Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

[Single-Malt-Liquor]

Grades have been released. Let the 1L freakout begin.

May I suggest a trip down to Cambridge Common for some aggressive day drinking. It's where half of my section went that afternoon 1L year.

[Indifference]

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[Mack.Hambleton]

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[hlsperson123]

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My feelings immediately after logging into Helios.

[Lovely Ludwig Van]

Out of curiosity, has there ever been a documented case of a transcribing error wrt grades?

[tomwatts]

Score one for history ("on or around January 27").

Also, I direct people to the OP in this thread for some discussion of grades, their meanings, and the necessity of not freaking out over a single semester.

[dylar]

What kind of grades are required to grade-on to the Law Review?

[NoLongerALurker]

You can't really grade on. You can be one of the students whose grades make it marginally easier to get on, but that's only like two students per section so unless you have 9+ H's you're not in the crowd. Just kill the writing comp (or just don't law review, and enjoy life more)

[Indifference]

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[Pneumonia]

What kind of grades are required to grade-on to the Law Review?

HLR doesn't do strict grade-on. I assume you are asking about the presumptive admission for the top two students in a section?

To be clear, my understanding of this is that each of the two students, per section, with the top-two highest GPAs after 1L will be admitted onto the law review as long as they produce decent work in the write-on competition. So you're not guaranteed a spot, and you do have to still do the competition. However, my understanding is that being one of these two students will make it more than just "marginally" easier to get on, but you still won't be guaranteed. I'm not on law review, but my friends who are have tended to assume that all the "top-two" students per section made it on.

To be one of those top two, my strong impression is that you're going to need to at least be at a 4.0. Probably at least .10 .15 higher. Based on magna cutoffs, 4.0 is top-10% at graduation. That would mean about 8 people in your section have a 4.0 right now. Perhaps only 6, to make up for the fact that Hs come easier as a 2L or 3L. But 6 seems conservative. Anyway, once you're above 4.0, the higher the better.

There's no real way to know where you stand relative to your sectionmates, but, based on this napkin math, you probably want to be at least a few .10's higher to feel like you have a real shot at being one of the top-two. But if you're below a 4.0 then you almost certainly are not among the top-two.

[despina]

Very happy with my grades, but is it normal to feel like I have no idea how the fuck this happened/know what I did?

Yes. And congrats!

[dylar]

What kind of grades are required to grade-on to the Law Review?

HLR doesn't do strict grade-on. I assume you are asking about the presumptive admission for the top two students in a section?

To be clear, my understanding of this is that each of the two students, per section, with the top-two highest GPAs after 1L will be admitted onto the law review as long as they produce decent work in the write-on competition. So you're not guaranteed a spot, and you do have to still do the competition. However, my understanding is that being one of these two students will make it more than just "marginally" easier to get on, but you still won't be guaranteed. I'm not on law review, but my friends who are have tended to assume that all the "top-two" students per section made it on.

To be one of those top two, my strong impression is that you're going to need to at least be at a 4.0. Probably at least .10 .15 higher. Based on magna cutoffs, 4.0 is top-10% at graduation. That would mean about 8 people in your section have a 4.0 right now. Perhaps only 6, to make up for the fact that Hs come easier as a 2L or 3L. But 6 seems conservative. Anyway, once you're above 4.0, the higher the better.

There's no real way to know where you stand relative to your sectionmates, but, based on this napkin math, you probably want to be at least a few .10's higher to feel like you have a real shot at being one of the top-two. But if you're below a 4.0 then you almost certainly are not among the top-two.

Super helpful, thank you!

[hlsperson1111]

What kind of grades are required to grade-on to the Law Review?

HLR doesn't do strict grade-on. I assume you are asking about the presumptive admission for the top two students in a section?

To be clear, my understanding of this is that each of the two students, per section, with the top-two highest GPAs after 1L will be admitted onto the law review as long as they produce decent work in the write-on competition. So you're not guaranteed a spot, and you do have to still do the competition. However, my understanding is that being one of these two students will make it more than just "marginally" easier to get on, but you still won't be guaranteed. I'm not on law review, but my friends who are have tended to assume that all the "top-two" students per section made it on.

To be one of those top two, my strong impression is that you're going to need to at least be at a 4.0. Probably at least .10 .15 higher. Based on magna cutoffs, 4.0 is top-10% at graduation. That would mean about 8 people in your section have a 4.0 right now. Perhaps only 6, to make up for the fact that Hs come easier as a 2L or 3L. But 6 seems conservative. Anyway, once you're above 4.0, the higher the better.

