Those legendary 'so-and-so had the highest gpa in X LS's history' stories...anyone heard concrete #'s?? Forum

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deanrobbins1

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Those legendary 'so-and-so had the highest gpa in X LS's history' stories...anyone heard concrete #'s??

Post by deanrobbins1 » Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:45 am

I'd guess almost every law school has some amount of internal mythology about the 'highest GPA in school history,' probably discussed and gossiped on in hushed tones by the top 3-4 2L LR grade-on's-in the few moments break their Ed Board masters allow them in the delirious wee hours as Friday night melts into Saturday/Sunday morning, before cracking the whip and restarting the cite check death march hazing.

Some legends seem to bleed out beyond individual schools, reaching the collective unconscious of law students as a whole. For instance, I've heard that John Paul Stevens graduated with the highest GPA in NU's history or that Steve Sussman still owns the all-time GPA record at UT law (although I suspect the name of the person who keeps pushing that rumor to the top of the pile probably rhymes with 'Beeve Buffman').

Anyway, bored and reminiscing on law school for some reason, curious if there's anyone who knows any actual good stories built off these themes/ever seen a 'highest gpa of all time' record officially confirmed by LS brass instead of campfire stories about how the registrar got smashed one year at law prom, broke a group of students into the LS's offices in the dead of night, and let them see Bill Brasky's immaculate 4.29 LS transcript in the master computer with their very own eyes. or, I mean, if some of those campfire stories are actually entertaining, then share them too.


deanrobbins1

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Re: Those legendary 'so-and-so had the highest gpa in X LS's history' stories...anyone heard concrete #'s??

Post by deanrobbins1 » Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:30 pm

packer_22 wrote:https://www.wlrk.com/attorney/sstevenson/

This might be the highest I've heard of.
his gpa isn't listed anywhere on his WLRK bio as far as I can tell. is your 'highest I've heard of' assessment based on personally knowing this guy/talking about grades (or, whether you know each other or not, having personal knowledge about his LS gpa, in any case) or are you just eye-balling/guesstimating some napkin math off his having booked 14 total courses? going off that we might assume his having taken a total denominator course load of ~24 classes in LS (~4 classes/semester * 6 semesters), which would mean he set the curve about 60% of the time. if we employ some assumptions about the numerical grades stetson profs actually assign we might extrapolate that that translates into him banking a commensurate at least~60% A+/4.33 numeric grades which would put him closer to a 4.2 than a 4.1 if we assume he's still averaging 3.9ish type grades in the classes where he didn't write the number-one-with-a-bullet exam but presumably still did well.

I could def see his LS career working out to like a 4.16 but tons of guesswork still. for one, I have no idea just how much Stetson behaves like a grade-deflating TTT where coif = finishing with a B+ avg and up--though as a TTT I'd venture to guess they behave at least a little that way, meaning it's possible some of the classes he's booking nonetheless get recorded as A- type grades rather than A+. then, it's also possible some profs give multiple A+'s so his A+'s might outnumber his book awards.

cool that he blew the doors off at law school (well, Stetson Law school)but probably more than his final GPA I'd love know the inside dirt on what series of unfortunate events conspired to land him there after Wharton/Penn A&S double summa. maybe a crippling phobia of hand-drawn arrows set his LSAT ceiling around 157 or something.

LBJ's Hair

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Re: Those legendary 'so-and-so had the highest gpa in X LS's history' stories...anyone heard concrete #'s??

Post by LBJ's Hair » Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:28 pm

Rachel Kovner is the most recent, off the top of my head? Trust David Lat to have run this down

https://abovethelaw.com/2006/09/more-on ... el-kovner/

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