| Topic Name: |
AVOID NORTHWESTERN LAW |
| Message Name: |
Objective reasons why you should not go to NWU Law from a 2L |
| Date Posted: |
06/04/2002 |
| Message: |
If I had known the following a year ago, I would have chosen another top 15 school instead. Read on:
1. Unlike many other law schools, Northwestern Law allows professors to give out a total of 15% of C and C+ grades combined. You can verify this information at:
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/mainpages/curriculum/grading_policy.htm
Compare this with schools like New York University Law, which prevent professors from giving C grades to more than 2% of each section. I spoke with every professor in my first and second semester sections after I got my grades, and all of them told me that they gave out the maximum number of Cs and C+s.
2. Legal writing is not pass/fail at NWU Law, as it is at almost every other top law school.
3. There is no set median GPA that professors must meet. At Cornell, for example, the median is 3.3. Without a set median at NWU Law, the professors are not reined in from giving out the maximum number of low grades.
4. Remember, although explanations of grading policies accompany the transcripts that are sent to recruiters, many law firm representatives that I spoke to when they came to the law school this year (Linklaters, Kirkland, etc.) said that they ultimately adhere to their GPA cut-offs, which largely fell into the 3.3 area.
I am writing all this because, although my GPA is respectable, I am stunned and angry that many of my obviously brilliant classmates were stuck with grades they simply would not have gotten at another law school, and are going into recruiting season with mounting debt and few options.
|
|
