| | I'm sure many of you have read the recent NYT Article, In Law Schools, Grades Go Up, Just Like That. I have enjoyed reading the comments of the article, which span from adamant support of tossing out the old regime to total disdain for a generation often described as entitled. I must admit, the article gives me a sinking feeling in my stomach, especially as we approach the Fall recruiting season. I fantasize about the minimal, or complete lack of, anxiety students at schools with no grades must be experiencing as they head into the process. What is most striking to me is that quite a few schools with students who compete with Columbia students for employment have made the determination that eliminating traditional grades altogether, or altering the curve, is in the best interest of their students. Even our friendly neighbor to the south has made alterations to its curve. This begs the question, what are Columbia's justifications for not rolling with the tide?
This topic has obviously received great attention in this course, but I still think this article is an interesting read. I would love to hear any comments or reactions people might have. | | | -- RyanSong - 25 Jun 2010 | |
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< | Haha, that school was Rutgers, which might be the best law school in New Jersey. Not to take away from that edifying example - I think the organizers of the rather poorly attended AABANY event were considerate in selecting panelists who graduated median from schools like St. Johns and Brookly and Rutgers so they can be examples of success to their currently lost student members. However, just from my conversations with some of the lawyers and students present, and from hanging out with my fellow interns, I think ironically students at lower ranked schools already know that they'll be alright in the long run, that they'll be lawyers, they'll learn how to set up and sustain a practice and the rest of their lives are by no means determined by one year or even three years of grades. I was so surprised to see that all the other law interns at my bureau at the Queens DA have done so much substantive legal work during the school year (supervisor passed around mini-bios of all of us) such as working part-time during the school year for small law firms. | >
> | Haha, that school was Rutgers, which might be the best law school in New Jersey. Not to take away from that edifying example - I think the organizers of the rather poorly attended AABANY event were considerate in selecting panelists who graduated median from schools like St. Johns and Brooklyn and Rutgers so they can be examples of success to their currently lost student members. However, just from my conversations with some of the lawyers and students present, and from hanging out with my fellow interns, I think ironically students at lower ranked schools already know that they'll be alright in the long run, that they'll be lawyers, they'll learn how to set up and sustain a practice and the rest of their lives are by no means determined by one year or even three years of grades. I was so surprised to see that all the other law interns at my bureau at the Queens DA have done so much substantive legal work during the school year (supervisor passed around mini-bios of all of us) such as working part-time during the school year for small law firms. | | | Artificially inflating grades without actually messing with the curve is ridiculously futile when the whole point of a curve is to help employers rank us as compared to our classmates. As someone who has done well in some classes and poorly in others, I don't think grades are arbitrary. An individual grade reflect to a fair enough extent understanding of and effort in a class. At least at school, due to blind grading we are not being evaluated for our personal relationships with those in charge of keeping score of our non-social performances. Thinking about the future, what isn't arbitrary and at least somewhat based on seemingly meaningless factors. Like what is "fit"? At my internship the only lawyer who is ever asked about his kids, the only one whose children have been brought into the office to play, is the bureau chief. As long as we work for others, their moods and perceptions an idiosyncracies control us. At the same event I met a young lawyer who took two clients he met through his former employer and started his own. I was impressed by the simplicity of his business card and that he will never have to compete to impress a partner or senior associate, just do his work for his clients. | | | Finally, with respect to the Times Most Emailed section, it is relevant to note that an article on "Catios" also enjoyed a multi-day stretch as "most emailed" article in recent weeks.
-- DevinMcDougall - 26 Jun 2010 | |
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> | Grade Inflation seems to be a hot topic for the New York Times right now. Today, the Times published an article about increasing numbers of valedictorians at US high schools. It talks about Jericho High School, a high school in a wealthy Long Island town, where there were 9 valedictorians. The article presents two sides to the argument over the trend of "inflation": (1) students are getting better, so we should recognize it and (2) the more valedictorians we name, the less meaningful the title gets.
I think the second argument holds true for law school grades as well. The more that we tinker with them, either by imposing and changing artificial curves or by just adding points to GPAs to make students "more competitive" in the job market, the less meaningful they get. The title valedictorian was once one that was given to just one student, the top in the class. Now, it is impossible to tell what it means. If a 6.5% of a high school class gets the title valedictorian (as at one of the high schools mentioned in the article), the meaning of the term has completely changed. And as a result, people will give it less deference.
My main hope is that the media coverage of repeated changes to law school grading systems eventually induces people to rely less on law school grades. Right now, many judges and employers use them as a way of ranking students against each other. If they are unstable, as they appear to be, they can no longer be relied upon to do this. Hopefully more and more people will recognize this and will consider the applicants themselves for clerkships and positions as opposed to meaningless numbers, rankings and honors.
-- DavidGoldin - 27 Jun 2010 |
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