In Law Schools, Grades Go Up, Just Like That

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/business/22law.html?src=me&ref=business


One day next month every student at Loyola Law School Los Angeles will awake to a higher grade point average.

But it’s not because they are all working harder.

The school is retroactively inflating its grades, tacking on 0.333 to every grade recorded in the last few years. The goal is to make its students look more attractive in a competitive job market.

In the last two years, at least 10 law schools have deliberately changed their grading systems to make them more lenient. These include law schools like New York University and Georgetown, as well as Golden Gate University and Tulane University, which just announced the change this month. Some recruiters at law firms keep track of these changes and consider them when interviewing, and some do not.

Law schools seem to view higher grades as one way to rescue their students from the tough economic climate — and perhaps more to the point, to protect their own reputations and rankings. Once able to practically guarantee gainful employment to thousands of students every year, the schools are now fielding complaints from more and more unemployed graduates, frequently drowning in student debt.


More at the link ---

[TexasObserver]

1. And no one will know they've done it!

Of all the cockamamie ideas ....

"I see here you have a D average - no make that a D+ average. When can you start for us?!"



Yeah, that will happen.


A third of a GPA point isn't going to be the difference in anyone's hiring.

[lunatica]

2. If lawyers are having a hard time we're doomed

They're already ubiquitous as it is. Next to morticians they're probably the most secure businesses right now. Especially banckruptcy lawyers.

[Berry Cool]

4. You are sadly delusional if you think law is a secure business.

Big law firms are laying off people left and right. The law students getting inflated grades are only in for a big letdown when they get accepted as first-year associates with their "terrific grades," only to be told the big firm that hired them now doesn't want them to come on board until NEXT winter or even NEXT fall, and in the meantime they're jobless and their many dollars' worth of student loans are coming due.

[JerseygirlCT]

3. I can't see how this protects their reputations in anything but the short-term

(while they continue to slide by on their previously high reputations).

If G'town (for instance) becomes known for grade-inflation, won't employers simply discount the GPA when it's from that school?