Breaking News: Rest of Nation Follows Berkeley's Lead, For Once
Who knew that ginkgo biloba was the only thing holding Boalt back?
No sooner are the stinky trees gone, do we learn that both Harvard and Stanford Law Schools have decided to defer to Berkeley--at least as far as grading systems go. According to Above the Law, Harvard is abandoning its eight point (!) grading system in place of an Honors/Pass system. And Stanford, which took the same step several months ago, is replacing graduation honors (e.g., graduating "with distinction") with course-specific "book awards" that sounds suspiciously like AmJurs and Prossers.
Five thoughts come to mind:
1. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I don't mind Harvard and Stanford copying our system. But they should at least acknowledge it--not use this "some other law schools" crap.
2. Okay, so maybe they're actually copying Yale. But Yale prizes, though legion, aren't given for every course. Also, Stanford's "1 out of every 15" award is essentially a HH score with a 7% cutoff. The only difference is that it's indicated in the "honors" section of a transcript (where it's more noticeable).
3. I'm curious to know which grading system came first: ours or Yale's. I suspect the latter--but only because Berkeley's first stab at grade reform (in 1967) was Top (10%), Middle (80%), and Bottom (10%). Incidentally, I can't think of a worse system than that, although I'm sure enterprising readers have the requisite imagination.
4. Is our system better than these new versions? Due to the HH grade, we now have more grade differentiation than YLS, HLS, and SLS. And that's not even counting all of the AmJurs/Prossers awarded each semester. After all, it's only really the number of HHs you get (rather than H/P distinctions) that makes a difference in our super-secret class rank calculations.
5. SLS is abandoning individual Coif membership. For Boalt alumni, this award is pretty much the only way to indicate particularly good grades on your resume without looking like an ass. Up until now, Yale was the only law school to have fewer graduation awards than Boalt (that is, it had neither Coif nor in-house awards). Is this a good or bad development? Personally, I don't have a problem with graduation awards--why not give some kind of public recognition to people who earn reasonably good grades? If anything, I would say that the 10% cutoff (for Coif) seems a bit high to me. If class sizes were equal, then about 50 students per year at Columbia get awards that they would not have gotten at Berkeley.
(Note: Okay, I know the last two points have been done on Nuts & Boalts before. But all the people who posted on those are now doing doc review.)
Stanford Adopts Retroactive Grading Policy [Above the Law]
Not to be Left Behind, Harvard Changes Grading System Too [Above the Law]
No sooner are the stinky trees gone, do we learn that both Harvard and Stanford Law Schools have decided to defer to Berkeley--at least as far as grading systems go. According to Above the Law, Harvard is abandoning its eight point (!) grading system in place of an Honors/Pass system. And Stanford, which took the same step several months ago, is replacing graduation honors (e.g., graduating "with distinction") with course-specific "book awards" that sounds suspiciously like AmJurs and Prossers.
Five thoughts come to mind:
1. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I don't mind Harvard and Stanford copying our system. But they should at least acknowledge it--not use this "some other law schools" crap.
2. Okay, so maybe they're actually copying Yale. But Yale prizes, though legion, aren't given for every course. Also, Stanford's "1 out of every 15" award is essentially a HH score with a 7% cutoff. The only difference is that it's indicated in the "honors" section of a transcript (where it's more noticeable).
3. I'm curious to know which grading system came first: ours or Yale's. I suspect the latter--but only because Berkeley's first stab at grade reform (in 1967) was Top (10%), Middle (80%), and Bottom (10%). Incidentally, I can't think of a worse system than that, although I'm sure enterprising readers have the requisite imagination.
4. Is our system better than these new versions? Due to the HH grade, we now have more grade differentiation than YLS, HLS, and SLS. And that's not even counting all of the AmJurs/Prossers awarded each semester. After all, it's only really the number of HHs you get (rather than H/P distinctions) that makes a difference in our super-secret class rank calculations.
5. SLS is abandoning individual Coif membership. For Boalt alumni, this award is pretty much the only way to indicate particularly good grades on your resume without looking like an ass. Up until now, Yale was the only law school to have fewer graduation awards than Boalt (that is, it had neither Coif nor in-house awards). Is this a good or bad development? Personally, I don't have a problem with graduation awards--why not give some kind of public recognition to people who earn reasonably good grades? If anything, I would say that the 10% cutoff (for Coif) seems a bit high to me. If class sizes were equal, then about 50 students per year at Columbia get awards that they would not have gotten at Berkeley.
(Note: Okay, I know the last two points have been done on Nuts & Boalts before. But all the people who posted on those are now doing doc review.)
Stanford Adopts Retroactive Grading Policy [Above the Law]
Not to be Left Behind, Harvard Changes Grading System Too [Above the Law]
posted by Carbolic at 11:01 PM
6 Comments:
As far as whether the top 10% cutoff is too high, Boalt gives coif membership to more than the top 10%. This year, I think about 270 students graduated. The letter sent to coif members used some very careful language, along the lines of "Traditionally, schools ask the top ten percent of their class to join. This year, Boalt is inviting 34 students." (I'm probably slightly wrong about the precise numbers and wording).
270 is the number of 1Ls that matriculate. It doesn't include transfers. Assuming it's anything like years past, it will be close to 40 to 50 transfers. So something like 11% instead of 10%.
Following our lead. Smart move. Now if they would only wear smaller watches and stop popping their collars.
I still want to see the class rank/GPA cutoffs. Many then I will feel assured that at least one of the two class ranks I was provided is somewhat accurate.
Many = maybe.
I know that the coif cutoff for the class of 2009 was less than 3.6 at the end of spring 2008 (i.e. our 2L year). But Mindy don't say much else...
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