1L grade waiting thread Forum

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Stephanie13

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Stephanie13 » Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:47 pm

J-tow10 wrote:
romothesavior wrote:
Melkaba wrote:Welp, grade waiting is over. Essentially, it's Contracts > Property > Legal Writing > Torts. What would have been a pretty median-tastic first semester was kinda saved by an absurdly high Contracts grade. Meh, too bad I really don't know what to improve on for next semester.
Congrats, that's a good start. I'd recommend talking to T and M (especially T) about how you can improve your exams for next semester.
I'm jealous you guys have LP grades already. Still waiting for ours...

Also, I hate whoever decided to not allow GPA to update until overnight. After I realized the GPA I was looking at today didn't include Torts I had a kind of a /self moment. However, I thought I bombed Ks and it turned out to be my best. Weird.
Does anyone at WUSTL know how we're supposed to list our GPA? Just like it's posted? I've never seen a GPA on a 100 point scale before.

Joan Hollaway

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Joan Hollaway » Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:51 pm

One section has received 1 grade
The other has received 2 grades
Mine has received 0.

At least I can enjoy the holiday weekend :wink:

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romothesavior

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by romothesavior » Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:56 pm

Stephanie13 wrote:
J-tow10 wrote:
romothesavior wrote:
Melkaba wrote:Welp, grade waiting is over. Essentially, it's Contracts > Property > Legal Writing > Torts. What would have been a pretty median-tastic first semester was kinda saved by an absurdly high Contracts grade. Meh, too bad I really don't know what to improve on for next semester.
Congrats, that's a good start. I'd recommend talking to T and M (especially T) about how you can improve your exams for next semester.
I'm jealous you guys have LP grades already. Still waiting for ours...

Also, I hate whoever decided to not allow GPA to update until overnight. After I realized the GPA I was looking at today didn't include Torts I had a kind of a /self moment. However, I thought I bombed Ks and it turned out to be my best. Weird.
Does anyone at WUSTL know how we're supposed to list our GPA? Just like it's posted? I've never seen a GPA on a 100 point scale before.
Yes, you put your number, and next to it you put what the next highest cutoff is. So, let's say you have a 90.75. You'd say:

GPA: 90.75 (Top 15% = 90.85)

I believe that's how I read it in the CSO resume instructions and examples. Also, thanks again for the ride home. :lol: I froze my ass off walking to school today.

Stephanie13

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Stephanie13 » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:18 pm

romothesavior wrote:
Stephanie13 wrote:
J-tow10 wrote:
romothesavior wrote: Congrats, that's a good start. I'd recommend talking to T and M (especially T) about how you can improve your exams for next semester.
I'm jealous you guys have LP grades already. Still waiting for ours...

Also, I hate whoever decided to not allow GPA to update until overnight. After I realized the GPA I was looking at today didn't include Torts I had a kind of a /self moment. However, I thought I bombed Ks and it turned out to be my best. Weird.
Does anyone at WUSTL know how we're supposed to list our GPA? Just like it's posted? I've never seen a GPA on a 100 point scale before.
Yes, you put your number, and next to it you put what the next highest cutoff is. So, let's say you have a 90.75. You'd say:

GPA: 90.75 (Top 15% = 90.85)

I believe that's how I read it in the CSO resume instructions and examples. Also, thanks again for the ride home. :lol: I froze my ass off walking to school today.
No problem! St. Louis is cold! But thanks, it seems weird to me but I am a sheep, I will do what they say.

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Grizz

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Grizz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:20 pm

Aqualibrium wrote:I'm always available...
'Prece man.

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stratocophic

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by stratocophic » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:22 pm

Stephanie13 wrote:
romothesavior wrote:
Stephanie13 wrote:
J-tow10 wrote:
I'm jealous you guys have LP grades already. Still waiting for ours...

Also, I hate whoever decided to not allow GPA to update until overnight. After I realized the GPA I was looking at today didn't include Torts I had a kind of a /self moment. However, I thought I bombed Ks and it turned out to be my best. Weird.
Does anyone at WUSTL know how we're supposed to list our GPA? Just like it's posted? I've never seen a GPA on a 100 point scale before.
Yes, you put your number, and next to it you put what the next highest cutoff is. So, let's say you have a 90.75. You'd say:

GPA: 90.75 (Top 15% = 90.85)

I believe that's how I read it in the CSO resume instructions and examples. Also, thanks again for the ride home. :lol: I froze my ass off walking to school today.
FWIW, the thing CSO sent out says to only do that when you're outside the top 1/3, since WUSTL doesn't rank past that. If you're top 1/3 or better, put down the category you fall in - e.g. GPA: 90.75 (Top 20% = 90.1), if top 15% = 90.85
Last edited by stratocophic on Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dakatz

