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Pre-apologize for the annoying question, but my school doesn't release GPA calculations and I'm wondering what kind of effect an A+ typically has. I'm not expecting school-specific info, just kind of a general vibe.

Are law school A+'s generally just considered to be extra-special 4.0s? Or would they actually factor into a GPA/class rank calculation as a 4.3?

I figured if discretionary Cs are considered to be 2.0s, discretionary A+'s may actually carry the extra weight.

At my undergrad they counted as 4.0s, but I get the impression 4.3 is much more common

Why wouldn't a C be a 2.0?

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Desert Fox wrote:Why wouldn't a C be a 2.0?

Yea, what else would it possibly be?

Desert Fox wrote:Why wouldn't a C be a 2.0?

Sorry my point was that they are considered to be 2.0s -- so I thought A+s may actually be considered 4.3s.

Like Pato, my undergrad counted A+s as 4.0s. The whole notion of a 4.3 on a 4.0 scale seems strange to me. But if discretionary grades in one direction can hurt you, I suppose it makes sense that an A+ would help. Just wondering if there's any common knowledge on how A+s are calculated.

What's discretionary about a C?

At Penn, A+s, Cs, and Fs are discretionary. The curve tops out at A and bottoms out at B-.

At Cornell an A+ is a 4.33...
At any rate, it looks good on your transcript.

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I think the answer is that there is no consistent answer. Since Penn doesn't calculate your GPA, every employer you apply to will have to individually calculate your GPA if they want to compare you to other applicants on the basis of grades. Some will use 4.3 or 4.33, and some might use 4.0 if they think for whatever reason that 4.0 is the correct value. I use 4.33 if I have to calculate a GPA at a school that doesn't use GPAs. It's not a terrible problem to have, all in all.

UVA counts them as a 4.3 I believe. I assumed that's what most schools do, but apparently not.

PennLaw16 wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:Why wouldn't a C be a 2.0?

Sorry my point was that they are considered to be 2.0s -- so I thought A+s may actually be considered 4.3s.

Like Pato, my undergrad counted A+s as 4.0s. The whole notion of a 4.3 on a 4.0 scale seems strange to me. But if discretionary grades in one direction can hurt you, I suppose it makes sense that an A+ would help. Just wondering if there's any common knowledge on how A+s are calculated.

My question still stands, why wouldn't a C be a 2.0? what else could it be?

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Desert Fox wrote:My question still stands, why wouldn't a C be a 2.0? what else could it be?

In theory, it could be the lowest available grade on the curve (2.7), with a discretionary C to denote especially poor performance.

But we agree -- that would be silly. Seems less so for an A+, though.

It's irrelevant at Penn except for calculating honors, which is a black box in and of itself. In any case, employers are just going to give your transcript a quick glance. An A+ will stand out in a very good way. That's all that is important.

sublime wrote:At WUSTL an A+ can be anything from a 4.0 (95) to a 4.3(100)


And a C is from a 2.6 to a 2.8 (75-76)


Here is our full info: https://law.wustl.edu/Registrar/documen ... resent.pdf

That grading system is fucking stupid.

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sublime wrote:

TTRansfer wrote:

sublime wrote:At WUSTL an A+ can be anything from a 4.0 (95) to a 4.3(100)


And a C is from a 2.6 to a 2.8 (75-76)


Here is our full info: https://law.wustl.edu/Registrar/documen ... resent.pdf

That grading system is fucking stupid.

Yea, it kind of is. Hyper inflated.

For awhile it was a 70-100 scale and it made our shit look bad on resumes, and noone understood them anyway, then last year they tried to translate it into a normal GPA scale and came up with that.

It gave my eye a twitch.

University of Texas A+ is a 4.3. Our GPA is on a 4.3 scale but my impression is that it tops out around a 4.0-4.1

If it's a 4.0, they'd probably be more common if you assume professors generally want to help their students. If not then somebody(ies) did really poorly so you could get that 4.3.

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I think the way it works at Penn is that discretionary grades aren't factored into the curve. So I actually bumped the curve up for the rest of the class by getting nudged out.

Team player y'all.

TTRansfer wrote:

sublime wrote:At WUSTL an A+ can be anything from a 4.0 (95) to a 4.3(100)


And a C is from a 2.6 to a 2.8 (75-76)


Here is our full info: https://law.wustl.edu/Registrar/documen ... resent.pdf

That grading system is fucking stupid.

I like how an F counts the same as everyone else's B-minus.

Tiago Splitter wrote:

TTRansfer wrote:

sublime wrote:At WUSTL an A+ can be anything from a 4.0 (95) to a 4.3(100)


And a C is from a 2.6 to a 2.8 (75-76)


Here is our full info: https://law.wustl.edu/Registrar/documen ... resent.pdf

That grading system is fucking stupid.

I like how an F counts the same as everyone else's B-minus.

Yeah, it's one of the nuttier scales I've ever seen.

Granted, I think most law students feel a B- is the equivalent of an F.