Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions Forum

[wert3813]

LOL grades apparently being released tomorrow at 5PM, right at the beginning of LRW. what timing. as a BSA i'm (perversely) excited to be there for the spectacle

I'm really curious how the Climenkos will handle it if the grades aren't released by class start.

Some people won't check. But plenty will.

[094320]

..

[tachikara]

Grades are out, y'all

[wert3813]

Grades are out, y'all

Yes they are.

[MyNameIsFlynn!]

so scurred to look.

[wert3813]

2Ls and 3Ls can someone link the grade discussion from last year? Also is my memory correct that OCS tells people median for the year is 2 Hs, it's probably 2 some years and 3 other years and some wiz figure out that it should be roughly 2.8 (although that's not really possible).

Sorry I know this stuff gets asked and linked a bunch but sorta in a daze right now.

[delusional]

so scurred to look.

Like ripping off a band-aid.

[delusional]

2Ls and 3Ls can someone link the grade discussion from last year? Also is my memory correct that OCS tells people median for the year is 2 Hs, it's probably 2 some years and 3 other years and some wiz figure out that it should be roughly 2.8 (although that's not really possible).

Sorry I know this stuff gets asked and linked a bunch but sorta in a daze right now.

Everyone has told you this a hundred times and I don't know if saying it again will matter one way or the other, but if you have 5 Ps or better, you should not be worried. There is no shame in being marginally worse at your first attempt at law school exams. It does not reflect on who you are and it does not predict how what you will do in life. If you feel that you have room to improve, you have the ability to improve. If you don't want to put in the effort, you can find a job paying $160k a year with nothing but Ps for your entire three years.

[kcam1991]

How do you calculate gpa?

[wert3813]

2Ls and 3Ls can someone link the grade discussion from last year? Also is my memory correct that OCS tells people median for the year is 2 Hs, it's probably 2 some years and 3 other years and some wiz figure out that it should be roughly 2.8 (although that's not really possible).

Sorry I know this stuff gets asked and linked a bunch but sorta in a daze right now.

Everyone has told you this a hundred times and I don't know if saying it again will matter one way or the other, but if you have 5 Ps or better, you should not be worried. There is no shame in being marginally worse at your first attempt at law school exams. It does not reflect on who you are and it does not predict how what you will do in life. If you feel that you have room to improve, you have the ability to improve. If you don't want to put in the effort, you can find a job paying $160k a year with nothing but Ps for your entire three years.

No I know. And I promise I'm okay and did fine. I'm just literally trying to remember what median is and after looking around on here for like five minutes and not finding it I thought I would just ask someone.

[lawschoolboundfuture]

What considered good?

[delusional]

What considered good?

If you have more than 3 Hs, go away and stop being a douche. Does that answer your question?

[PMan99]

2Ls and 3Ls can someone link the grade discussion from last year? Also is my memory correct that OCS tells people median for the year is 2 Hs, it's probably 2 some years and 3 other years and some wiz figure out that it should be roughly 2.8 (although that's not really possible).

Sorry I know this stuff gets asked and linked a bunch but sorta in a daze right now.

Everyone has told you this a hundred times and I don't know if saying it again will matter one way or the other, but if you have 5 Ps or better, you should not be worried. There is no shame in being marginally worse at your first attempt at law school exams. It does not reflect on who you are and it does not predict how what you will do in life. If you feel that you have room to improve, you have the ability to improve. If you don't want to put in the effort, you can find a job paying $160k a year with nothing but Ps for your entire three years.

No I know. And I promise I'm okay and did fine. I'm just literally trying to remember what median is and after looking around on here for like five minutes and not finding it I thought I would just ask someone.

I think that the consensus is 2-3, yea. But honestly they do a pretty good job of keeping it (and latin honors, etc.) opaque, we don't really have enough data points to get a clear picture we know is accurate.

[BelugaWhale]

I think from a statistical standpoint the median should be 3 H's for the first year. Given that 1L courses are graded on a curve in which roughly the top third gets H's in a given class, and that there are 10 classes overall, assuming everything is random, you multiply 10 by 1/3 and so a median student should have 3 H's.

Disclaimer- I don't know if this is right but it makes sense to me and it seems to confirm what everyone says which is that 3 h's is median after first year.

[captain planet 1]

If any alums read this and can provide data points as to what was cum laude GPA in previous years, that would be much appreciated.

[BelugaWhale]

How do you calculate gpa?

For the purposes of latin honors, LP=2.0, P=3.0, H=4.0, DS=5.0

[wert3813]

I think from a statistical standpoint the median should be 3 H's for the first year. Given that 1L courses are graded on a curve in which roughly the top third gets H's in a given class, and that there are 10 classes overall, assuming everything is random, you multiply 10 by 1/3 and so a median student should have 3 H's.

Disclaimer- I don't know if this is right but it makes sense to me and it seems to confirm what everyone says which is that 3 h's is median after first year.

Yeah I found a post from before EIP were someone said OCS said that it was 2 and people wondered out loud if it was actually 3 and OCS was just pushing it down a bit. Regardless, 2-3 seems right.

[PMan99]

If any alums read this and can provide data points as to what was cum laude GPA in previous years, that would be much appreciated.

The only data points / anecdotes we have have been posted a bunch of times and always the answers are that somewhere slightly above 3.5 would get you cum laude and somewhere slightly below 4 would get you magna cum laude. The most common numbers I see are 3.5-3.6 for CL and 3.9-4 for MCL, so I just assume 3.55 and 3.95 but that for any given year you might see +-.05 on that.

It's somewhat complicated because HLS appears to calculate GPA by doing (1L GPA + 2L GPA + 3L GPA)/3, and we don't know if the graduates who have posted their GPA and honors are calculating it completely correctly.

[Doorkeeper]

To summarize everything grade related:

LP = 2, P = 3, H = 4, DS = 5

3 Hs for 1L YEAR is the average.

cum laude = 3.6, magna = 3.95-4.0

Calm down.

Edit - I've had a few 1Ls PM me their grades and ask me how they're doing relative to their goals. I'm happy to answer such questions.

[rathgra]

[Searchparty]

How does LRW factor into GPA? Is it worth half as much as everything else because it's half as much credits?

And how does it count as far as determining median? Does an H/DS in LRW count as a "full" H/DS?

I believe GPA for the year is weighted by credits. Your graduating GPA then weights each year's GPA equally.

[Mr. Elshal]

Does anyone know (or has anyone heard stories about) NYC firms having specific or de facto grade cutoffs for 1L SAs?

[rathgra]

[wert3813]

How does LRW factor into GPA? Is it worth half as much as everything else because it's half as much credits?

And how does it count as far as determining median? Does an H/DS in LRW count as a "full" H/DS?

I believe GPA for the year is weighted by credits. Your graduating GPA then weights each year's GPA equally.

That's what I initially thought and it says that on the registrar's website (where I probably should have checked before running to TLS…)

So is the same for median? If I got 1 H in a blackletter and an H in LRW, would employers consider that 1.5 Hs? Or 2? Would a DS in LRW outweigh a P in a blackletter?

In so much that anyone can know without being an employer everyone seems to think employers consider them all the same.

[Mista Bojangles]

For Latin honors purposes at graduation, yes a 4-credit black letter is twice the weight of 2-credit LRW. For EIP purposes, the consensus (in whatever way it was formed) seems to be that employers just count your Hs, without doing any further math