| Topic Name: |
ban the LSAT |
| Message Name: |
The problem |
| Date Posted: |
01/09/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
Let me first admit that I am an engineering major, so that is where my biases lie. That said, tyson's analysis of the effect of grade "inflation" in liberal arts classes on UG GPA is completely correct. On Columbia transcripts (and I can only speak from experience) the percentage of the class that received a grade in A range (-, ,+) is listed. For lib arts classes (CU's core curriculum forces engineers to take many of these) the number is usually between 60-65%. For engineering classes, the number usually lies between 25-35%. The mean UG College GPA is a 3.3; the mean Engineering is a 2.8. Does this mean that lib arts majors are "smarter"? Does it indicate that engineering classes are "harder"? I would venture to say that neither conclusion is valid. What is supported from this, however, is that lib arts classes are graded on a more generous scale and that the ??average?? lib arts majors will have a higher GPA than the corresponding engineering student. Consequently, when law schools consider UG GPA, it may be a good idea ??and only fair - to (as suggested earlier) both weigh the major and institution (which the LSAC report attempts to do). There is certainly no ideal system to judge a candidate??s "worthiness" or to predict their eventual success in law school. That being the case, every effort should be made to level the playing field by attempting to standardize (or normalize, for you physics types out there) all student??s GPA's. |
| Message: |
comes when you aren't talking about the "average" student -- let's for the sake of argument assume that you are right -- the average GPA in the humanities is higher than the average GPA in the sciences. Why should this lessen the value of my ABOVE AVERAGE humanities GPA? I graduated with honors, and it's not like it was "easier" than graduating with honors with a science major.
Besides, if we are going to talk about things that are "easier" we need to distinguish the fluffier humanities majors from the more rigorous disciplines. Are you putting masscom / communications majors into the general humanities category, for example? What are we even talking about?
It's all sort of strange to argue about in relation to law school admissions, anyway. Unless you are one of the VERY few hard sciences people who took extensive humanities classes on the side, most science peeps do not have the preparation necessary to go into a field that is so reliant on verbal skills. UC Berkeley forces all their science-peoples to take english 1A&B, and let me tell you, most of them can't write a coherent sentence.
Is it possible that a little bit of this is anxiety that your math / science degrees have not prepared you well for law school? Or maybe you will be fine because you are good at the humanities stuff too but are worried that your classmates / adcomms will assume you are science geeks? I give props to the science peeps and expect props for my humanities related accomplishments.
Everyone needs to get off the sciences-are-better-than-humanities tip -- glad to hear that some of you have.
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