What are good grades in law school? Forum

[fwaam]

So I happened to see the resume of a recent law school grad the other day, and noticed that he'd included his GPA to three decimal points--a 3.125. That seemed a little low to be bragging about on a resume. So my question--and I realize that different schools have different curves--what are good grades in law school, generally speaking? Is this guy's GPA actually impressive, or is he just inept about formatting his resume? Looks like I'm going to have to be prepared for a significantly lower GPA than I had in undergrad...

[bradley]

Not very impressive. At a top 10, probably less than median (which, in any year prior to 2009, would probably still qualify for BigLaw). At anything less than a T20, it's probably pretty poor.

[katjust]

At L&C anything above 3.20 in any semester (except 1L) is scholar list. 3.30 is cum laude. The curve here is 3.00. So, a 3.1 here is a little above median, but not a bunch.

So, it depends on the curve. I think that there are still schools that have a B- curve so that GPA might be pretty decent at such a school.

[A'nold]

My school curves to a 2.7 so and that dude's GPA would be Dean's List there, so yeah, if his school's curve was low, it was probably a pretty good GPA.

[thesealocust]

oops

[ScaredWorkedBored]

This is why it's common practice to list GPA *and* rank on the resume, and everyone talks about what their rank is. Huge difference between having a 3.45 on a 3.3 median and having a 3.45 on a 3.0 median.

[nealric]

This is why it's common practice to list GPA *and* rank on the resume, and everyone talks about what their rank is.

Yes, although you shouldn't expect it. Many schools (usually T20 types) don't rank.

[Aqualibrium]

Good grades in law school are about top 1/3 imo. At a school with a B- curve a 3.0 = top 1/3 = good grades. It all depends on the curve if you want a hard numbers comparison.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Given that Boalt is such a GPA whore- it's a surprise that they don't even have real grades in law school..