second?

why not add 0.3? Why 0.1?!?!?!
is 0.1 even enough?

Hate to break to USC but its the name on your degree that's hurting you in the job market, not that .1 GPA difference.

*This just in*

GW sees USC's .1 and raises them 50 basis points.

Two can play at this game (or 180).

Morons.

USC Sucks.

That's right Dude; they pee on your fucking Rug.

Sure, it's a dumb-sounding idea, but it might actually have a reasonable effect, especially for those at the borderline of say 3.5 or 3.6. An extra 0.1 (on average) makes them look much better. Unless you're talking about a firm that has strict GPA cutoffs, you'd imagine that there's a fair amount of eyeballing / estimating that takes place when firms decide whether to extend a callback or not. No matter how stupid it might sound, there's a definite psychological advantage to a 3.7 over a 3.6 or a 3.6 over a 3.5.

Lastly, the only schools that have horribly deflated GPA curves are usually the bottom-tier law schools, which need to distinguish their few stars from the rest of their class. USC might not be great, but it's not quite a Widener or Appalachian either.

Can't spell SUCKS without U-S-C

"I go to USC" is law student speak for "I couldn't get into a T14."

You're right, the thousands of USC Law grad partners at top firms that fuck your girlfriends while you're reviewing documents are hurt by having USC on their resumes.

That having been said, at least SC finally has a four point scale. The old 90 point scale was utterly ridiculous, and definitely required some splainin at call-backs.

10: Sounds about right to me, but I thought that was more Texas or soon to be, GULC.

10 - BS, if you want to be in CA, specifically LA, USC is better than several T14s.

Unnecessary. The law firm scouts should know that median kids at Gould could star on any other school's law review. Remember that year they had two Supreme Court clerks on the same masthead?

This is retarded. My school's policy was that the average grade is a 3.17. USC sucks ass and that is why they get shat on by the BCS

Frankly, I prefer the average USC law student to the average UCLA student. After interacting with students from both schools, I have found the UCLA students to be socially awkward and difficult to work with; worse, some seem to struggle with basic legal research skills.

It definitely makes sense for USC to adjust their grading scale to match peer schools.

Someone's grading policy got Juiced!

Would anyone recommend BigLaw if they had to do it all over again?

Good god, this is poorly written.

Let’s all rip USC to help overcome our own insecurities! Some of you need to realize that USC grads work in the same office, for the same hours, and the same pay as you. And that burns you deep down.

- Not a USC alum

Frankly, I prefer the average [ ] law student to the average [ ] student. After interacting with students from both schools, I have found the [ ] students to be socially awkward and difficult to work with; worse, some seem to struggle with basic legal research skills.

Why hasn't USC's grading policy fallen in line with other peer schools like Peoples College of Law and Golden Gate?

Is this how USC got ranked so high in the BCS too?

Who knew so many USC law students read ATL.

This is a joke. Keep some standards.

Isn't the whole point of reporting class ranks that ranks permit firms to compare students from School X where the average GPA is 3.16 with students at School Y where the average GPA is 3.29?

One of the most prominent law schools in the country, USC Law offers a forward-looking, interdisciplinary legal education guided by nationally renowned professors and informed by the diversity of a friendly and collegial student body.

Our speakers go up to 11!

28.1

27: I want to live in one of the largest and most dynamic cities in the world and attend a school that offers myriad opportunities to apply the law to real-world problems through partnerships with some of the world's leading companies and law firms. Would Gould offer this as well?

It isn't going to matter. Even is USC doesn't rank, I'm sure it releases its 50% GPA and 25% GPA. Firms' "grade cut-offs" are merely markers for their estimated class rank cut-offs. So, firms will just ass this 0.1 to their requirements for USC and this whole thing won't matter.

So. Fucking. Stupid.

I thought only Cravath got to ass things.

Well, how do you think UCLA got to their current GPA? I doubt it's been that way for decades.

GPAs are arbitrary numbers anyway.

That said, their system proposal should be quickly seen as flawed mathematically. I'd hate to be a 2L or a 3L at USC!

@31

USC only releases the Top 10% cut off.

