Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up? Forum

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barkschool

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by barkschool » Thu Sep 29, 2016 11:39 pm

KissMyAxe wrote:Not every school has a last in the class. At my school, there will be quite a number of people with 4 Ps at the end of their first year. If you do finish like that, you can pretty much kiss feeder clerkships good bye, but everything else is still on the table. You definitely want as many H's as you can get, but people regularly land V5 firms and great clerkships with very low grades, provided they have professors go to bat for them and they aren't terribly socially awkward. I'd imagine it's similar with other schools in the T14 that do not have real grades.
we established earlier we weren't talking about H

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jbagelboy

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by jbagelboy » Thu Sep 29, 2016 11:41 pm

barkschool wrote:
KissMyAxe wrote:Not every school has a last in the class. At my school, there will be quite a number of people with 4 Ps at the end of their first year. If you do finish like that, you can pretty much kiss feeder clerkships good bye, but everything else is still on the table. You definitely want as many H's as you can get, but people regularly land V5 firms and great clerkships with very low grades, provided they have professors go to bat for them and they aren't terribly socially awkward. I'd imagine it's similar with other schools in the T14 that do not have real grades.
we established earlier we weren't talking about H
actually he's at Y

barkschool

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by barkschool » Thu Sep 29, 2016 11:43 pm

jbagelboy wrote:
barkschool wrote:
KissMyAxe wrote:Not every school has a last in the class. At my school, there will be quite a number of people with 4 Ps at the end of their first year. If you do finish like that, you can pretty much kiss feeder clerkships good bye, but everything else is still on the table. You definitely want as many H's as you can get, but people regularly land V5 firms and great clerkships with very low grades, provided they have professors go to bat for them and they aren't terribly socially awkward. I'd imagine it's similar with other schools in the T14 that do not have real grades.
we established earlier we weren't talking about H
actually he's at Y
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jbagelboy

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by jbagelboy » Thu Sep 29, 2016 11:44 pm

KissMyAxe wrote:Not every school has a last in the class. At my school, there will be quite a number of people with 4 Ps at the end of their first year. If you do finish like that, you can pretty much kiss feeder clerkships good bye, but everything else is still on the table. You definitely want as many H's as you can get, but people regularly land V5 firms and great clerkships with very low grades, provided they have professors go to bat for them and they aren't terribly socially awkward. I'd imagine it's similar with other schools in the T14 that do not have real grades.
its not true though. there's a big difference between YLS, where GPAs are not calculated for the first semester, and Berkeley, Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, and other schools with alternative grading schemes, where the firms that are competitive will calculate GPAs regardless. Don't think that having H/P instead of A/B means your grades aren't being considered or calculated

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Offline » Fri Sep 30, 2016 2:31 am

i graduated at median and that means 50% of my class graduated with the same GPA or better because my school doesn't fail anyone.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 30, 2016 6:50 pm

The person who was last at my state flagship sells arts, t-shirts, etc. on Etsy. Not even exaggerating. There were some others near the bottom and they do not practice law. They went on to different fields such as real estate, policy/lobbying/aid work in DC.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 30, 2016 10:16 pm

Know of a mid t-14er who was sub 3.0 (bottom 20% or 10%) who had 4 market offers in NYC V30-50. Nothing spectacular in term of work experience or as an interviewer. But not super awkward either.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 01, 2016 1:06 am

had a couple friends at duke with below a 3.0 who got v100 gigs in nyc

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kellyfrost

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by kellyfrost » Sat Oct 01, 2016 8:32 am

Anonymous User wrote:The person who was last at my state flagship sells arts, t-shirts, etc. on Etsy. Not even exaggerating. There were some others near the bottom and they do not practice law. They went on to different fields such as real estate, policy/lobbying/aid work in DC.
How do you know that person was last?
Last edited by kellyfrost on Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 01, 2016 9:01 am

kellyfrost wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:The person who was last at my state flagship sells arts, t-shirts, etc. on Etsy. Not even exaggerating. There were some others near the bottom and they do not practice law. They went on to different fields such as real estate, policy/lobbying/aid work in DC.
How do you know that person was last?
We had mutual friends who were close to that person. Obviously, I cannot confirm that, but I do not know why the person that is last would make that up.

