Grade On. What Does it Take? Forum

[BEAST_mode]

I know next to nothing about the grade-on process. I'm sure there is a fair amount of variance from school to school, but anecdotally, what makes the cut? Top 5%? Top 10%? Top 20%?

[kalvano]

It varies so wildly that it's hard to say. Figure top 10% as a safe bet. But, for instance, at my school there is no pure grade-on. Even top 10% people have to put forth a "good faith effort" in the write-on. Best I can tell, that means submitting something with words on it, and those words must make some vague sort of sense. And no using crayon.

[Bildungsroman]

It depends 100% on the school. Here at UChicago it's the top 10% of the class, but even grade-ons have to do the writing competition and put in a "good faith effort." Other schools have very different requirements. For example, I'm told NYU only has like 3-4% of the class grade on.

[LeDique]

My school has absolutely no grade-on. Top 10% is given a slight boost.

[jarofsoup]

top 15 students...not % so I think like top 5% or so...

[CanadianWolf]

Baylor seems to be the most interesting: Top 15%. Transfers who were in the top 15% at their former law school also grade-on to Baylor's law review.

[jess]

.

[dixon02]

UVA grade on is the top 25 students in the class, which is top 6-7%. Another 15 write on. As others have said, totally depends on the school.

[zonto]

BC does grade-on for the top five students in each of the three 1L sections (usually 85 or so students in each section). Spots are also offered to the top five scorers on the writing competition. The rest of the spots are determined by a blend of 50% GPA, 25% memo, 15% Bluebook exercise, and 10% personal statement.

[ilovesf]

My school takes the top 3 students from each section purely on grades, roughly top 3-4%. Then some people get in on half grades half write on score, and then some purely on write on score.

[NeighborGuy]

My school takes the top ten students (as opposed to top 10%).

[rayiner]

For schools that have a grade-on, it's usually 5-10%, often closer to 5%. For schools that don't, it's a total crap-shot. At NU or Penn, that have only spots that are either 100% writing competition or 50/50 writing competition/grades, and relatively large law reviews for their class size, the pool of grades from which law review draws is probably top 20-25%.