Grade Inflation question Forum

[Anonymous User]

Long story short, I graduated a few years ago, but am looking to switch practice groups. When I graduated, my GPA, 3.4ish, was comfortably median, but my school seems to have implemented insane grade inflation because in order to even be median, current students need over a 3.45 or so.

I’m concerned that I’ll be at a disadvantage when competing against others because my GPA doesn’t look as decent anymore. Is there any way to address this?

As background, I’m already at a large firm and don’t care if I trade up or down.

[jkpolk]

Minor difference in grades very unlikely to matter in your situation.

[QContinuum]

Minor difference in grades very unlikely to matter in your situation.

Agree. OP says the old median was somewhere north of 3.4 (let's just assume 3.40). The new median is ~3.45. So the "insane grade inflation" appears to have raised the median by 0.05 at most. OP's GPA is still approximately at median even compared to the new grads. It won't make any difference.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. My graduation year, cum laude (top third) was a 3.46, and now its a 3.52 or so. So, though it’s not a major jump, from my school, it is a significant difference. Should’ve clarified before.

[QContinuum]

But anyone who was cum laude when they graduated - say, with a 3.48 GPA - will still be cum laude now, notwithstanding the new GPA cutoff. Anyone who wasn't will still not be. So I'm still not seeing the problem. Especially so for you, since you graduated "a few years ago." If you were looking to lateral today, you wouldn't be competing against members of the class of 2019 (or even 2018) for jobs. You'd be competing with folks who graduated roughly the same year you did, maybe plus/minus one year. And by the time you get senior enough that you might be competing with members of the class of 2019/2018 for the same positions, you'd all be so far out of law school that no one would care about your grades at all.

And in any case, this isn't even a really huge jump, like a school that used to curve to a 2.8 median now curving to 3.3 median. This is a 0.05 adjustment. Even assuming that you graduated with, say, a 3.41, and you would've graduated with a 3.46 under the new curve (not a guarantee, since grade ranges are "chunky" after all), I assure you you wouldn't have any edge in the job market with a 3.46 vs. a 3.41 GPA. No employer is going to notice (let alone care). We're not talking 3.4 vs. 3.9.