Top Law Schools

I am a 1L at Boalt and our grading system is as follows:

HH: top 10%
H: 11-40%
P: 41-100%

The cutoffs are rigid. There is little flexibility until the 2nd and 3rd years.

Would a few of you mind sharing whether the curve at the top is similar at your school? That is, do you have to be in the top 10% in each particular class to earn an A? Or does 10-15% get an A-, or some other variation...

Thanks!

Here is the curve at my current school (Top 30):

20-30% = A+, A, A- (A+ is discretionary and only given out in "exceptional" circumstances)
50-60% = B+, B, B-
15% = C and lower

As far as the distribution of A's, there is no set amount for each variation. It just depends on who had the best exams I guess. As long as you are the top 20-30% in any class though you are going to get an A.

Thanks for the reply Studebaker.

Anyone else care to share?

UVA:

Median: 3.3

All grades above and below are discretionary. Applies to all classes.

Overall GPA - Top 25% = 3.48; cutoff for LR this past year was 3.73 (top 25/400).

At Duke:

Numerical Grade Percentage of Class
4.1-4.3 0-5%
3.7-4.0 20-30%
3.4-3.6 15-25%
3.0-3.3 30-45%
2.5-2.9 15-30%
1.6-2.4 0-15%
1.5 or less 0-5% (a failing grade)

vamedic03 wrote:UVA:

Median: 3.3

All grades above and below are discretionary. Applies to all classes.

Overall GPA - Top 25% = 3.48; cutoff for LR this past year was 3.73 (top 25/400).

to give a little color to this, in my crim/civ pro classes the 90th percentile of all students my profs taught in the last 5 years is an A-, while in my torts class it's an A.

obviously it's not a "top school", but at Santa Clara the median last year was about 3.00

A/A- is top 8-12%
A through B- is top 45-55%

quakeroats wrote:At Duke:

Numerical Grade Percentage of Class
4.1-4.3 0-5%
3.7-4.0 20-30%
3.4-3.6 15-25%
3.0-3.3 30-45%
2.5-2.9 15-30%
1.6-2.4 0-15%
1.5 or less 0-5% (a failing grade)

wow that seems very generous to me... 60% of the class gets a B+ or better... is that typical of T14 schools?

Edit: actually it looks like its 45-60% sry.. my school has set percentages and I somehow neglected the range you gave..

Lawquacious wrote:

quakeroats wrote:At Duke:

Numerical Grade Percentage of Class
4.1-4.3 0-5%
3.7-4.0 20-30%
3.4-3.6 15-25%
3.0-3.3 30-45%
2.5-2.9 15-30%
1.6-2.4 0-15%
1.5 or less 0-5% (a failing grade)

wow that seems very generous to me... 60% of the class gets a B+ or better... is that typical of T14 schools?

Edit: actually it looks like its 45-60% sry.. my school has set percentages and I somehow neglected the range you gave..

Note the lowest required grade is a 2.9, and yes I think this is typical.

Northwestern


Grade Maximum % Minimum %
A+ 7 3
A 15 12
A- 15 10
B+ 30 15
B 35 20
B- 15 10
C+ 7.5 0
C 7.5 0

ASU:

A-range: 25+/-2%
A+ 0-4% (discretionary/exceptional)
A 10-15%
A- 10-15%

B-range: 60+/-2%
B+ 25-35%
B 20-30%
B- 5-15%

C-range: 15+/-4%


Last year, this resulted in:
Upper 10% 3.66 (A- average)
Upper 20% 3.49
Upper 1/3 3.34 (B+ average)
Median 3.2