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Hey y'all,

So I really don't know what happened, but I somehow managed to pull two Bs and a B- for my first semester at CLS. As I have (had?) grandiose dreams of working in entertainment law at some point in my life, I've been pretty much Big Law or bust for the past few years. However, now that it appears I am headed for a guaranteed strikeout at OCI, I feel completely lost and am seriously considering dropping out. I received over half tuition scholarships for both 1l and 2l, and about a third tuition scholly for 3l, but the debt still scares me.

Thanks in advance for the advice everyone.

Don't drop out. Talk to your profs, find out what you did wrong, and stick it out for one more semester. You aren't tanked at OCI yet, especially if you have any post-grad WE or connections.

45% of the class are getting Bs and below. We have an 80-85% EIP rate. This is deceptive because of transfers & obviously better offers are clustered at higher gpas, but some people in the bottom third still get biglaw (while some in the middle third still strike out). Definitely see what happened with the B- (since that means you had to do something specifically wrong, not just fall on one side of the curve). Change up your study habits, but dont give up yet.

One A, a couple A- and B+'s this semester and you'll be back at median. You arent getting V20 or artIII, but I wouldn't drop out of CLS yet especially with your scholarship

I think jbagelboy nailed it. You're not completely screwed. Columbia is a good enough school employment-wise that if you can get up to median, you'll probably be fine.

Definitely stick it out another semester. You're a long way from a guaranteed strike out

Thanks for the encouragement guys, I definitely needed it. *grudgingly slumps away from cliff*

.

where's the usual tls douchebaggery pessimism? Listen op columbia's the new cooley. there's no way you'll ever be able to get a job. /sarcasm

but seriously you're all good.

Wearthewildthingsr wrote:where's the usual tls douchebaggery pessimism? Listen op columbia's the new cooley. there's no way you'll ever be able to get a job. /sarcasm

but seriously you're all good.

all good is probably wildly optimistic. probably somewhere between those two extremes you outlined.

Taus11 wrote:Who actually gives out B-s? Thought they were discretionary.

Kill it this term!

A lot of profs give B-'s. I gather they are roughly as frequent as A's

jbagelboy wrote:

Taus11 wrote:Who actually gives out B-s? Thought they were discretionary.

Kill it this term!

A lot of profs give B-'s. I gather they are roughly as frequent as A's

There have been more B-s than I expected, but As are almost certainly more frequent.

To OP, I'll echo what everyone else said—especially with your scholarship, it's worth at least seeing what you can do this semester. Meet with your professors, work on improving your exam taking, and rock it (you'll have the benefit of the elective curve for one of those grades, too!) like you're totally capable of doing

(I'll also shamelessly plug the CLS TLS FB group, if you PM one of the 1Ls we're happy to have you and we're going to do brunch... Just saying )

lunaraeon wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:

Taus11 wrote:Who actually gives out B-s? Thought they were discretionary.

Kill it this term!

A lot of profs give B-'s. I gather they are roughly as frequent as A's

There have been more B-s than I expected, but As are almost certainly more frequent.

To OP, I'll echo what everyone else said—especially with your scholarship, it's worth at least seeing what you can do this semester. Meet with your professors, work on improving your exam taking, and rock it (you'll have the benefit of the elective curve for one of those grades, too!) like you're totally capable of doing

(I'll also shamelessly plug the CLS TLS FB group, if you PM one of the 1Ls we're happy to have you and we're going to do brunch... Just saying )

This is fair, but I'd also point out that from our conversations, it seems like your section's profs made more of an effort at a friendlier curve last semester than some of ours... no firsthand evidence for individuals on B-'s because people don't talk about it, and rightly so, but I did snag a glance at Kraus's stack of raw score grades corresponding to the A - F scale matched with test #'s when I was reviewing my exam near his office. Motherfucker rained down them shit grades

Please don't drop out of Columbia. The whole reason these board members espouse going to a school like that is because someone in your position can still be highly competitive.

jbagelboy wrote:

lunaraeon wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:

Taus11 wrote:Who actually gives out B-s? Thought they were discretionary.

Kill it this term!

A lot of profs give B-'s. I gather they are roughly as frequent as A's

There have been more B-s than I expected, but As are almost certainly more frequent.

To OP, I'll echo what everyone else said—especially with your scholarship, it's worth at least seeing what you can do this semester. Meet with your professors, work on improving your exam taking, and rock it (you'll have the benefit of the elective curve for one of those grades, too!) like you're totally capable of doing

(I'll also shamelessly plug the CLS TLS FB group, if you PM one of the 1Ls we're happy to have you and we're going to do brunch... Just saying )

This is fair, but I'd also point out that from our conversations, it seems like your section's profs made more of an effort at a friendlier curve last semester than some of ours... no firsthand evidence for individuals on B-'s because people don't talk about it, and rightly so, but I did snag a glance at Kraus's stack of raw score grades corresponding to the A - F scale matched with test #'s when I was reviewing my exam near his office. Motherfucker rained down them shit grades

Yeah, but it seems like Kraus is on the bad side of grades as much as my professors were on the good side, and also that he was in the minority. Combined with the curve mandating a certain number of grades in the A/A- and B+ ranges, and I feel B-s will still be comparatively rarer. If they aren't, our median would likely be much lower, no?

stillwater wrote:

Wearthewildthingsr wrote:where's the usual tls douchebaggery pessimism? Listen op columbia's the new cooley. there's no way you'll ever be able to get a job. /sarcasm

but seriously you're all good.

all good is probably wildly optimistic. probably somewhere between those two extremes you outlined.

I LOL'd