Percentile cut-offs at HLS Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know what they are? What would be top 5%? Top 10% (i.e. magna)? Top 20%?

Friend of mine is sitting on a 3.78 and would like to know where she stands as far as recruiting, clerkships, etc. go.

[GeePee]

Anyone know what they are? What would be top 5%? Top 10% (i.e. magna)? Top 20%?

Friend of mine is sitting on a 3.78 and would like to know where she stands as far as recruiting, clerkships, etc. go.

Conjecture suggests something like 3.55-3.6 is cum laude and 3.8-3.9 or so is magna. Is this person a 1L or 2L? It's a little easier to estimate percentages for 1L's since classes are "curved." I'd say something like this:

Median is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-4 H's.

6-7 H's is somewhere between top 1/3 and top 1/4.

8 H's is about top 15-20%.

10 H's is inside of top 5%, and potentially well inside of that depending on the clustering factor.

Obviously, there's no way for us to know in a given year, but given the approximate distributions this is what we have.

[Anonymous User]

We're supposed to factor in another GPA point (aka 5.0) for a DS class, right? I have heard conflicting things about how they calculate, with some saying they use DS as 5.0, and others saying DS is not included in GPA and DS is "tie-break" for people with the same GPA . . . anyone have better knowledge?

Do law firms do the same thing, or do they not really care?

[Anonymous User]

DS counts for a 5.0 when the school calculates GPA for the purpose of awarding Latin honors. You can confirm this on the HLS Academic Handbook website. Not sure whether firms take note of it, though I would imagine they would.

[Anonymous User]

Can someone help me out with an inverse cutoff question? I am trying to figure out how high top 5-10 students at HLS is after 2L year. All Hs with about 6-7 DS?

[Anonymous User]

I think it depends. If you're looking at it purely in terms of H's, with DS's as a tiebreaker, then all Hs with 6-7 DSs might be top 5-10 people. If you're looking at it purely in terms of weighted GPA, then someone might have gotten a P or 2 but have more DS's. But I don't know how rare/likely that is. How many DS's do they actually give out in these big classes? 5 per 80 students or so?

[GeePee]

I think it depends. If you're looking at it purely in terms of H's, with DS's as a tiebreaker, then all Hs with 6-7 DSs might be top 5-10 people. If you're looking at it purely in terms of weighted GPA, then someone might have gotten a P or 2 but have more DS's. But I don't know how rare/likely that is. How many DS's do they actually give out in these big classes? 5 per 80 students or so?

My impression is that 5 would be uncommonly high. When we actually adhered to a curve it was maximum 2, and most professors have continued to abide by that rule.

[adameus]

I think it depends. If you're looking at it purely in terms of H's, with DS's as a tiebreaker, then all Hs with 6-7 DSs might be top 5-10 people. If you're looking at it purely in terms of weighted GPA, then someone might have gotten a P or 2 but have more DS's. But I don't know how rare/likely that is. How many DS's do they actually give out in these big classes? 5 per 80 students or so?

I think all H's with 6 or 7 DS's would be top 1-3 people.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the replies. What about 90% Hs, 20% of which are DS, with the remainder Ps?

[bgdddymtty]

ITT: People demonstrate why moving away from the traditional grading scale is both stupid and futile.

[GeePee]

ITT: People demonstrate why moving away from the traditional grading scale is both stupid and futile.

Yeah, seems like very few people here disagree with you. It seems like the misinformation is more likely to lead to unexpected poor results than fortuitous ones.

[Anonymous User]

Last year's Sears Prize winner had all Hs and 7 DS.

[Anonymous User]

Last year's Sears Prize winner had all Hs and 7 DS.

As a 2L or 1L?

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the replies. What about 90% Hs, 20% of which are DS, with the remainder Ps?

I doubt that you have 1.8 H's (I guess you could be a 2L and have more than 10 classes), but you're probably top 3-4% or so. Really it doesn't matter, because at that stage if you don't get Sears/Fay Diploma/summa cum laude then you're largely indistinguishable from the rest of your classmates who graduate magna.

[Anonymous User]

.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the replies. What about 90% Hs, 20% of which are DS, with the remainder Ps?

largely indistinguishable

This is what is causing me to ask -- the new HLS grading scale is, in a word, impenetrable. The question is not about me, but about someone else. And the grades are after 2L year.

[Anonymous User]

Last year's Sears Prize winner had all Hs and 7 DS.

As a 2L or 1L?

1L.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the replies. What about 90% Hs, 20% of which are DS, with the remainder Ps?

largely indistinguishable

This is what is causing me to ask -- the new HLS grading scale is, in a word, impenetrable. The question is not about me, but about someone else. And the grades are after 2L year.

Also curious about this.

[GeePee]

Thanks for the replies. What about 90% Hs, 20% of which are DS, with the remainder Ps?

largely indistinguishable

This is what is causing me to ask -- the new HLS grading scale is, in a word, impenetrable. The question is not about me, but about someone else. And the grades are after 2L year.

Also curious about this.

I don't even know what the question is anymore.

[Anonymous User]

I don't even know what the question is anymore.

My question is: Where in the class, after 2L year, does someone with "90% Hs, 20% of which are DS, and the remainder Ps" stand? Top 5%? Lower? Higher? I realize a precise computation is not possible.

[englawyer]

top 5% seems like a good guess. magna is probably a lock, probably not summa

[GeePee]

I don't even know what the question is anymore.

My question is: Where in the class, after 2L year, does someone with "90% Hs, 20% of which are DS, and the remainder Ps" stand? Top 5%? Lower? Higher? I realize a precise computation is not possible.

I doubt there are 28 people with better grades. I'd say probably somewhere in the neighborhood of top 2-3% or so.

[Anonymous User]

Last year's Sears Prize winner had all Hs and 7 DS.

As a 1L.

[Anonymous User]

Any rumors about the DS cutoff for top 10 or top 15 students (1Ls) this year? All H with 4, 5, 6 DS? Seems like they gave out more DS this year with no curve.

[Anonymous User]

Any rumors about the DS cutoff for top 10 or top 15 students (1Ls) this year? All H with 4, 5, 6 DS? Seems like they gave out more DS this year with no curve.

Did you see or hear something to this effect? I tend to agree, just wondering if you had seen something about more DSs this year.

Also, I imagine that all Hs with 4 DS has to be top 10-15 in the 1L class; since DSs are supposed to still be relative and almost all (if not all) 1Ls take big classes that sort of have to follow the guidelines for Hs, DSs, Ps, etc.

I would imagine 3-5 DSs would be top 10-15 students; 6-8 DSs would be top 5 students. Maybe somebody got higher than that, but based on last year's sears prize, maybe not.