Northwestern Coif/Honors Forum

(Seek and share information about clerkship applications, clerkship hiring timelines, and post-clerkship employment opportunities)
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting

Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about clerkship applications and clerkship hiring. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.

Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
Anonymous User
Posts: 431091
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Northwestern Coif/Honors

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Jun 15, 2024 1:59 pm

Someone started a thread last year on the law school discussion forum. Moving the discussion here to enable anonymity.

According to another user, 2023 shook out like this
Adding to the general public info point, or just for anyone finding this thread while searching for this Q, here's how 2023 honors/coif ended up shaking out.

There were ~280 total JD grads. Latin honors:
1 summa cum laude (4.200+)
25 magna cum laude (3.970+)
~140 cum laude (3.650+)
For coif:
3 (of ~140) cum laudes made coif
4 magnas didn't get coif (at least two were transfers, which I think means they don't meet the 75% graded classes requirement)
Thus:
the coif cutoff was nearly a 3.970, probably 3.95-96
the median GPA was over a 3.65 (probably ~3.70 +/- .02)
~60% of the class made at least cum laude
In 2022, coif was exactly coterminous with the magna cutoff (3.970), but class of 2022 got one 1L semester of P/F which would have ordinarily been graded on a harsher curve, so higher gpas would be expected. Over half the class made cum laude that year.
2024 honors, with ~280 total JD grads:
0 summa cum laude (4.200+)
21 magna cum laude (3.970+)
138 cum laude (3.650+)

Coif:
10 cum laude graduates made coif
4 magna cum laude graduates did not make coif (all 4 were transfers and therefore ineligible)

Thus:
The coif cutoff was likely around low 3.9~
Excluding transfers, the top 6% of the class earned magna cum laude
The median GPA was again around 3.65, with about half of the class graduating cum laude
The coif/magna ratios and cutoffs returned to pre-Covid levels


Return to “Judicial Clerkships”