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“To those of you who are graduating this afternoon with high honors, awards and distinctions, I say, ‘Well done.’ And as I like to tell the C students: ‘You too, can be president.’”—former President George W. Bush addressing the graduating class at Southern Methodist University in 2015.
Law school grades are simply one indicator of your legal potential. Those little letters don’t define or determine your future.
It is the beginning of the 1L second semester, and by this time, you have probably received your first semester grades. If it didn’t go exactly as planned, you may be wondering how you’re going to survive the rest of law school. You may have worked harder than
Dear Career Advisor: Help! I am in the bottom (or middle) of my law school class in terms of grades. How am I ever going to find a summer internship? Signed, Feeling Low Dear Feeling Low:
At this point, educators can no longer subject students to the traditional norms of grading. COVID-19 is chaos incarnate, and the last thing on anyone’s mind is school. But the conversation cannot end there. Indeed,
Whether they are excellent or less-than-ideal, your grades don’t define you. You define you. You are worthy of this profession and we need you.
I’m not the only person who’s ever been shocked by a law school grade. Many, many other lawyers have been similarly gobsmacked and were forced to figure out how to dust themselves off and learn from it.
If you just received your first-semester grades and are wondering whether you’re going to survive law school, I’m sympathetic. I’ve been in your position. My first-semester law school grades were my lowest. They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t what I wanted or expected from myself either. And I’ve done what you
It was the day after Christmas, and the last thing I had expected was to look out my front window and see a tornado swirling in the sky across the highway. You’ve probably heard about the huge tornadoes that ravaged Dallas on December 26 and took 11 lives. Well, one of
The ABA has graciously invited me to write for its law school audience. In the first post, I wrote about why the law school you choose to attend matters. Without further ado, here is the second thing many of us wish we had known before starting law school: Your Grades
You know the feeling. You take an exam and walk away feeling fairly confident. Then when you get your grade, your first thought is confusion, perhaps even denial: “This can’t be right!” That series of events likely happens hundreds of times each year at law schools across the country. With the
Realize that everyone’s grades can improve each semester by honing study strategies. Students who did well can do even better. Students who ended up in the middle of the class can improve. And students whose grades placed them on academic probation can turn things around.