Darn you all. I'm going. Forum

[elmagic]

Do people not grade-on at NU? Seems crazy that a 3.9+ isn't enough to grade on. Anyway, if all you want is biglaw then you should probably stay at NU. If you want other things like clerkships, I'd transfer to Harvard, cause I mean no LR seems like pretty much a killer for really good clerkships. Idk if I was an interviewer and saw a dude with a 3.9+ from NU interviewing at Harvard's EIP I'd be like wtf dude, why did you transfer. So make sure you have a good answer.

No grade ons.
36 seats. 10 are pure writing. 26 are half writing and half grades. The 26 get filled first.

Cray cray, that's kind of messed up, cause obviously you get people like OP who have really high grades but miss the cut.

[Holly Golightly]

Cray cray, that's kind of messed up, cause obviously you get people like OP who have really high grades but miss the cut.

Why is that messed up? If you don't have the skills to succeed at the writeon competition, you don't have the skills for law review. Getting good grades in issue spotter exams has absolutely nothing to do with being able to grammar and cite check. 100% grade-on makes no sense to me at all.

[rayiner]

Depends on what market you're goin for. I get the sense that especially at top NYC firms, Harvard does quite a bit better than NU.

The top NYC firms recruit at NU and have no reason to treat a 3.9 NU -> HLS transfer differently than a 3.9 at NU.

[vanwinkle]

Depends on what market you're goin for. I get the sense that especially at top NYC firms, Harvard does quite a bit better than NU.

The top NYC firms recruit at NU and have no reason to treat a 3.9 NU -> HLS transfer differently than a 3.9 at NU.

And yet, some do. It's not an enormous difference, but many top firms seem to particularly love H transfers. It may be because of how competitive it is. After all, even being 3.9 at NU doesn't guarantee you'd have gotten accepted as a transfer.

Based on what OP said, they should transfer.

[elmagic]

Cray cray, that's kind of messed up, cause obviously you get people like OP who have really high grades but miss the cut.

Why is that messed up? If you don't have the skills to succeed at the writeon competition, you don't have the skills for law review. Getting good grades in issue spotter exams has absolutely nothing to do with being able to grammar and cite check. 100% grade-on makes no sense to me at all.

I guess you are right, you have to be pretty bad at grammar/cite check to be in the top 5% of your class and still not make it onto law review.

[lawyerkobe]

Cray cray, that's kind of messed up, cause obviously you get people like OP who have really high grades but miss the cut.

Why is that messed up? If you don't have the skills to succeed at the writeon competition, you don't have the skills for law review. Getting good grades in issue spotter exams has absolutely nothing to do with being able to grammar and cite check. 100% grade-on makes no sense to me at all.

I guess you are right, you have to be pretty bad at grammar/cite check to be in the top 5% of your class and still not make it onto law review.

Not really. There are 26 spots that count grades as half. The class is 260. So 10% is 26.
So you figure a top 5% is 13th. So if another 14 do better on the writing enough to cancel out the advantage she has from grades, that does it. If we figure they roughly do the percentiles on the writing also, then she'd have to be past the top 15% of the writers to miss it. That's not crazy.
Add in that they teach ALWD citation in 1L, but the competition is in bluebook, and it's not crazy at all.

[rayiner]

Depends on what market you're goin for. I get the sense that especially at top NYC firms, Harvard does quite a bit better than NU.

The top NYC firms recruit at NU and have no reason to treat a 3.9 NU -> HLS transfer differently than a 3.9 at NU.

And yet, some do. It's not an enormous difference, but many top firms seem to particularly love H transfers. It may be because of how competitive it is. After all, even being 3.9 at NU doesn't guarantee you'd have gotten accepted as a transfer.

Based on what OP said, they should transfer.

What firms? With a 3.9 at NU, you're basically a lock at any NYC firm besides Wachtell and maybe Boies. Does Wachtell hire HLS transfers?

[keg411]

The reminder of NU's curve is making me second guess choosing Michigan .

[lawyerkobe]

Depends on what market you're goin for. I get the sense that especially at top NYC firms, Harvard does quite a bit better than NU.

The top NYC firms recruit at NU and have no reason to treat a 3.9 NU -> HLS transfer differently than a 3.9 at NU.

And yet, some do. It's not an enormous difference, but many top firms seem to particularly love H transfers. It may be because of how competitive it is. After all, even being 3.9 at NU doesn't guarantee you'd have gotten accepted as a transfer.

Based on what OP said, they should transfer.

What firms? With a 3.9 at NU, you're basically a lock at any NYC firm besides Wachtell and maybe Boies. Does Wachtell hire HLS transfers?

Like I said, I'm not too concerned about the firm job on either choice.
It's more a why not- there's only what to gain, choice.

[bdubs]

Cray cray, that's kind of messed up, cause obviously you get people like OP who have really high grades but miss the cut.

Why is that messed up? If you don't have the skills to succeed at the writeon competition, you don't have the skills for law review. Getting good grades in issue spotter exams has absolutely nothing to do with being able to grammar and cite check. 100% grade-on makes no sense to me at all.

I guess you are right, you have to be pretty bad at grammar/cite check to be in the top 5% of your class and still not make it onto law review.

Not really. There are 26 spots that count grades as half. The class is 260. So 10% is 26.
So you figure a top 5% is 13th. So if another 14 do better on the writing enough to cancel out the advantage she has from grades, that does it. If we figure they roughly do the percentiles on the writing also, then she'd have to be past the top 15% of the writers to miss it. That's not crazy.
Add in that they teach ALWD citation in 1L, but the competition is in bluebook, and it's not crazy at all.

Does anyone know what the approximate ranks of current or former law review staff are?

