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GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:22 pm
by Metfan
Can't seem to find this information anywhere. Anyone have any information as to what previous years cutoffs have been for top 10 percent?

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:26 pm
by Teoeo
3.713 - --LinkRemoved--

You a fellow 1L at our fair school?

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:32 pm
by Encyclopedia Brown
Teoeo wrote:3.713 - --LinkRemoved--

You a fellow 1L at our fair school?
If so, please take into account the fact that those cutoffs were for GPA at graduation. Cutoffs after first semester/year are probably a little different.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:39 pm
by dudders
Oh man I was just looking at the NALP data and I almost died before I realized I was looking at entering GPA percentiles, not law school GPA.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:59 pm
by Metfan
Encyclopedia Brown wrote:
Teoeo wrote:3.713 - --LinkRemoved--

You a fellow 1L at our fair school?
If so, please take into account the fact that those cutoffs were for GPA at graduation. Cutoffs after first semester/year are probably a little different.
I am a fellow 1L. Do you think the 1L grade would be lower or higher?

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:11 am
by Borhas
just go ask your records office

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:14 am
by Encyclopedia Brown
Metfan wrote:I am a fellow 1L. Do you think the 1L grade would be lower or higher?
No clue. My instinct says lower, because I would think GPA would rise over the second two years due to friendlier curves, easier skills courses, ability to select classes in which you might perform better, and just being more familiar in general with exams. 1Ls have fewer grades overall, however, which leads to more clusters of students with identical GPAs at all levels--I'm not sure what effect that would have, if any. There might be other factors as well, And maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part that 1Ls would have lower cutoffs.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:35 am
by solotee
Encyclopedia Brown wrote:
Metfan wrote:I am a fellow 1L. Do you think the 1L grade would be lower or higher?
No clue. My instinct says lower, because I would think GPA would rise over the second two years due to friendlier curves, easier skills courses, ability to select classes in which you might perform better, and just being more familiar in general with exams. 1Ls have fewer grades overall, however, which leads to more clusters of students with identical GPAs at all levels--I'm not sure what effect that would have, if any. There might be other factors as well, And maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part that 1Ls would have lower cutoffs.
My school's 3L gpa are lower than 1L gpa's, fwiw.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:36 am
by dudders
Oh come on, it's not like we have grades anyway. We should all be reserving our energies for the obsessive-compulsive refreshing of banweb.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:17 am
by Teoeo
I am sure they would probably be lower, but I don't really have any data to tell you how much =(

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:19 am
by desperate4lawschool
Teoeo wrote:3.713
This is pure BS and a mere reflection of good test takers, not necessarily good lawyers. High GPAs and curves are also administrative means to attract employers and high rankings, not means to determine a student's abilities/knowledge of a subject. Compare with Georgetown whose top 33% only has 3.46. Sad thing is that people fall for it.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:30 am
by Encyclopedia Brown
desperate4lawschool wrote:
Teoeo wrote:3.713
This is pure BS and a mere reflection of good test takers, not necessarily good lawyers. High GPAs and curves are also administrative means to attract employers and high rankings, not means to determine a student's abilities/knowledge of a subject. Compare with Georgetown whose top 33% only has 3.46. Sad thing is that people fall for it.
So you're telling me that law school isn't a reflection of what it's like to practice law? And that law schools game the rankings and employment data?

...nah. First I've heard of it.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:12 am
by thelaststraw05
desperate4lawschool wrote:
Teoeo wrote:3.713
This is pure BS and a mere reflection of good test takers, not necessarily good lawyers. High GPAs and curves are also administrative means to attract employers and high rankings, not means to determine a student's abilities/knowledge of a subject. Compare with Georgetown whose top 33% only has 3.46. Sad thing is that people fall for it.
So, I've got this apple and this orange. The apple is nothing like the orange.

You just compared top 10% (3.713) to top 33% (3.46).

Lets compare apples: GULC Top 10% (3.67) - GW Top 10% (3.713).

Now, lets compare oranges: GULC Top 33% (3.46) - GW Top 33% (3.502).

The only thing this data makes clear is that GULC and GW have slightly different curves, but they aren't substantially different. We are talking .04 on each. Is .04 really enough to get riled up about when it might just be a result of a flat curve?

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:52 am
by desperate4lawschool
thelaststraw05 wrote: So, I've got this apple and this orange. The apple is nothing like the orange.

You just compared top 10% (3.713) to top 33% (3.46).

Lets compare apples: GULC Top 10% (3.67) - GW Top 10% (3.713).

Now, lets compare oranges: GULC Top 33% (3.46) - GW Top 33% (3.502).

The only thing this data makes clear is that GULC and GW have slightly different curves, but they aren't substantially different. We are talking .04 on each. Is .04 really enough to get riled up about when it might just be a result of a flat curve?
Okay - then compare to Mason:
Top 10%: 3.66
Top 25%: 3.31
Top 33%: 3.24
Top 50%: 3.06
Top 75%: 2.80

Regardless of the school you compare, it's an overall trend that most law schools inflate their grades. "A" used to mean excellent, with "B+" connotating very good. Are we to believe that about the majority of all law school students reach the excellent or very good level? I doubt it. Why have a grading system to start with?

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:56 am
by dood
to OP: top 15% last year for 1Ls was between 3.64 and 3.67. HTH.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:36 am
by Big Shrimpin
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Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:59 pm
by Teoeo
desperate4lawschool wrote:
Teoeo wrote:3.713
This is pure BS and a mere reflection of good test takers, not necessarily good lawyers. High GPAs and curves are also administrative means to attract employers and high rankings, not means to determine a student's abilities/knowledge of a subject. Compare with Georgetown whose top 33% only has 3.46. Sad thing is that people fall for it.
Someone has a chip on his shoulders, calm down man, I was just answering the question.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:45 pm
by Metfan
dood wrote:to OP: top 15% last year for 1Ls was between 3.64 and 3.67. HTH.
Thanks dood. Any reason they give out top 15 percent cut-off and not top 10??

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:15 pm
by Encyclopedia Brown
Metfan wrote:
dood wrote:to OP: top 15% last year for 1Ls was between 3.64 and 3.67. HTH.
Thanks dood. Any reason they give out top 15 percent cut-off and not top 10??
Probably because that's what it takes to be a George Washington Scholar.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:20 pm
by kjt
3.67 was good enough for George Washington Scholar in Spring 2010.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:34 pm
by dood
Big Shrimpin wrote:
dood wrote:to OP: top 15% last year for 1Ls was between 3.64 and 3.67. HTH.

Is it futile to ask for information about %iles/grade distributions at the records office? I'm a 2L transfer and curious about where I stand.
the binders w/grade distributions are there for anyone to view.

Re: GW Grade Cutoff for top 10 percent

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:10 pm
by Big Shrimpin
.