You know what really hurts USC students in the job market? The fact that they went to USC. Maybe if they had gone to a real law school rather than a joke for rich kids they wouldn't have such troubles.

Great idea, terrible post.

(35- come up with an original comment, dummy.)

USC undergrad is a cesspool of entitled and marginally intelligent rich white kids.

1. The USC change in grading is dumb.

2. If you want to compare students from different schools, do so by looking at the school's US News rank and the student's class rank. It isn't rocket science. If you're torn between two candidates from different schools and you are comparing their respective GPAs, then you are a moron.

11 = unemployed USC 2L.

What a joke of a school.

38 - only TTTs rank.

37 -- when was the last time you were on campus? 1985?

In light of this move by USC, I think Wayne State's new pass/pass system deserves some consideration - http://tinyurl.com/57lzqq

Wow, a lot of these comments are really hilarious.

"George is getting angry!!!"

Who gives a shit about any of this, stop measuring your abilities by the institution you attend and work towards the career you want. This is the nerd version of penis measuring.

41 -- when was the last time you had brie without chablis?

44 - when was the last time you got the beans above the frank?

I know it's pointless to argue with you all about this but it'll make me feel better.

As a first-generation, low-income alumni of both USC undergrad and USC Law I hate hearing the "spoiled children" stereotype. I got through both undergrad and Law on a ton of scholarships - and I'm not the only one. I have a job at a large Los Angeles firm that I got partly because I went to USC Law.

So, say what you want (and I know you will) but USC Law is the most diverse top 20 law school and there are scholarships for those who don't have a mommy and daddy who can pay for everything.

Personally, I'm a bit peeved at this whole grade reform bit as my GPA will seem lower in future years, but whatever. In the almost ten years since I've graduated, I've never had a problem getting a job and I often get interviews and offers because the interviewer is a USC alum.

34- Wouldn't releasing more cutoffs be an easier solution to the problem (not to mention the fact that it wouldn't hurt alums like 46)?

lol @ 43

Apparently the first rule of grade inflation is you don't talk about grade inflation. My T14 has a 3.3 median. They didn't have it 20 years ago and yet never got bashed for the change. What's the median at the T15-20? If it's a 3.3 then this makes sense at the margins.

Wow 46, I really like that USC Law is the most diverse of the nation's top law schools, because the diversity of experiences and ideas among students enriches the overall educational experience by providing new, broad perspectives on the law and its effects on diverse communities and professions.

"my T14 school".... hahaha just come out and tell us the school you attend, you transparent twats.

"The quality of students at USC law school has risen dramatically in the last decade. Nonetheless our grade curve has not changed to reflect this improvement."

Maybe because its a . . . . wait for this . . . . its a CURVE????

Elie you moron, what a stupid analogy

"The third reason is hilarious because they're trying to use UCLA as cover. Can't you imagine UCLA football saying "USC has won all these championships, but our football program is as good as theirs. So, we just made up a PAC-10 trophy and stuck it in our trophy case. Everybody wins!"

USC and UCLA for the most part compete for the same jobs. UCLA curves at 3.3, USC curved at 3.2. Fact is this made USC students look worse, so now USC curves at 3.3 also. How in the hell is this like UCLA making up a Pac-10 trophy? A reasonable analogy would be like Utah joining the Pac 10 so as to get as much credit for wins as USC, not to make up champions you dumb fat bastard.

Elie you moron, what a stupid analogy

"The third reason is hilarious because they're trying to use UCLA as cover. Can't you imagine UCLA football saying "USC has won all these championships, but our football program is as good as theirs. So, we just made up a PAC-10 trophy and stuck it in our trophy case. Everybody wins!"

USC and UCLA for the most part compete for the same jobs. UCLA curves at 3.3, USC curved at 3.2. Fact is this made USC students look worse, so now USC curves at 3.3 also. How in the hell is this like UCLA making up a Pac-10 trophy? A reasonable analogy would be like Utah joining the Pac 10 so as to get as much credit for wins as USC, not to make up champions you dumb fat bastard.

Serious question. Why do Elie's posts sound so bitter and angry of late?

