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Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:07 pm
by Anonymous User
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Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:10 pm
by goldeneye
Anonymous User wrote:So I'm caught in a dilemma here regarding grades for OCI.
My law school website allows for 2 ways to view one's grades. There's an "unofficial transcript" view, and a "class view". The unofficial transcript displays my fall grades first, and the classes view displays my spring grades first. At first glance, my grades on the class view look like they belong to a far better student, since you see the spring grades on the top of the page. My dilemma, however, is that employers request that you bring an unofficial transcript to the interview.
I’m assuming that a request for a transcript is really a proxy for grades. So would I be fine providing the class view form? Also, will it look odd if my grades are displayed in a different manner than others from my class?
So to what extent do interviewers really look at your grades? A quick glance to gauge what kind of student you are, or will they actually line up transcripts? This may sound petty, but I ask because in Spring OCI for 1L, all of the employers quickly glanced at my grades, which makes me want to use the “class view” form.
Unofficial just means classes and grades. It really doesn't matter what it looks like. I made my own in excel.
If they don't believe you, they'll ask for an official.
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:22 pm
by 2014
You will be fine with class view but if everyone else in your class uses the other one the interviewer will probably notice yours looking weird. Who knows what they will do with that though.
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:30 pm
by rpupkin
They're going to notice your Fall grades either way. You're overthinking this.
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:48 pm
by cookiejar1
From my understanding of things the only thing they care about is the cumulative GPA.
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:51 pm
by Anonymous User
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Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:49 pm
by Nelson
I used a cleaned up version where I made my unofficial transcript conform to the formats/fonts of my resume just for my own enjoyment. It doesn't matter though, you're overthinking this. It's not like they're going to miss your fall semester if you put the spring one first, it's only 7-8 grades and they're going to look at all of them.
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:25 pm
by Anonymous User
Thanks
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:11 am
by Pleasye
Best case scenario: employer sees your spring grades and then your fall grades
Worst case scenario: employer notices you're trying to be misleading and thinks you're a sketchball
Not worth it, IMO.
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:04 am
by Anonymous User
Nelson wrote:I used a cleaned up version where I made my unofficial transcript conform to the formats/fonts of my resume just for my own enjoyment.
Do this--put your spring grades above your fall grades in your résumé format. It will conform to your résumé format in typeface as well as chronology; your most recent achievements are up top right? So the order could be rationalized by the fact that everything else is in that order. Also, I don't think it's unethical to present your presumably more meaningful accomplishment up top. Like...can someone pinpoint why it's unethical? I can't.
I doubt this will be viewed negatively. What would be negative, perhaps psychologically?, is if you have a 1.5 page transcript and a portion of your good grades are on the second page; I'd be surprised if they overlook it entirely, but it's possible right, especially if they are shuffling through papers on a busy day. If it's a 1 page transcript, I don't think this reordering is really necessary.
Eta: didn't mean to anon. This is igo2northwestern.
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 10:10 am
by dixiecupdrinking
Find out what everyone normally does at your school. Do that.
Don't insult your interviewer's intelligence by hoping they'll miss your worse grades.
And don't call more attention to a flaw by doing something unorthodox to minimize it.
Re: Transcript Dilemma: How do law firms evaluate your grades?
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:21 pm
by applepiecrust
Anonymous User wrote: I doubt this will be viewed negatively. What would be negative, perhaps psychologically?, is if you have a 1.5 page transcript and a portion of your good grades are on the second page; I'd be surprised if they overlook it entirely, but it's possible right, especially if they are shuffling through papers on a busy day. If it's a 1 page transcript, I don't think this reordering is really necessary.
Eta: didn't mean to anon. This is igo2northwestern.
Don't let the bolded happen: Michigan summer starters should definitely look out for that (especially since your cumulative GPA will also be on the second page of the 2 page transcript and the interviewer will glance at your 1L summer grades first (and mine were not good so that might've hurt me)) (sorry -- off-track)