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I'm a 1L at Upenn, grades just came out. mine look like this: B,B,B,B-

what does this mean for summer employment.

what am i supposed to say in interviews?

Do firms/judges have a cut-off point in terms of GPA?

your school will go a long way especially in local federal internships with judges. not competing with a lot of other schools there. B's at Penn is not bad. Eitherway as far as employment, I'm told the level of judge is not as important to employers at OCI as long as you land something legal related. basically you want something to talk about at OCI. as far as fall OCI prospects, it is hard to say this early but B's in first semester is nothing to really worry about. if you can work harder and get some B+'s and A-'s next semester then you're in good shape. go to your prof's and go over your exams. it's usually how you write the exam and not what know that makes the difference b/w B's and B+'s or A-'s.

Any type of public interest internships will be open to you.

THANK YOU

pennlaw2012 wrote:I'm a 1L at Upenn, grades just came out. mine look like this: B,B,B,B-

what does this mean for summer employment.

what am i supposed to say in interviews?

Do firms/judges have a cut-off point in terms of GPA?

What are classes curved to?

Kohinoor wrote:

pennlaw2012 wrote:I'm a 1L at Upenn, grades just came out. mine look like this: B,B,B,B-

what does this mean for summer employment.

what am i supposed to say in interviews?

Do firms/judges have a cut-off point in terms of GPA?

What are classes curved to?

They refuse to tell us.

the aspirational curve is 3.3... and the registrar tries its best to make that the median GPA.

OP: take a look at the grade distributions of the 1L classes - there are binders in the registrar that have that information. Once you get a good picture of the distribution across each class, you'll get a good idea of how GPAs are distributed...

darkarmour wrote:the aspirational curve is 3.3... and the registrar tries its best to make that the median GPA.

OP: take a look at the grade distributions of the 1L classes - there are binders in the registrar that have that information. Once you get a good picture of the distribution across each class, you'll get a good idea of how GPAs are distributed...

Thanks for the tip. Now how do I go look at these without revealing to the world that I'm a secret gunner?

pennlaw2012 wrote:I'm a 1L at Upenn, grades just came out. mine look like this: B,B,B,B-

what does this mean for summer employment.

what am i supposed to say in interviews?

Do firms/judges have a cut-off point in terms of GPA?

I'm pretty sure you are below median.

Way below.

I know that Georgetown has a bottom 5% = B-.

I'm sure that Penn has a better curve than that.

So....

Don't feel bad - my second grade wasn't that hot (I only have 2/4 grades!!! FML!)

kurla88 wrote:

darkarmour wrote:the aspirational curve is 3.3... and the registrar tries its best to make that the median GPA.

OP: take a look at the grade distributions of the 1L classes - there are binders in the registrar that have that information. Once you get a good picture of the distribution across each class, you'll get a good idea of how GPAs are distributed...

Thanks for the tip. Now how do I go look at these without revealing to the world that I'm a secret gunner?

they are right on the front table in the office, everyone looks at them....no gunner worries...now if your in the office and you yell "is it unusual to get 4 A+s?" that is gunning...and ya the Penn curve is around a 3.3, with more Bs then A-s

Aberzombie1892 wrote:

pennlaw2012 wrote:I'm a 1L at Upenn, grades just came out. mine look like this: B,B,B,B-

what does this mean for summer employment.

what am i supposed to say in interviews?

Do firms/judges have a cut-off point in terms of GPA?

I'm pretty sure you are below median.

Way below.

I know that Georgetown has a bottom 5% = B-.

I'm sure that Penn has a better curve than that.

So....

Don't feel bad - my second grade wasn't that hot (I only have 2/4 grades!!! FML!)

Ya, Penn's curve is higher the Georgetown's

ok so basically i'm in the bottom half of the class. Not sure yet how far, but I'll find out soon.

So i have job interview coming up and i have to bring my transcript. How much is this going to kill my prospects?

pennlaw2012 wrote:ok so basically i'm in the bottom half of the class. Not sure yet how far, but I'll find out soon.

So i have job interview coming up and i have to bring my transcript. How much is this going to kill my prospects?