The lighthearted, sympathetic, sarcasm of six weeks ago is gone. Now Elie is just mean, mean, mean. Is this what we've done to him? Is this what he thinks we want?

Elie you moron, what a stupid analogy

"The third reason is hilarious because they're trying to use UCLA as cover. Can't you imagine UCLA football saying "USC has won all these championships, but our football program is as good as theirs. So, we just made up a PAC-10 trophy and stuck it in our trophy case. Everybody wins!"

USC and UCLA for the most part compete for the same jobs. UCLA curves at 3.3, USC curved at 3.2. Fact is this made USC students look worse, so now USC curves at 3.3 also. How in the hell is this like UCLA making up a Pac-10 trophy? A reasonable analogy would be like Utah joining the Pac 10 so as to get as much credit for wins as USC, not to make up champions you dumb fat bastard.

Jeez, I never knew so many USC students read this site. I guess when you have T14 envy...

Elie you moron, what a stupid analogy

"The third reason is hilarious because they're trying to use UCLA as cover. Can't you imagine UCLA football saying "USC has won all these championships, but our football program is as good as theirs. So, we just made up a PAC-10 trophy and stuck it in our trophy case. Everybody wins!"

USC and UCLA for the most part compete for the same jobs. UCLA curves at 3.3, USC curved at 3.2. Fact is this made USC students look worse, so now USC curves at 3.3 also. How in the hell is this like UCLA making up a Pac-10 trophy? A reasonable analogy would be like Utah joining the Pac 10 so as to get as much credit for wins as USC, not to make up champions you dumb fat bastard.

First of all, I wanna thank God for giving everybody so much, and me, so little. I hate you, I hate you, and I don't even know you and I hate your guts. I hope all the bad things in life happen to you, and nobody else, but you. And as I stand here sippin' the soda that I'm sure somebody spit in, I just wanna say yall can kiss my ass you rotten motha-fuckas. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go home and put some water in Buck Nasty's momma's dish. Good evenin'!

56, Elie's analogy is actually acceptable. Affirmative action beneficiaries can make analogies that are three times worse than those of regular people.

Why don't you tell me 51 since it's so transparent. The point was that higher ranked schools have engaged in the same process. What's the difference?

53, 54, 56, 58: you moron, you only have to hit "Post Comment" once. You dumb bastard.

Ahaha #59, you rule.

Good job SouTTThern Cal. This will certainly help your GW / BU / UNC Chapel Hill "second best in town" complex.

49, you nailed it. peer schools curve at 3.3, so it made sense to do this.

Ahaha #59, you rule.

Q: "Why don't you tell me 51 since it's so transparent. The point was that higher ranked schools have engaged in the same process. What's the difference?"

A: "George is getting angry!!!"

Q: "Why don't you tell me 51 since it's so transparent. The point was that higher ranked schools have engaged in the same process. What's the difference?"

A: "George is getting angry!!!"

Q: "Why don't you tell me 51 since it's so transparent. The point was that higher ranked schools have engaged in the same process. What's the difference?"

A: "George is getting angry!!!"

TRIPLE POST!!!!

52 = funniest comment of the day!!!!!!!

This kind of thing pisses recruiters off. They know that GPAs from each school vary. They set their cutoffs accordingly. So next year, when a firm walks in with the same 3.5 cutoff as before, they're going to be pissed when floods of true 3.4s think they've got a shot.

It's just piss-poor excuses from the administration to think that raising the boats is the best way to make students shine. No, it doesn't. We "get" it. We know what a 6.2 from Harvard means, and what a 177 from Chicago means. In fact, the recruiters for USC are probably USC alumni who know what the curve looks like, know what's a "good" GPA, and hire accordingly. I don't know any recruiters who go to a tier-one school without a working familiarity of good/bad GPAs, relative to that school.

Fiddling while Rome burns, I guess.

Someone link to goatse and complete the Nerd Circle.

Why is Elie so upset over this? All the grammar checks and jabs taking their toll? What a sour tone, almost like reading feministe.com

"Where I go to school, as illustrated by the comments I leave on Above the Law."

