Still haven't checked my grades, what there are of them... I have too much to get done to deal with the possible emotional fallout. This post from a fellow blogger, and the comments that follow, illustrate the hazards of riding this roller coaster.
It reminded me of a conversation I had with my 1L friends last week. I'd already told them up front what my GPA was, that I thought it sucked, that I thought it wasn't representative of what I could do, etc. etc. I just don't think it's worth keeping that kind of thing a secret. The demoralization of grades is exacerbated by the fact that they are endured in isolation, leaving you to feel like you are the only loser and everyone else is kicking your ass. When that isn't true at all. Especially with curves. Your crappy grades are shared by 50% of the class. People should talk about these kinds of things candidly - why suffer alone?
So I pointedly reassured my friends, "I will still like you even if you get C's."
To which one responded, "What if I get A's?"
"Only if you still like me."
Edit: I joked on the other person's site that if it weren't for all of us on the lower end of the curve, there wouldn't be another end for anyone else to be on. We make the people there look good :-)
But it raises a serious point: the law school process is essentially defined by its outliers: people at the upper eschelons of the grade distribution. They do the law review, they get the large firm jobs... What about everyone else? Since "everyone else" really equals "most of us," it seems counterproductive to have a system that effectively ignores the contributions and potential of most of its participants.
Comments (3)
The rest of us do get jobs, just not at the big firms. The failing of law school is that the profs and (especially) career services, seem to know nothing about anything except the big firms.
Mark
Posted by Mark | January 23, 2005 2:06 PM
Posted on January 23, 2005 14:06
My profs and CDO know that big firms aren't necessarily the only path. My issue is that the law as an institution doesn't convey the alternative as a viable path. The practice of law becomes exclusively self-defined by the experience of the few. That's the shame.
Posted by Cathy | January 23, 2005 2:11 PM
Posted on January 23, 2005 14:11
My experience was that prof's and the carreer office "knew" that there were jobs out there other than the big firms, but they knew next to nothing about these options expect that they must exist.
Posted by Mark | January 23, 2005 3:31 PM
Posted on January 23, 2005 15:31