UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions Forum

[Xifeng]

I hate LRW if only for the fact that it shows up 3 times on your transcript. Therefore, if you do worse in that class than others, it looks bad to people who just scan your resume (even though two of the quarters say "1 credit").

Nooooooo! Depressing. I am not expecting great things from LRW.

This is what it says on your transcript about law school grades, it doesn't say anything else (other than...your actual grades):



It doesn't tell you class distributions or anything. Some professors email out what the distribution is, others don't. I assume Taipei's professor sent out some email about it.

LRW is curved a bit higher, and from what I've heard it's more tightly clustered (so it's harder to do both good and bad).

ETA: edited out the graduating honors info so people don't get confused, PM me if you're super curious?

[knickerbocker]

Woah. What?
So, like, only 5% of people get an A per class? That is CRAZY.

[duckmoney]

Woah. What?
So, like, only 5% of people get an A per class? That is CRAZY.

This is false. Plenty of people get an A in a given class. But very few people consistently get A's across all their class. The people with A averages are very hard to come by.

[Emma.]

Woah. What?
So, like, only 5% of people get an A per class? That is CRAZY.

No. That isn't right. That is graduation honors. Per class it is more like 10-15%.

But it doesn't really matter, since your grades don't get stacked up against other schools in the same direct way. No one is looking at a 179 average transcript and comparing it with an A- average transcript from another school and thinking that the UChi kid is a weaker student. Everyone knows that grades above 178 are strong grades and treats them as such, regardless of what the translation chart on your transcript says.

[duckmoney]

Sorry to keep asking about LRW, but the reason I keep asking is that at the other place I'm considering, NYU, LRW isn't graded.
I thought that about 25% of the class got the equivalent of an A-range grade? Is that not right?

I don't mind the graded LRW. It actually makes you try to become good at legal writing. It is more stressful during the year, but that's part of the reason that UChicago has a reputation for having much stronger writers than peer schools.

[Xifeng]

Woah. What?
So, like, only 5% of people get an A per class? That is CRAZY.

This is false. Plenty of people get an A in a given class. But very few people consistently get A's across all their class. The people with A averages are very hard to come by.

Yeah, that was just to give you an idea of what the #s are. The graduating honors are completely different/crazy, since people tend towards the medians. That's NOT the per class distribution.

[Bildungsroman]

I hate LRW if only for the fact that it shows up 3 times on your transcript. Therefore, if you do worse in that class than others, it looks bad to people who just scan your resume (even though two of the quarters say "1 credit").

FUCK

[duckmoney]

Another thing that pushes people toward the median is the fact that many 1L classes are taught by 2 professors who give two separate exams, which give you more opportunities for inconsistency. Especially because some professors have quirky grading styles that click with certain people and not others.

[American_in_China]

Heading out to campus to visit in a few minutes. Anything interesting going on during lunch today?

If any TLSers can figure out who I am walking around, come say hi. You guys have no idea how informative this thread has been for me. I'll be around on campus till 4.

PS: Anyone know a good authentic Chinese restaurant? Now that I'm in a city that actually HAS chinese people I'm hoping to get some chinese comfort food. Sichuan and hotpot preferred.

[Bildungsroman]

Heading out to campus to visit in a few minutes. Anything interesting going on during lunch today?

There are a couple of lunch talks going on. Federalist Society is bringing a UT professor to talk about Constitutional law, and ACS is bringing someone to talk about South Africa or something. I recommend the former.

[Emma.]

Heading out to campus to visit in a few minutes. Anything interesting going on during lunch today?

If any TLSers can figure out who I am walking around, come say hi. You guys have no idea how informative this thread has been for me. I'll be around on campus till 4.

PS: Anyone know a good authentic Chinese restaurant? Now that I'm in a city that actually HAS chinese people I'm hoping to get some chinese comfort food. Sichuan and hotpot preferred.

Not around Campus. But if you are driving, head up to Chinatown.

[knickerbocker]

Wait, 10-15% A-range grades per class is still really low and scary. At NYU, it's 31% (!) (Source for NYU: --LinkRemoved--)
I understand that your ranking won't change, but I feel like getting A's feels a whole lot better...

[Dany]

It's not 10-15% As in every class. In one of my classes the distribution was: 25% - A, 70% - B, 5% - C.

[duckmoney]

Wait, 10-15% A-range grades per class is still really low and scary. At NYU, it's 31% (!) (Source for NYU: --LinkRemoved--)
I understand that your ranking won't change, but I feel like getting A's feels a whole lot better...

Considering that it doesn't even show up as an A, but rather a completely arbitrary 3 digit number on a completely arbitrary scale with a completely arbitrary curve, this probably doesn't matter that much

[Doorkeeper]

It's not 10-15% As in every class. In one of my classes the distribution was: 25% - A, 70% - B, 5% - C.

