the top 10% last semester, and certainly underrepresented in the top 5%. It's nothing too significant though.

We have a difference in curves here as well (for instance, in ConLaw, my prof curved to a 3.02 and one of the other profs curved to a 2.9). However, there is no way of figuring out where you stand in the section vs. where you stand in the class.

[Holly Golightly]

I had no idea people even calculated percentages within a section. Isn't it your standing within the class as a whole that matters?

[kaiser]

I had no idea people even calculated percentages within a section. Isn't it your standing within the class as a whole that matters?

I was never great at stats so I just take it for what it is. In my school, each section has 90 people so the school essentially points to the top 9 people in each section and deems that collective group of 27 (3 sections) to be the top 10%. Creates odd situations where people in other sections have higher GPA's than me but my rank might be higher.