There's no real way to know where you stand relative to your sectionmates, but, based on this napkin math, you probably want to be at least a few .10's higher to feel like you have a real shot at being one of the top-two. But if you're below a 4.0 then you almost certainly are not among the top-two.

The bolded is not accurate. I can think of multiple Sears Prize winners (including one from my section who won it as a 1L) who did not make it onto HLR. What happens is that each applicant receives a weighted score that is 50% grades and 50% write on. Fourteen people - the top two from each section - are selected based on that weighted score. The remainder are selected purely based on the write-on score (although there may also be diversity spots now, but I think that's a recent change).

[Pneumonia]

Ah, thanks for that.

[Mack.Hambleton]

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[Pneumonia]

One of my grades is delayed. The class is a large, popular multi-section. Any idea when "delayed" grades usually come out? Is the admin still trying to get grades daily, or is it like my prof automatically got an extra month or something?

[TripTrip]

One of my grades is delayed. The class is a large, popular multi-section. Any idea when "delayed" grades usually come out? Is the admin still trying to get grades daily, or is it like my prof automatically got an extra month or something?

White Collar fall grades came out three weeks late last year. Either the registrar or faculty assistant was updating student regularly on their status.

[Indifference]

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[Nonconsecutive]

Does the school send out or make available online 1098-Ts/other documents needed to do taxes, or do I need to request it?
(I seem to remember an email about this, which may have accidentally been purged when I cut my inbox from 15000 emails down to 0 last week. )


ETA: I'm an idiot. Figured it out.

And just as an FYI in case anyone wonders about this in the future, they email you about the 1098 and it's also available on the My Harvard website.

[Mr. Elshal]

One of my grades is delayed. The class is a large, popular multi-section. Any idea when "delayed" grades usually come out? Is the admin still trying to get grades daily, or is it like my prof automatically got an extra month or something?

White Collar fall grades came out three weeks late last year. Either the registrar or faculty assistant was updating student regularly on their status.

Don't freak out if nobody bothers updating you, though. I had a semester where two grades were delayed and I never heard anything from anyone until the grades came out at separate times within the next month.

[MyNameIsFlynn!]

Out of curiosity, has there ever been a documented case of a transcribing error wrt grades?

Since no one else answered: the most likely explanation for a bad grade is bad peformance on the exam (in the professor's view, which is the only one that counts). All you can do is go to office hours and see where you went wrong (nb don't go there demanding a regrade or complaining, just try to figure out why your grade came out how it did). If there was a transcription error you should be able to realize that in office hours, but I wouldn't hold my breath as I've personally never heard of the registrar entering the wrong grade.

[bli274]

I am sure this has been asked before but I can't find a recent answer. How bad are straight P's first semester, actually? Did I really fuck up?

[Mr. Elshal]

I am sure this has been asked before but I can't find a recent answer. How bad are straight P's first semester, actually? Did I really fuck up?

Really not too bad, with the caveat that if you're looking to go into a super-competitive market, like DC, you might be pretty limited. At least in terms of NY, though, you'll probably find something not bad

[ducks55]

I am sure this has been asked before but I can't find a recent answer. How bad are straight P's first semester, actually? Did I really fuck up?

Really not too bad, with the caveat that if you're looking to go into a super-competitive market, like DC, you might be pretty limited. At least in terms of NY, though, you'll probably find something not bad

What about H/H/P/P/LP? How far does the LP set me back? Neither of the Hs/LP were LRW if that matters....

[TripTrip]

I am sure this has been asked before but I can't find a recent answer. How bad are straight P's first semester, actually? Did I really fuck up?

I use straight Ps as the statistical constant when predicting employment outcomes. I think the running constant is 35 bids leads to 24 interviews, 6 callbacks, and 3-4 offers for the straight-P-both-semesters student. Obviously there are a shit ton of omitted variables in that statistical analysis, but straight Ps won't hold you back from much save a SCOTUS clerkship, the Sear's prize, or Susman Godfrey.

I am sure this has been asked before but I can't find a recent answer. How bad are straight P's first semester, actually? Did I really fuck up?

Really not too bad, with the caveat that if you're looking to go into a super-competitive market, like DC, you might be pretty limited. At least in terms of NY, though, you'll probably find something not bad

What about H/H/P/P/LP? How far does the LP set me back? Neither of the Hs/LP were LRW if that matters....

An LP sets you back effectively the same amount as an H sets you forward.

I can quantitatively prove this more thoroughly, but I'm not going to write a white paper on why LP+H == P+P so you'll have to rely on this bit of Stata output:


(The high p-value on LPs is due to collinearity, not an actual lack of statistical significance in the uniform coefficient.)