Was that a 1L elective class, or one of the core requirements? I thought it was like 10% As for the core classes, and then it expands a bit for some of the electives during the next two years?

[Xifeng]

Wait, 10-15% A-range grades per class is still really low and scary. At NYU, it's 31% (!) (Source for NYU: --LinkRemoved--)
I understand that your ranking won't change, but I feel like getting A's feels a whole lot better...

Considering that it doesn't even show up as an A, but rather a completely arbitrary 3 digit number on a completely arbitrary scale with a completely arbitrary curve, this probably doesn't matter that much

This. Plus, it really doesn't matter what "feels better" when you're on a curve. NU has huge grade inflation, so I bet it doesn't "feel as good" to get an A-.

Also, you will find 0 authentic Chinese restaurants in Hyde Park. There's good Sichuan food in Chinatown (I haven't been to any hot pot places there yet), but that's more of an adventure (though not too far).

The distribution Dany is referring to is Elements.

[Dany]

It's not 10-15% As in every class. In one of my classes the distribution was: 25% - A, 70% - B, 5% - C.

Was that a 1L elective class, or one of the core requirements? I thought it was like 10% As for the core classes, and then it expands a bit for some of the electives during the next two years?

Core class. We don't have elective grades yet.

[knickerbocker]

Oh, so you're all saying that it doesn't matter that NYU has a far gentler curve than Chicago? We're talking 10% As vs. 31% As. That's huge.
It's hard for me to believe that employers take that into account fully. That is, they don't consider a B-range Chicago grade to be equal to an A- at NYU, although it may well be the same.
What percent of a 1L class at Chicago gets a C-range grade or below (173 or below)?
Even if employers do take all this into account, I feel like it would crush my spirit to get all Bs.

[Xifeng]

Oh, so you're all saying that it doesn't matter that NYU has a far gentler curve than Chicago? We're talking 10% As vs. 31% As. That's huge.
It's hard for me to believe that employers take that into account fully. That is, they don't consider a B-range Chicago grade to be equal to an A- at NYU, although it may well be the same.
What percent of a 1L class at Chicago gets a C-range grade or below (173 or below)?
Even if employers do take all this into account, I feel like it would crush my spirit to get all Bs.

They don't really know what As are and Bs are. They have that tiny little thing about "ranges," and that's it. Employers don't have huge amounts of information, and the stuff they do know is based on past years dealing with Chicago students. They aren't like, "well, I'm going to convert this to As and Bs! And by god, this person has fewer As than this NYU grad! WE ARE TAKING THE NYU GRAD FOR SURE"

There's some weird thing about the % of sub-173s being about equal to the 182+ grades? Maybe? I'm not sure if that's accurate. But something like that.

And again, you will look at your grades and see #s. You don't think of it as As or Bs. Just weird LSAT-like numbers (you'll feel happier if you pretend they're LSAT scores)

[Dany]

Also, when choosing between schools, grading systems* aren't really that important. Employment prospects are important. How you "feel" about getting a 179 at UChicago versus an A- at NYU doesn't really affect job prospects at the end of the day. Employers don't seem to have a problem with our grades, so I don't either.

*Unless you can go somewhere with a magical system like Yale's or something.

[Haymarket]

Oh, so you're all saying that it doesn't matter that NYU has a far gentler curve than Chicago? We're talking 10% As vs. 31% As. That's huge.
It's hard for me to believe that employers take that into account fully. That is, they don't consider a B-range Chicago grade to be equal to an A- at NYU, although it may well be the same.
What percent of a 1L class at Chicago gets a C-range grade or below (173 or below)?
Even if employers do take all this into account, I feel like it would crush my spirit to get all Bs.

Chicago* is not the place to go if you need constant validation from your professors or your report card to maintain your self-esteem. We do not give everyone trophies just for playing or gold stars.

Also, isn't it obvious that an employer compares student grades intra-school and not inter-school? The latter makes zero sense is their goal is to hire the best candidates and not the best report cards.

*You can also read this as law school in general.

[Bildungsroman]

It's hard for me to believe that employers take that into account fully. That is, they don't consider a B-range Chicago grade to be equal to an A- at NYU, although it may well be the same.

Well, you would know better than us.

[Haymarket]

Also, American_in_China, you were slightly annoying in our class today. Please never attempt to speak out or be clever when sitting in on a class, even if a professor tries to be friendly. That is not an invitation for comment.

[Xifeng]

COME TO UCHICAGO, THE MOST FRIENDLY OF LAW SCHOOLS*.



*lol

[Haymarket]

MOST FRIENDLY

ಠ_ಠ