Top Law Schools

Can someone please explain to me, at what GPA curve, the standard posted below is? Is it considered a 2.7, or a 2.5? Or something else?

And I need to maintain a 2.8 GPA, what ranking/percentile do I need to be in roughly? The top 40%ish?
A, A-, B+ 10% - 15%
B, B- 35% - 40% (combined A/B grades not to exceed 50%)
C+, C 35% - 45%
C- & below 5% - 15%

Pman453 wrote:Can someone please explain to me, at what GPA curve, the standard posted below is? Is it considered a 2.7, or a 2.5? Or something else?

And I need to maintain a 2.8 GPA, what ranking/percentile do I need to be in roughly? The top 40%ish?
A, A-, B+ 10% - 15%
B, B- 35% - 40% (combined A/B grades not to exceed 50%)
C+, C 35% - 45%
C- & below 5% - 15%

The correct answer is don't go anywhere with a conditional scholarship.

Yes, Yes, I understand that! But nonetheless, I believe this is a 2.5 curve?

Maybe post in a more appropriate thread?

Pman453 wrote:Yes, Yes, I understand that! But nonetheless, I believe this is a 2.5 curve?

It's impossible to say. That policy gives a wide range of percentages for a wide range of grades. Depending on how individual professors decide to distribute grades, the class median could be pretty much anywhere in the 2.0-2.7 range.

cavalier1138 wrote:

Pman453 wrote:Yes, Yes, I understand that! But nonetheless, I believe this is a 2.5 curve?

It's impossible to say. That policy gives a wide range of percentages for a wide range of grades. Depending on how individual professors decide to distribute grades, the class median could be pretty much anywhere in the 2.0-2.7 range.

Gotcha. I have seen it on Wikipedia as 2.5 and 2.7 in another location. However, I am unsure how accurate it is.

Pman453 wrote:Can someone please explain to me, at what GPA curve, the standard posted below is? Is it considered a 2.7, or a 2.5? Or something else?

And I need to maintain a 2.8 GPA, what ranking/percentile do I need to be in roughly? The top 40%ish?
A, A-, B+ 10% - 15%
B, B- 35% - 40% (combined A/B grades not to exceed 50%)
C+, C 35% - 45%
C- & below 5% - 15%

That 40-60% of the class gets a C+ or worse - and even more students get B-minuses - gives me the shivers. I wouldn't recommend attending any school with a curve that low (let alone with a conditional scholarship). Many otherwise-less-competitive internships and jobs have a 3.0 minimum. That's going to be hard to get at a school where (in all likelihood) 50+% of grades given out are B- or worse (imagine the effect of a D and multiple C-band grades on your GPA).

QContinuum wrote:

Pman453 wrote:Can someone please explain to me, at what GPA curve, the standard posted below is? Is it considered a 2.7, or a 2.5? Or something else?

And I need to maintain a 2.8 GPA, what ranking/percentile do I need to be in roughly? The top 40%ish?
A, A-, B+ 10% - 15%
B, B- 35% - 40% (combined A/B grades not to exceed 50%)
C+, C 35% - 45%
C- & below 5% - 15%

That 40-60% of the class gets a C+ or worse - and even more students get B-minuses - gives me the shivers. I wouldn't recommend attending any school with a curve that low (let alone with a conditional scholarship). Many otherwise-less-competitive internships and jobs have a 3.0 minimum. That's going to be hard to get at a school where (in all likelihood) 50+% of grades given out are B- or worse (imagine the effect of a D and multiple C-band grades on your GPA).

Right, but I’m a bit confused with curve, dude to the fact, nearly everyone at the school receives a scholly, and around 40% lost their scholarship last year and 30ish the year before. So, if only 40%ish get B- and above, how does only 40% lose the Scholly, when 60% don't met the gpa stipulation? If my way of thinking is wrong and you have an opinion, please let me know.

It is very unfortunate that these schools set their curve to ensure as few students get jobs as possible. I know that misleading students into thinking sustaining their scholarship is easy if they only need a 2.5 is shrewd business, and that the governing law is law schools are not held to lower ethical standards to other businesses, presumably even pawn shops, casinos, and strip clubs.

Nevertheless, as Q mentioned, there are jobs that are cutoff to students because of this curve and seeing low grades on a transcript always gives a certain instinctive impression even if they later learn the student’s class rank is actually quite high. I think there is a way for schools to rip off their students without also harming their career prospects. These schools want to boost profits by misleading students into thinking their tuition will be lower than it will be, but don’t gain anything from ensuring they don’t get jobs. While these schools clearly do not care about their marks’ best interests, they don’t gain anything by giving them artificially low grades and more students getting jobs can help the schools’ marketing efforts and in turn get them more students.

I would honestly advocate a program where the ABA and courts allow these schools immunity from things that would otherwise constitute fraud to incentivize them not to superfluously harm their students when doing so provides no financial benefit. Permitting these schools to get away with some degree of fraud would make their students better off without making the schools worse off.

I know this idea is controversial and the whole premise of carving out a law that encourages low tier law schools to commit fraud seems sarcastic to the point of incredulity. However, when you think about it objectively, it really would make some people better off and no one worse off, which is what a good rule is supposed to do. There has to be a way for schools to ensure 60 percent of students lose their scholarships while making them believe their odds of retaining their scholarship are much higher that doesn’t require harming their employability.

OP, look, we all know that you’ll be the exception, but imagine for a minute that things don’t break your way. Where will you be then? Paying full freight at a bad school with bad grades.

Why risk that when you could just retake? It’s one test vs two semesters’ worth of tests. Plus you can mulligan the LSAT as needed.

At least don’t go to a conditional scholarship. Try to negotiate the stipulations away. If you can’t, then just don’t do it. It’s a well documented scam.