Graduated with Honor Forum

[sd1111]

Hi all, I know law schools provide honors for their graduates, like cum laude or specific honor for individuals like outstanding student in civil procedure, etc. I wonder are these honors important for job hunting or do these hornors state that the students are more excellent students? Whats the implication if a student reviece such honor?

As a non-native speaker, I am not familiar with the culture, which makes this question a little bit stupid. Thanks in advance.

[mvp99]

Honors help but mostly because of the GPA it represents. So the GPA, i.e. your grades, are more important. However, I feel honors are used by firms to indicate to the outside world that they have attorneys with good credentials without sounding douchy. No one includes their 3.9 GPA in their bio.

[sd1111]

Honors help but mostly because of the GPA it represents. So the GPA, i.e. your grades, are more important. However, I feel honors are used by firms to indicate to the outside world that they have attorneys with good credentials without sounding douchy. No one includes their 3.9 GPA in their bio.

Thanks for your reply. Based on my understnding, then other honor like which is rewarded to student who is more excellent in some specific area like criminal, constitution would be less valuable than the Cum Laude? By the way, your reponse is really insightful and interesting!

[totesTheGoat]

then other honor like which is rewarded to student who is more excellent in some specific area like criminal, constitution would be less valuable than the Cum Laude?

Yes and no. Most people know (to a certain degree) what Cum Laude represents. The "(insert dead professor's name) Memorial Award for Excellence in Criminal Law" honor is something that is certainly worth putting in a bio or on a resume, but it gives a person no reference as to whether it was earned simply because the honoree took one more criminal law class than his peers, or because he got a heinous criminal put in jail while working in the criminal law clinic at school.

[pancakes3]

some people put booking a class on their resumes, so I guess that could count as a "specific area" honor.