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by dakatz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:31 pm

I really wish my school gave out rankings after first semester. As it is, they only give out any ranking after the first whole year, and they only provide a top 10% cutoff GPA. Past that, you will not know of your rank unless you receive some specific award based on rank. The school told me that they provide letters to students to submit to employers explaining the lack of rank. I guess a good GPA figure speaks for itself, but I would hate (relatively speaking) to be the kid who finishes in the 11th percentile. I checked up my schools cutoff for the top 10% from last year's 1L class. Since my GPA fell just within that range (to those who saw my post above, I accidentally quoted the 10% cutoff too high), I was hoping to write out an email providing last year's figure just to give some idea of how my GPA translates into a rank. Obviously I would make it clear that it isn't the curve from my class, and that the cutoff would change, but I was advised by CDO not to do this and just let the number speak for itself. Guess its extra incentive to hit top 10% for the whole year.

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romothesavior

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by romothesavior » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:48 pm

dakatz wrote:I really wish my school gave out rankings after first semester. As it is, they only give out any ranking after the first whole year, and they only provide a top 10% cutoff GPA.
Can you see it online from past years or something? Our school only ranks top 5% students and then gives GPA cutoffs for 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 33 1/3%. So if you're in the top 1/3, you know roughly where you are. They haven't given us that info yet for last fall, but they have last fall's GPA cutoffs on the registrar website and they don't change much from year to year.

I really like how efficient and transparent our registrar's office is.

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by dakatz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:53 pm

romothesavior wrote:
dakatz wrote:I really wish my school gave out rankings after first semester. As it is, they only give out any ranking after the first whole year, and they only provide a top 10% cutoff GPA.
Can you see it online from past years or something? Our school only ranks top 5% students and then gives GPA cutoffs for 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 33 1/3%. So if you're in the top 1/3, you know roughly where you are. They haven't given us that info yet for last fall, but they have last fall's GPA cutoffs on the registrar website and they don't change much from year to year.

I really like how efficient and transparent our registrar's office is.
I can see last year's top 10% cutoff. But I was told by my CDO that I shouldn't use this number for fear that employers would misinterpret it as me saying that I indeed actually am in the top 10%, which I don't know for sure is true. I was thinking of letting employers know what last year's number was just for some perspective (and obviously being very clear that it is in no way official or necessarily determinative of how this year's cutoffs will be). But if it is really so wrong to do so, I guess I'm stuck. Its a shame because my GPA fell just within that top 10% range so I would love to let employers know that.

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keg411

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by keg411 » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:00 pm

Romo, that sounds really easy and convenient. No rank and no cut-offs at all here except for Honors distinctions that don't come out until February :(.

dakatz, your GPA is really high and your grades are excellent. Just use it as incentive to keep it up next semester :).

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Dr. Review

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Dr. Review » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:10 pm

How do you guys feel about a school that doesn't do class rank at all? Pitt does grade bands. I like it for employment reasons, kind of, but it feels like a really fuzzy means of comparison when I am trying to figure out how well I am doing compared to others. In any case, I kind of like it... what about TLS?

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by dakatz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:16 pm

To inform employers to whom I had previously applied of my grades, do you just let them know what your GPA is? Or do you break it up by individual grade? And do you take it even further by saying what grade came from what course? Not sure how much detail is needed in providing a grade update letter.

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Grizz

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Grizz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:17 pm

Bedsole wrote:How do you guys feel about a school that doesn't do class rank at all? Pitt does grade bands. I like it for employment reasons, kind of, but it feels like a really fuzzy means of comparison when I am trying to figure out how well I am doing compared to others. In any case, I kind of like it... what about TLS?
We only do top 20%. Class median is like a 3.15 or 3.17. It's unreleased. A little bit frustrating yeah, but apparently it's good for employment or whatever.

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Grizz

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Grizz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:17 pm

dakatz wrote:To inform employers to whom I had previously applied of my grades, do you just let them know what your GPA is? Or do you break it up by individual grade? And do you take it even further by saying what grade came from what course? Not sure how much detail is needed in providing a grade update letter.
Send a PDF of your transcript if possible.

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Melkaba » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:18 pm

romothesavior wrote:Congrats, that's a good start. I'd recommend talking to T and M (especially T) about how you can improve your exams for next semester.
Yeah, I'll probably end up doing that, even though T kinda scares me some times.

But man, it's just weird to be in that "not quite 1/3rd, but still above median" kind of position. Is this necessarily "/self, you'll get no jerbs" territory or just "meh" territory?

