Feeder Grades Post-Hiring Forum

[Anonymous User]

For those who were / are / know of feeder clerks—did your grades slip 3L after you were hired or were most of y’all continuing with straight H’s / A’s gunning for SCOTUS or just being that good? How many P’s / B’s did you end up with?

[Anonymous User]

For those who were / are / know of feeder clerks—did your grades slip 3L after you were hired or were most of y’all continuing with straight H’s / A’s gunning for SCOTUS or just being that good? How many P’s / B’s did you end up with?

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[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

Unfortunately, yeah. I'll keep exact details to myself, but my grades declined a fair amount after I got my clerkship. In part, I think that the pandemic really disrupted my academic ability - fully remote classes, little contact with my 1L friends - but ultimately the buck stops with me, right? I feel a little bit like I'm letting my judge down, honestly.

[Anonymous User]

Unfortunately, yeah. I'll keep exact details to myself, but my grades declined a fair amount after I got my clerkship. In part, I think that the pandemic really disrupted my academic ability - fully remote classes, little contact with my 1L friends - but ultimately the buck stops with me, right? I feel a little bit like I'm letting my judge down, honestly.

This happened to me too. I was boderline grades-wise when I got hired by my circuit judge and the judge even conveyed to me that my grades were borderline in the interview. Then after I miraculously got the clerkship my grades went down even more. (I had a death in the family a few days before my last final and my performance suffered.) I personally felt bad and guilty about the grades dip but it never mattered and the judge never followed up. I ended up going above and beyond in the clerkship and the judge told me on my last day that I was the strongest writer of my clerk class. Perhaps I was overcompensating.

[Anonymous User]

My grades dropped a lot 3L—if I had gotten those grades all three years, I would not have graduated magna, and certainly would not have gotten a top clerkship. I was a ‘21 grad and I think it was mostly (1) that I didn’t adapt to remote stuff as well as others, (2) that lots of profs made big changes to their evaluation formats in ways that did not favor me, and (3) a death in the family right before finals. So basically what the others said. I was pretty embarrassed, but nobody knows besides my parents, my SO, and probably my school admin, and I doubt it will have any effect beyond making SCOTUS unlikely (I was a somewhat marginal candidate anyway and don’t plan to apply).

Fwiw if you were hired after 1L, a grades drop 1L to 2L is far from rare, and that’s basically the risk that the super early hirers take. Even Thapar has some clerks who end up as duds academically.

[Anonymous User]

I gunned all the way through. I really enjoyed law school, so it didn't feel like too much of an imposition. Obviously, not everyone feels this way, but I had enough time to sustain my effort, and I just truly enjoyed learning about the law.

[Anonymous User]

I gunned all the way through. I really enjoyed law school, so it didn't feel like too much of an imposition. Obviously, not everyone feels this way, but I had enough time to sustain my effort, and I just truly enjoyed learning about the law.

Good for you, but not really responsive (and I doubt anyone with top grades intentionally stops trying—esp for ‘21, the back and front halves of school were not really the same game).

[Anonymous User]

Yeah mine fell a decent amount 3L. I got screwed over on one random thing and generally just stopped caring nearly as much once I realized I didn’t actually want to apply to scotus lol. Nobody except my dignity cared