Are there many people who get onto LR with the combo of grades and writing that are below top 1/3?

[lawyerkobe]

Update: HLS tossed me 30k, making the only difference in price a somewhat higher cost of living.
And I suppose next year may be more expensive, since I will hopefully have more summer earnings.

[rayiner]

Why is that messed up? If you don't have the skills to succeed at the writeon competition, you don't have the skills for law review. Getting good grades in issue spotter exams has absolutely nothing to do with being able to grammar and cite check. 100% grade-on makes no sense to me at all.

I guess you are right, you have to be pretty bad at grammar/cite check to be in the top 5% of your class and still not make it onto law review.

Not really. There are 26 spots that count grades as half. The class is 260. So 10% is 26.
So you figure a top 5% is 13th. So if another 14 do better on the writing enough to cancel out the advantage she has from grades, that does it. If we figure they roughly do the percentiles on the writing also, then she'd have to be past the top 15% of the writers to miss it. That's not crazy.
Add in that they teach ALWD citation in 1L, but the competition is in bluebook, and it's not crazy at all.

Does anyone know what the approximate ranks of current or former law review staff are?

Are there many people who get onto LR with the combo of grades and writing that are below top 1/3?

Law review is top 1% with okay writing to top 35% with very strong writing + those with superlative writing regardless of grades.

[Glock]

I'm really surprised about how soft NU's curve must be at the top to have that many 3.9+. Georgetown's is much, much tighter.

3-5% must get an A+ in each class.

Are you kidding or is that the truth?

Actually I was wrong. It's 3-7%. http://www.law.northwestern.edu/academi ... olicy.html

That is a very interesting policy that causes some serious grade inflation. It does not matter much because everybody is ranked and such, but it does matter some because it is harder to recover from any low grades.

NU has all types of A at 25% minimum, 37% maximum. Importantly 3-7% of those NU A's are A+. My school is 2% max A+, 25% max A's of any kind and this puts the 10% somewhere around 3.6. Professors at NU appear to have more discretion than at my school. Anybody care to share how they use it? Is the curve closer to the minimum or maximum number of A's given.

[vanwinkle]

Update: HLS tossed me 30k, making the only difference in price a somewhat higher cost of living.

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

[Transferthrowaway]

Update: HLS tossed me 30k, making the only difference in price a somewhat higher cost of living.

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

He is over 26 and able to make himself look poor and thus eligible to receive grants.

[lawyerkobe]

Update: HLS tossed me 30k, making the only difference in price a somewhat higher cost of living.

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

He is over 26 and able to make himself look poor and thus eligible to receive grants.

heh?

[rayiner]

3-5% must get an A+ in each class.

Are you kidding or is that the truth?

Actually I was wrong. It's 3-7%. http://www.law.northwestern.edu/academi ... olicy.html

That is a very interesting policy that causes some serious grade inflation. It does not matter much because everybody is ranked and such, but it does matter some because it is harder to recover from any low grades.

NU has all types of A at 25% minimum, 37% maximum. Importantly 3-7% of those NU A's are A+. My school is 2% max A+, 25% max A's of any kind and this puts the 10% somewhere around 3.6. Professors at NU appear to have more discretion than at my school. Anybody care to share how they use it? Is the curve closer to the minimum or maximum number of A's given.

The NU curve tends to help those at the top of the class. It creates a much more noticible spread between top 1/3, top 1/4, top 10%, top 5%. It also makes it easier to recover from a single really terrible grade if you otherwise consistently make A/A+. On the flip side I think it makes median folks look relatively worse.

[lawyerkobe]

Update: HLS tossed me 30k, making the only difference in price a somewhat higher cost of living.

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

It's an Olympic sport. The 30k toss.

[sunynp]

Update: HLS tossed me 30k, making the only difference in price a somewhat higher cost of living.

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

It's an Olympic sport. The 30k toss.

You may not realize that should you go to Harvard some of the mods here will be your classmates. (or a year ahead of you.)

[lawgod]

Update: HLS tossed me 30k, making the only difference in price a somewhat higher cost of living.

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

It's an Olympic sport. The 30k toss.

You may not realize that should you go to Harvard some of the mods here will be your classmates. (or a year ahead of you.)

The heck? You have to go to Harvard to be a TLS mod also?

[abl]

Um...in what universe will your biglaw chances be better out of NU than HLS? Or did I read that incorrectly?

[Lieut Kaffee]

I have a hard time believing this is a good grading policy. It just devalues the high GPA, and firms/clerkships are going to look primarily at where you are in the class anyway.

You're missing the best part. They have no idea where we are in the class. #winning.

[vanwinkle]

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

It's an Olympic sport. The 30k toss.

Here's how the above reads to me:

What kind of BS is this? Are you trolling?

Yes. Yes, I am.

[lawyerkobe]

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

It's an Olympic sport. The 30k toss.

Here's how the above reads to me:

What kind of BS is this? Are you trolling?

Yes. Yes, I am.

I'm not sure what the issue is. H has need based scholarships, and if you are over a certain age, they don't count your parents income. Thus, most people over whatever age, get some money.

Update: HLS tossed me 30k, making the only difference in price a somewhat higher cost of living.

What does this mean? They "tossed" you 30k?

It's an Olympic sport. The 30k toss.

You may not realize that should you go to Harvard some of the mods here will be your classmates. (or a year ahead of you.)

Ok. Is that an issue? Do the mods not like poor people?

[vanwinkle]

I'm not sure what the issue is. H has need based scholarships, and if you are over a certain age, they don't count your parents income. Thus, most people over whatever age, get some money.

I know how the system works. I've been through it.

Ok. Is that an issue? Do the mods not like poor people?

This isn't amusing, and I don't like liars or trolls.