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kellyfrost

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by kellyfrost » Wed Dec 21, 2016 1:36 am

Bump this thread.
Last edited by kellyfrost on Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by hagoomata » Wed Dec 21, 2016 4:08 am

Tagging as a pessimistic 1L.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Dec 21, 2016 1:11 pm

BrazilBandit wrote:
Ken Kesey wrote:
That dude went to Texas Tech, so not hook'em
I got to UT myself, so that's good to hear...
He's an Aggie. Tech doesn't claim its law school students.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Dec 21, 2016 1:19 pm

Graduated in the bottom 20% of a T25. Landed market-paying big law job in a major market (NY/DC). Not vault ranked and just below the Amlaw 100. My route was not traditional, however, and I worry about how this could affect me moving forward as I hate my current biglaw job, but I don't know who else would take me at this point.

Bittersweet.
Last edited by Anonymous User on Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:14 pm

I knew the person who graduated dead last in my class at a top 25 school. He was >75 percentile LSAT, and he was a very bright guy, but he struggled with focus and personal issues. He was the only person I knew who failed the bar, so that wrenched his short term plans, and he decided not to take the next bar. He caught on with a debt recovery company, then resurfaced teaching at a middle school.

As far as the rest of the bottom of my class, every single one turned down a job in my rural DA office. While it is true that bottom of the class likely won't get traction in Philadelphia, New York, LA, and so on, as long as you can pass the bar, you can work as an attorney somewhere.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:59 pm

Graduated from T25 in bottom 20%, passed the bar easily and employed shortly after graduating at the AG in major market (philly/chi/ny). I never had trouble getting good positions throughout law school, had 5 "legal" positions with multiple being paid.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Dec 21, 2016 3:32 pm

For those near the bottom of the curve at a school with a B+ median, life is made easier because their grades probably won't stand out as unusual when paired against below-median folk from schools still using a B curve.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Dec 21, 2016 4:21 pm

I've seen grades for bottom 1/3 students at TTT schools that have a B- curve. Brutal compared to schools with a 3.3 curve or around there.

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emkay625

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by emkay625 » Wed Dec 21, 2016 5:22 pm

kellyfrost wrote:
arklaw13 wrote:
Traynor Brah wrote:Steve Susman?
Dude actually had the highest GPA in the history of UT law.
Highest GPA in the history of UT? Has no one ever graduated with a 4.0 before?
Back in the day, UT did grades out of 100, and no one ever got 100s. My understanding is that even like 95 was freaking unheard of on an exam.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by 1styearlateral » Wed Dec 21, 2016 5:44 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I've seen grades for bottom 1/3 students at TTT schools that have a B- curve. Brutal compared to schools with a 3.3 curve or around there.
Yeah, I was pretty surprised to see the inflated grades at some of the T14. Can't believe there's people in the bottom 70% of the class with 3.4s.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by favabeansoup » Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:31 pm

emkay625 wrote:
kellyfrost wrote:
arklaw13 wrote:
Traynor Brah wrote:Steve Susman?
Dude actually had the highest GPA in the history of UT law.
Highest GPA in the history of UT? Has no one ever graduated with a 4.0 before?
Back in the day, UT did grades out of 100, and no one ever got 100s. My understanding is that even like 95 was freaking unheard of on an exam.
A+s at UT are above a 4.0, I can't remember if it's 4.3 or something. There were at least a few people in my class who graduated with GPAs above 4.0.

Curve breakers f' em.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Dec 22, 2016 10:15 am

I am a 2013 grad, bottom 25% at a law school ranked in the 20s. Now in-house at a fortune 500 company. Focused on a niche area of law with high demand.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by RaceJudicata » Thu Dec 22, 2016 11:31 am

favabeansoup wrote:
emkay625 wrote:
kellyfrost wrote:
arklaw13 wrote:
Traynor Brah wrote:Steve Susman?
Dude actually had the highest GPA in the history of UT law.
Highest GPA in the history of UT? Has no one ever graduated with a 4.0 before?
Back in the day, UT did grades out of 100, and no one ever got 100s. My understanding is that even like 95 was freaking unheard of on an exam.
A+s at UT are above a 4.0, I can't remember if it's 4.3 or something. There were at least a few people in my class who graduated with GPAs above 4.0.

Curve breakers f' hook em.

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Re: Where do the people who graduate last in the class end up?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Dec 22, 2016 8:57 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I'm pretty close to bottom of the class at a T14 (and will probably get closer after my last two additional semesters of not caring) and will be going into market paying biglaw.
UPDATE: I was right, WAY closer (including a C). Currently in (as it turns out) above-market paying Biglaw. I understand I'm pretty lucky, but lol.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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