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My school graduates the top 25% of the class Cum Laude. I missed the GPA cutoff by .01. I inquired with the the Dean of Student Services whether there is anything I can do, and she said I was out of luck.

Any suggestions on how to go about appealing this? There is no formal mechanism. All I can think of is a formal letter to the Dean, but am not even sure what to include in such a letter.

All suggestions are appreciated. Much thanks.

Well, my inclination is that you have no entitlement to the title of "with honors" unless you can somehow prove that it's a regular or discriminatory practice for the school to give some other people in your situation a boost. If you don't have that evidence, then you are for sure out of luck. If you do have that evidence, then at best you're looking at a "maybe".

Well, there is one other option with even flimsier chances of working: Of course you can always just pester the registrar with groundless inquiries and hope they give up out of laziness or frustration with you.

I'm not really sure why you would want to or why it matters. I can't imagine you would receive better assignments at work because you graduated with honors but if there is some other benefit to your career trajectory someone correct me.

What exactly are you appealing?? Your individual grades? The process of determining the cutoff??

Unless there is a problem with the calculation somehow, I don't see why you are thinking about appealing. If you legitimately missed the cutoff, you don't get honors. Seems fairly simple.

AllTheLawz wrote:What exactly are you appealing?? Your individual grades? The process of determining the cutoff??

Unless there is a problem with the calculation somehow, I don't see why you are thinking about appealing. If you legitimately missed the cutoff, you don't get honors. Seems fairly simple.

Appeal = "pester the professor for a higher grade--it always worked in my basket weaving major in college!"

Did you graduate from a state law school? If so, submit a detailed memo explaining why the 25% cut-off has no rational basis and thus violates your DPC rights under the 14th Amendment.

rpupkin wrote:Did you graduate from a state law school? If so, submit a detailed memo explaining why the 25% cut-off has no rational basis and thus violates your DPC rights under the 14th Amendment.

I too am studying for the bar. For everyone else's information, this is completely solid advice.

Accept that your grades weren't good enough and stop acting like you're somehow entitled to graduate with honors. You knew the cutoff and missed it, so you don't get honors. Life's tough, get used to it.

Guess you should have done don't be on the razor's edge of the cutoff

To everyone besides OP, stfu and stop moralizing. To OP, find out if anyone has ever been given the benefit of the doubt before.

It must suck to come so close. But I don't know what more you can do but ask.

Otherwise, let it go. Your career isn't defined by this.

NYSprague wrote:
Otherwise, let it go. Your career isn't defined by this.

Sorry OP.

One thought- any chance you could drop a class this semester to go above the cutoff? I know grades are already out but maybe there is some way to do this.

Sucks but such is life. Move on.

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That fucking sucks.

Druid wrote:That fucking sucks.

Yeah that sucks, missing the cutoff by such a slim margin. But you missed it, accept it and get on with life. You didn't graduate Cum Laude.

Special snowflake thread.

NotMyRealName09 wrote:

Druid wrote:That fucking sucks.

Yeah that sucks, missing the cutoff by such a slim margin. But you missed it, accept it and get on with life. You didn't graduate Cum Laude.

I mean the whole point of arbitrary numerical cutoffs is that they are arbitrary numerical cutoffs. Someone has to be the poor borderline sap each year, OP, and I'm sorry it's you but that's life.

ymmv wrote:

NotMyRealName09 wrote:

Druid wrote:That fucking sucks.

Yeah that sucks, missing the cutoff by such a slim margin. But you missed it, accept it and get on with life. You didn't graduate Cum Laude.

I mean the whole point of arbitrary numerical cutoffs is that they are arbitrary numerical cutoffs. Someone has to be the poor borderline sap each year, OP, and I'm sorry it's you but that's life.

This. Gotta cut it off somewhere. If they gave it to you, the guy right below you would be behind you begging for his bump.

Had this happen to me in a class in law school, asked if there was any way I could bump up the grade (it was an accounting class so I had like a 92.4 and needed a 92.5 to get the A and he basically told me tough shit.

That is just the way the world works sometimes, sorry man (I also ended up barely missing honors myself, but my rank speaks for itself I think)

dam, sucks to be the .01

Had this happen to me in a class in law school, asked if there was any way I could bump up the grade (it was an accounting class so I had like a 92.4 and needed a 92.5 to get the A and he basically told me tough shit.

If this actually happened, that sucks, but it sort of seems like trolling because you're missing the irony of asking your accounting professor to falsify numbers on your behalf.

apparentlynew wrote:

Had this happen to me in a class in law school, asked if there was any way I could bump up the grade (it was an accounting class so I had like a 92.4 and needed a 92.5 to get the A and he basically told me tough shit.

If this actually happened, that sucks, but it sort of seems like trolling because you're missing the irony of asking your accounting professor to falsify numbers on your behalf.

The real irony is that no one has noticed that his anecdote about law school is about a class he took while presumably not in law school. (Unless he took an undergrad accounting class concurrently with law school, which is highly suspect)

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brazleton wrote:

CounselorNebby wrote:

apparentlynew wrote:

Had this happen to me in a class in law school, asked if there was any way I could bump up the grade (it was an accounting class so I had like a 92.4 and needed a 92.5 to get the A and he basically told me tough shit.

If this actually happened, that sucks, but it sort of seems like trolling because you're missing the irony of asking your accounting professor to falsify numbers on your behalf.

The real irony is that no one has noticed that his anecdote about law school is about a class he took while presumably not in law school. (Unless he took an undergrad accounting class concurrently with law school, which is highly suspect)

Many law schools have accounting. I took it 3L.

Accounting is probably the #1 most frequently recommended course for aspiring transactional attorneys after Corporations, at least at my school.