35: clearly an East-Coast (Yale) snob of the highest order or a Boalt Hall snob. Either way, you don't even remember what a grade looks like due to your own overly-generous grading policy. Get over the "proud history of your school" and realize that 1) Yale is in the armpit of Connecticut and produced Clarence Thomas and; 2) UC-Berkeley s in the armpit of the Bay Area and gave us some dirty hippies.

23: The BCS, like any median GPA at a school that institutes a grading curve, is decided by both computers and people and is equally arbitrary. My guess is that you go to Boise State Law School or Ball State Law School. Maybe you even go to BYU and plan on starting a family law practice focusing on polygamist custody battles over child brides. Quit reading ATL and hit the books a little harder so you have time to watch your team in the KFC-failure-pile-in-a-sadness Bowl.

15. I'll bet money that you go to UT-Austin because only a person still reveling in Vince Young's last good game ever would write that. Your school is more white-bread than a Duke Lacrosse egg-salad-sandwich-eating-and-stripper-assault party. I bet your school makes bathtub gin and plays in a jug band on the weekend.

3. You clearly go to UCLA. You are clearly at the UCLA-mandated 3.3 median. You are clearly upset that I, and now everyone else on this blog, knows that.

"Where I go to school, as illustrated by the comments I leave on Above the Law."

35: clearly an East-Coast (Yale) snob of the highest order or a Boalt Hall snob. Either way, you don't even remember what a grade looks like due to your own overly-generous grading policy. Get over the "proud history of your school" and realize that 1) Yale is in the armpit of Connecticut and produced Clarence Thomas and; 2) UC-Berkeley s in the armpit of the Bay Area and gave us some dirty hippies.

23: The BCS, like any median GPA at a school that institutes a grading curve, is decided by both computers and people and is equally arbitrary. My guess is that you go to Boise State Law School or Ball State Law School. Maybe you even go to BYU and plan on starting a family law practice focusing on polygamist custody battles over child brides. Quit reading ATL and hit the books a little harder so you have time to watch your team in the KFC-failure-pile-in-a-sadness Bowl.

15. I'll bet money that you go to UT-Austin because only a person still reveling in Vince Young's last good game ever would write that. Your school is more white-bread than a Duke Lacrosse egg-salad-sandwich-eating-and-stripper-assault party. I bet your school makes bathtub gin and plays in a jug band on the weekend.

3. You clearly go to UCLA. You are clearly at the UCLA-mandated 3.3 median. You are clearly upset that I, and now everyone else on this blog, knows that.

harvard to move from pass-fail to superpass-sorta pass

75 you sound like a smart kid, probably Irish and short in stature.

USC students smell like poop. In addition their facilities suck sweaty balls.

75/76:

I'll bet you are from Twin Falls, Idaho. Your mother was a seamstress and your father a bank teller. At the age of 12, you broke your arm. You went to high school in Portland, Oregon before attending the University of Arizona for undergrad. You are exactly 24.5 years old.

Look, making batshit insane guesses that are probably way off the mark are fun!

It's a shame that Rasmussen is doing this.
He had a good reputation at Vanderbilt (BTW- Vandy has a 3.1 1L curve). Sad to see him so shamelessly sell out in an attempt to bolster the credibility of USC in such a crap manner

80, you have no idea what you are doing by anonymously going after 75/76...

He and I will literally come to your home and beat you with a mackerel, fished only this morning.

82, I'm sure you won't do it personally when you could probably get your butler to do it.

83, is that tired old "USC Students are rich" all you can come up with?? Really???

Seriously, what a horrible insult. If it were true, I bet it would really hurt. "Wow, I sure am rich.. :-[ Time to go hang myself..."

Creative shot, Mr. Burns...

46- you never had trouble getting a job because you are a URM parasite off of dumb people's guilt

Lat would never report the news in such a bitter spiteful way. The ATL crowd is ready to jump ship, we just need a good alternative site to forward news etc.

