How should my ranking appear on my resume? Forum

[smizmar]

My school does cutoffs at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 33.3%. I fall in the middle of these. For the sake of my explanation, say my gpa is very close to top 15%, but not. My issue is whether or not I write my rank as:

" GPA (This GPA [the required gpa here] is top 15%)"

or

" GPA (Top 20%)"

Obviously neither of them are a lie, but I am not sure how this will be seen by employers. I want to get across that I am closer to the top 15% than the top 20%, but I am not sure how to accomplish that without sounding disingenuous. What say you?

(This is mostly for clerkships)

edited: for clarity

[Pablo Ramirez]

My school does cutoffs at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 33.3%. I fall in the middle of these. For the sake of my explanation, say my gpa is very close to top 15%, but not. My issue is whether or not I write my rank as:

" GPA (This GPA is top 15%)"

or

" GPA (Top 20%)"

Obviously neither of them are a lie, but I am not sure how this will be seen by employers. I want to get across that I am closer to the top 15% than the top 20%, but I am not sure how to accomplish that without sounding disingenuous. What say you?

(This is mostly for clerkships)

First, if you're not top 15% and you say you are, you're lying. Second, how do you know you're closer to 15 than to 20? If you have the actual percentile, write your percentile (e.g., Top 17%)!

[smizmar]

When I write "This GPA" in the first one, I am going to write the cutoff GPA, not my own.

Also, I know I am near one cutoff and not the other because I know my GPA and I know the requisite GPAs for both cutoffs.

For example... if 3.56 is top 15% and 3.40 is top 20% and you have a 3.54... you know you are very close to the top 15%.

[UnitarySpace]

When I write "This GPA" in the first one, I am going to write the cutoff GPA, not my own.

Also, I know I am near one cutoff and not the other because I know my GPA and I know the requisite GPAs for both cutoffs.

For example... if 3.56 is top 15% and 3.40 is top 20% and you have a 3.54... you know you are very close to the top 15%.

I hate to be an ass, but that isn't necessarily true. there could be enough people between 3.54 and 3.56 so that 3.54 is actually closer to the 20th percentile. I think that's what Pablo Ramirez was getting at.

[smizmar]

Alrighty, I'm not going to argue math or the chances of what you just said being true. I was told to do the first one by my CSO and was just curious if it was common. I'm not trying to be deceptive in any way, I just wanted opinions.

[20160810]

I am currently clerking for a federal appellate judge and have been looking on and off at applications. We won't be hiring until the plan, however, so I haven't been paying close attention.

From what I have seen, people handle your situation both ways, and I think both are fine. Personally, I would choose the "top 20%" approach, since it looks like less of a stretch and thus leaves you with more overall credibility in the reader's eyes. As a third option, you could say: "GPA X.XX (top 20% cutoff: X.YY)."

Regardless of what you do, definitely make it easy to identif your approximate rank. It is beyond annoying to have to search through an app for an indication of class standing. If you are at a school that doesn't give out class standing info, try to at least include the grading scale/curve with your transcript. And for the love, if you attend Chicago, Boalt, or one of the other schools with a non-traditional grading scheme, try to convince your recommenders to comment on where you stand in their letters of recommendation. Otherwise, you are at risk of being passed over simply because nobody can tell how good your grades are.

My god your username and avatar... so, so perfect...

[Anonymous User]

I am currently clerking for a federal appellate judge and have been looking on and off at applications. We won't be hiring until the plan, however, so I haven't been paying close attention.

From what I have seen, people handle your situation both ways, and I think both are fine. Personally, I would choose the "top 20%" approach, since it looks like less of a stretch and thus leaves you with more overall credibility in the reader's eyes. As a third option, you could say: "GPA X.XX (top 20% cutoff: X.YY)."

Regardless of what you do, definitely make it easy to identif your approximate rank. It is beyond annoying to have to search through an app for an indication of class standing. If you are at a school that doesn't give out class standing info, try to at least include the grading scale/curve with your transcript. And for the love, if you attend Chicago, Boalt, or one of the other schools with a non-traditional grading scheme, try to convince your recommenders to comment on where you stand in their letters of recommendation. Otherwise, you are at risk of being passed over simply because nobody can tell how good your grades are.

I second the inclusion of the GPA cutoff. I was in a similar situation, except my school only releases three cutoff points. I was way above one, and close to the other, and career service simply recommended saying "top XX%," even though this alone might give a conservative impression of my class placement. I rejected this as stupid, and included the cutoff on my resume. Since the band you're looking at is fairly narrow (only 5%), it's probably not as important.

[trialjunky]

smoosh! GTL, Grenade launchers....

Is all I see and read when I see your tar and username and it is...amazing

[smizmar]

Thanks guys, this was all very helpful.

[Bosque]

Regardless of what you do, definitely make it easy to identif your approximate rank. It is beyond annoying to have to search through an app for an indication of class standing. If you are at a school that doesn't give out class standing info, try to at least include the grading scale/curve with your transcript. And for the love, if you attend Chicago, Boalt, or one of the other schools with a non-traditional grading scheme, try to convince your recommenders to comment on where you stand in their letters of recommendation. Otherwise, you are at risk of being passed over simply because nobody can tell how good your grades are.

Do not, I repeat, do NOT do the bolded with out talking to your CSO first. At a lot of schools that do not rank, it is an honor code violation to speculate as to what your rank might be. Honor Code violations are serious buisness, and you do not want to get one.

[Anonymous User]

Regardless of what you do, definitely make it easy to identif your approximate rank. It is beyond annoying to have to search through an app for an indication of class standing. If you are at a school that doesn't give out class standing info, try to at least include the grading scale/curve with your transcript. And for the love, if you attend Chicago, Boalt, or one of the other schools with a non-traditional grading scheme, try to convince your recommenders to comment on where you stand in their letters of recommendation. Otherwise, you are at risk of being passed over simply because nobody can tell how good your grades are.

Do not, I repeat, do NOT do the bolded with out talking to your CSO first. At a lot of schools that do not rank, it is an honor code violation to speculate as to what your rank might be. Honor Code violations are serious buisness, and you do not want to get one.

I don't understand what you mean, Bosque. I didn't intend to suggest that applicants should "speculate" as to their class rank, and I don't think the bolded language above is susceptible to that interpretation either. Instead, I meant to say that applicants should attach a copy of the grading scale info from their school if such info is available. Most schools put this on the back of official transcripts or publish it online. For example, Duke's scale is available here: http://www.law.duke.edu/curriculum/rules/gradingpolicy.

I do agree that people shouldn't make stuff up about their rank, though. This is an area where recommenders can really help out.

[This is G. T. L. Rev., by the way. I don't know how I ended up posting it anonymously]