Why do law firms look at undergrad transcripts? Forum

[Anonymous User]

What it says: Why do law firms look at undergraduate transcripts? I know most don't, but I've also had mine requested more than once. Not IP.

personal concern: For reasons (sports, hard science major) my grades were lower in undergrad. Since they're looking at them, I expect this to be a problem.

[goldeneye]

What it says: Why do law firms look at undergraduate transcripts? I know most don't, but I've also had mine requested more than once. Not IP.

personal concern: For reasons (sports, hard science major) my grades were lower in undergrad. Since they're looking at them, I expect this to be a problem.

Don't worry about what you can't change. No need to put the GPA on your résumé. Send transcript if they want it. I know friends with V10 offers who left it off, and one who got an callback interview with Cravath, who is known for caring.

[Anonymous User]

What it says: Why do law firms look at undergraduate transcripts? I know most don't, but I've also had mine requested more than once. Not IP.

personal concern: For reasons (sports, hard science major) my grades were lower in undergrad. Since they're looking at them, I expect this to be a problem.

Don't worry about what you can't change. No need to put the GPA on your résumé. Send transcript if they want it. I know friends with V10 offers who left it off, and one who got an callback interview with Cravath, who is known for caring.

My only V10 offer came from Cravath and my undergrad grades were mediocre at best. Don't worry about it.

[Anonymous User]

Why? Because someone that takes part in the hiring process thinks they are valuable in some way, probably because they think it helps measure intelligence or work ethic (similar to why they might care about your law school grades). But the truth is you probably shouldn't worry about it. If your UGPA sucks don't affirmatively disclose it but if they ask you don't really have a choice.

Since your post implies you are a 2L or a 3L, the one piece of substantive advice I have is pointless but I'll say it anyways for current and future 1Ls: lots of firms ask for undergrad transcripts for people who apply as 1Ls (which makes sense because they often have 1 or even 0 semester's worth of law school grades), but for the most part most firms don't ask for undergrad transcripts from people who apply as 2Ls. If your UGPA is below 3.0, you might be better off not applying to 1L SAs because those firms will then have your UGPA on file when you apply during 2L OCI when they probably wouldn't even know about it if you hadn't applied as a 1L. I know for a fact that this torpedoed me in one 2L OCI interview and I suspect that it may have torpedoed in others. Keep that in mind if you have a UGPA below 3.0 and you are considering applying to firms as a 1L. If your UGPA is above 3.0, I'd say it doesn't matter. Your above 3.0 UGPA might not get you a 1L SA, but it is unlikely to get you reamed during 2L OCI.

[Anonymous User]

In my experience, its mostly firms hiring for patent practice that want UG transcripts. I think the idea is to make sure you actually have the hard science background that you claim you have/your grades in your sciences classes weren't total garbage.