What was the HLS magna cutoff last year? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Yeah, grades at HLS exist within a pretty unique context, so outside a very narrow set of circumstances, it doesn't really make sense to talk about "grade inflation." A couple points (ultimately not that important, but a good excuse to procrastinate):

1. It doesn't make sense to compare a GPA at HLS to a GPA at a T-14. At HLS, you get a 5.0 for a DS, a 4.0 for an H, and a 3.0 for a P. For a class w/ 30+ students, there's supposedly a curve where the top ~30% of students get Hs and ~5-10% can get DSes. For seminars, no real restrictions AFAIK.
2. A GPA of 4.0 historically guarantees magna, which means that if you can be in the top 30% of every big class you take and do a decent job in your seminars, you can get there. But realistically, even top students get a P or two, so you also need to get a DS or two.
3. By the same token, to be comfortably w/in the top tier of the class, you need multiple DSes. The very top will have something like 10-12 DSes and 1-2 Ps at the end.
4. The magna cutoff has slowly creeped up over the years, mostly b/c professors give out more DSes than they did when the grading system just debuted. Anecdotally, I've heard that professors initially thought that giving a DS was the same as giving an A+ in the old system, maybe 1-2 for a class of 80. That attitude has changed, so now professors will give out 4-5 for a class of 80, if not more.
5. It only makes sense to talk about grade inflation when comparing an applicant from HLS with an applicant from SLS. At SLS it's both harder to get an H and harder to get a book prize. So if you're comparing an HLS student who's top 15% w/ an SLS student who's top 15%, the HLS student is likely to have more Hs and DSes.

#3 seems a bit high. The person who won Sears for 2L in my class posted their DS's on linkedin (lol) and they had 5 across 1L and 2L, but only 2 from 2L classes. If 2 DS's is high enough to pull Sears, no way there's a tier of student graduating with 10-12.

Just hopping on to say that I think your year might be an aberration. I'm a 3L with substantially higher grades than what you just listed and I didn't get either 1L or 2L Sears.

I saw a clerkship applicant who had 4 or 5 DSs after 1L without Sears.

That's fucking crazy, and to think I felt p good about graduating with 5 in the aggregate lmao

You'd probably need at least 7 DS's 1L to get Sears, maybe more.

I have seen a transcript of a rising 3L with Sears. They had 6 DS's 1L year and 7 DS's 2L year, no P's.

New poster. This is consistent with my experience.