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by dakatz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:23 pm

rad law wrote:
dakatz wrote:To inform employers to whom I had previously applied of my grades, do you just let them know what your GPA is? Or do you break it up by individual grade? And do you take it even further by saying what grade came from what course? Not sure how much detail is needed in providing a grade update letter.
Send a PDF of your transcript if possible.
Hmm, i don't have the option of printing it out at this point due to some glitch, and the registrar couldn't get me official copies until mid-week. Would it look really bad to just list our my grades myself?

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by keg411 » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:24 pm

dakatz wrote:To inform employers to whom I had previously applied of my grades, do you just let them know what your GPA is? Or do you break it up by individual grade? And do you take it even further by saying what grade came from what course? Not sure how much detail is needed in providing a grade update letter.
I would break it up by individual grades. Also, check your Symplicity; on ours we had an "Unofficial Grade Sheet" document that we are allowed to give to employers because official/unofficial transcripts are hard to get. You can use that and it has a pretty good layout. (Or if you pm me your e-mail, I'll send over a copy; it isn't school-specific either so you can tailor it to your school).

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Grizz

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Grizz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:26 pm

dakatz wrote:
rad law wrote:
dakatz wrote:To inform employers to whom I had previously applied of my grades, do you just let them know what your GPA is? Or do you break it up by individual grade? And do you take it even further by saying what grade came from what course? Not sure how much detail is needed in providing a grade update letter.
Send a PDF of your transcript if possible.
Hmm, i don't have the option of printing it out at this point due to some glitch, and the registrar couldn't get me official copies until mid-week. Would it look really bad to just list our my grades myself?
I don't know if it would be bad, but I feel an aversion to it for some reason. Screen cap?

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by keg411 » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:30 pm

rad law wrote:
Bedsole wrote:How do you guys feel about a school that doesn't do class rank at all? Pitt does grade bands. I like it for employment reasons, kind of, but it feels like a really fuzzy means of comparison when I am trying to figure out how well I am doing compared to others. In any case, I kind of like it... what about TLS?
We only do top 20%. Class median is like a 3.15 or 3.17. It's unreleased. A little bit frustrating yeah, but apparently it's good for employment or whatever.
We have also have an unreleased curve. Except we have an extra bonus of it being non-mandatory (though most of the 1L classes curve to between a 3.0 and 3.1). I have an idea of last year's cut-offs from a helpful 2L, but they tend to fluctuate.

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by dakatz » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:38 pm

rad law wrote:
dakatz wrote:
rad law wrote:
dakatz wrote:To inform employers to whom I had previously applied of my grades, do you just let them know what your GPA is? Or do you break it up by individual grade? And do you take it even further by saying what grade came from what course? Not sure how much detail is needed in providing a grade update letter.
Send a PDF of your transcript if possible.
Hmm, i don't have the option of printing it out at this point due to some glitch, and the registrar couldn't get me official copies until mid-week. Would it look really bad to just list our my grades myself?
I don't know if it would be bad, but I feel an aversion to it for some reason. Screen cap?
Thats what I was thinking as a last resort, as unprofessional as it would look tucked in behind the letter and the additional resume copy.

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romothesavior

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by romothesavior » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:49 pm

Melkaba wrote:
romothesavior wrote:Congrats, that's a good start. I'd recommend talking to T and M (especially T) about how you can improve your exams for next semester.
Yeah, I'll probably end up doing that, even though T kinda scares me some times.

But man, it's just weird to be in that "not quite 1/3rd, but still above median" kind of position. Is this necessarily "/self, you'll get no jerbs" territory or just "meh" territory?
T is very intimidating, but I love it. I love that classic professor "contempt for stupidity" that he had and it kept people from saying dumb stuff. He is great in his office though and he was always down to answer questions, go over practice exams, and just shoot the shit.

You're not in bad shape. A strong second semester can put you in top 1/3 or 1/4 for sure. You're not in /self territory, not at all.

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Mickey Quicknumbers

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Mickey Quicknumbers » Sat Jan 15, 2011 1:03 am

fwiw if anyone knows 1. the median gpa 2. the top 10% gpa cutoff (or some other number) 3. their gpa, I can tell them what their class rank is with a decent amount of certainty.

edit: the farther you are from the mean though, the less accurate it will be.

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Doritos

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Doritos » Sat Jan 15, 2011 1:20 am

For you people with all your grades back, when did you take your exams?

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Holly Golightly

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Holly Golightly » Sat Jan 15, 2011 1:22 am

Doritos wrote:For you people with all your grades back, when did you take your exams?
First exam December 6, last one the 16th. Our grades were due Monday and were all released at once.

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Dr. Review

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Re: 1L grade waiting thread

Post by Dr. Review » Sat Jan 15, 2011 1:26 am

del, where do you go to school?

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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