Will the answer to this question change absolutely anything about your approach to the job interview?

You're at Penn. I'm sure you'll be fine.

my guess is that you won't have any problem. I personally think (absent complete and utter failure in all classes), you will have more opportunities than 80% of us. You made it to UPenn and that in itself will attract a lot of potential employers. So don't worry too much. Just focus on next semester and try to do better. Also, be flexible in geographic location. I think that you will be able to find good work, so long as you keep an open-mind and are flexible.

pennlaw2012 wrote:ok so basically i'm in the bottom half of the class. Not sure yet how far, but I'll find out soon.

So i have job interview coming up and i have to bring my transcript. How much is this going to kill my prospects?

I think you're in the bottom third... or at the border between bottom third and the middle third. =(

I would echo advice already given: be extremely flexible with geographic location. Mail-merge-spam federal judges in Iowa, or something. With an excellent second semester, you can pull yourself up to the median, which will keep firms from automatically shredding your resume. Keep your eye on Symplicity, and apply to everything that interests you.

I'm not sure there are too many jobs available anyway, regardless of your GPA. I've only heard of one or two people at Penn having any luck for summer yet. So your grades may not matter much, anyway. There's always an unpaid internship. That's what I'm gunning for.

caoyun wrote:I'm not sure there are too many jobs available anyway, regardless of your GPA. I've only heard of one or two people at Penn having any luck for summer yet. So your grades may not matter much, anyway. There's always an unpaid internship. That's what I'm gunning for.

It's also impossible to calculate your GPA when you only have two of your grades. Somehow our Torts professor was the only professor in the school to not get their grades in, despite the fact that he had half the exams to grade as all the other professors.

sperry wrote:

caoyun wrote:I'm not sure there are too many jobs available anyway, regardless of your GPA. I've only heard of one or two people at Penn having any luck for summer yet. So your grades may not matter much, anyway. There's always an unpaid internship. That's what I'm gunning for.

It's also impossible to calculate your GPA when you only have two of your grades. Somehow our Torts professor was the only professor in the school to not get their grades in, despite the fact that he had half the exams to grade as all the other professors.

How do you only have two of your grades? You should have three, shouldn't you?

caoyun wrote:

sperry wrote:

caoyun wrote:I'm not sure there are too many jobs available anyway, regardless of your GPA. I've only heard of one or two people at Penn having any luck for summer yet. So your grades may not matter much, anyway. There's always an unpaid internship. That's what I'm gunning for.

It's also impossible to calculate your GPA when you only have two of your grades. Somehow our Torts professor was the only professor in the school to not get their grades in, despite the fact that he had half the exams to grade as all the other professors.

How do you only have two of your grades? You should have three, shouldn't you?

Still missing one, don't know what's up with that.

sperry wrote:

caoyun wrote:

sperry wrote:

caoyun wrote:I'm not sure there are too many jobs available anyway, regardless of your GPA. I've only heard of one or two people at Penn having any luck for summer yet. So your grades may not matter much, anyway. There's always an unpaid internship. That's what I'm gunning for.

It's also impossible to calculate your GPA when you only have two of your grades. Somehow our Torts professor was the only professor in the school to not get their grades in, despite the fact that he had half the exams to grade as all the other professors.

How do you only have two of your grades? You should have three, shouldn't you?

Still missing one, don't know what's up with that.

That sucks. You could still calculate your GPA with the two grades, I guess. Though according to Penn, it's impossible to calculate your GPA... because, apparently, A = 4.00, A- = 3.67... doesn't exist in the world of Penn.

Is the other missing grade section 2 contracts? I don't have that one but my torts is in.

Yeah, pretty obnoxious. If they were so against grades, they could just move to the Yale system.

Shouldn't you just need to graduate at Penn?

chitown825 wrote:Shouldn't you just need to graduate at Penn?

HPYSCCNMVB ftmfw

Kohinoor wrote:

chitown825 wrote:Shouldn't you just need to graduate at Penn?

HPYSCCNMVB ftmfw

I wish

Ya, Penn's curve is higher the Georgetown's

Georgetown just upped its curve. I'm pretty sure they are the same now.