You'd think such an easy job could be handled a little better. All Elie has to do is sit in a comfy couch, wait for news to roll, type CAREFULLY and slightly clever ways to report it and... voila! Job well done. But this seems unattainable

72: Even if attorneys coming to interview at a school have a "working familiarity of good/bad GPAs" at the school (which is a highly suspect assumption in a lot of situations), that doesn't account for the Lateral attorney seeking employment 3 years out. Bottom line, a 3.6 GPA looks a lot better than a 3.3 GPA, even if it doesn't change ones class rank at the time they were in school. The 3.6 GPA gets an interview, the 3.3 gets tossed in the trash.

Wow 85.

Really, just because 46 is not rich and white he/she couldn't have possibly, oh, I don't know, done well at a highly ranked undergraduate and law school and get a job because of merit along with the alumni network?

Stereotype much?

Dean didn't even send out the letter. He had Aly Parker the SBA president send it! She wrote she is "very, very pleased" in the e-mail. Barbie!

USC kids are all rich. BAMM!

UCLA kids are all asian. KABLAMMY!

Stanford kids are all ugly. ZOWIE!

Berkeley kids are all hippies. WHIP-POW!

Irish people drink a lot. BOOM.

Southwestern kids...um... go to school in Koreatown. TA-DOW HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW?

What is this, the white-collar-comedy tour? Are you Larry the billable-hour-guy?

Get 'er ding dang billed

I love that 85 assumes first-generation means non-white. There are plenty of low-income Caucasians who are the first in their families to attend college. I know many of them.

"I have lots of white friends..."

LOL at 2Ls at USC who have no job because they couldn't either 1) get into a T4 school or 2) get a 0.1 higher GPA.

- CLS 2L Stud

USC sucks. At life, at football, and at law.

Elie --

Why can't you just fucking report on a news story, and not add in your lame-ass editorializing? It's always stupid, senseless fluff. Until you can do it right (and make it free from silly grammar and spelling mistakes), omit it! Please! FOR THE LOVE OF ATL, STOP!

Student 1: "Hey man, ever seen a poor Caucasian? I heard there's one out in the woods"

Privileged Law Student: "You're lying!"

Wannabe-frat-boy law student: "Let's all go out into the woods to see him!"

Law Student who never had any friends in college:
"C'mon guys, let's go, I've never seen one before...."

Nervous home-schooled law student who wears a leather bomber jacket and penny loafers: "Oh, I don't know about this guys....Sounds dangerous"

[cut scene: three law students dressed in jeans and chuck taylors, carrying laptops and backpacks walking down a dirt road..
cue music: "Stand by Me"]

46-
Congrats on all your hard work. The bottom line is that you can still write a check to get your kids into USC undergrad, and probably USC law. There may be less of them, but douche bag trust fund babies still run the show at your alma mater. I would imagine they're no longer exclusively white, but douche bags nonetheless.

Give me a break. Law schools uniformly adhere to blind LSAT/GPA grids though grade curves vary by school department and major. Undergrad schools also have vast disparities in class-dropping policies so that nobody in some schools need ever suffer a C, D or F. Stanford or Brown anyone? This has been the subject of MSM reports over the years.

God forbid any lesser school join the Lake Wobegon school district of the Ivies and other assorted scams. The horror!

Most of you managed to get into law school without the wit necessary to appreciate the hilarity of Comment 97, a fact that should be shocking to me but isn't.

Hah ha ha Barbie! 89- she DOES look like Law School Barbie!

LOL at "CLS 2L Stud" who has AIDS and no SA offers.

- USC 3L Stud who bills hours at a V5 firm professionally fistfucking CLS 2L Stud's retarded mother.

101! I'd make her 'very very pleased'! Wooooo!

This post is mean--unnecessarily so. USC raised its median to be consistent with that of its cross-town rival and other peer institutions. So what? Get over it.

USC SBA Prez Aly Parker is hot, but pretty dumb for thinking this will help USC - U are SCrewed. Have fun explaining your GPAs after this, rich kids.

72 is spot-on. Employers know how the game works. All this crap about school-to-school GPA comparisons is absurd.

What's next, USC? PEANUTS and CHEESE for all your students -- just to make sure everything's all evened up?

It's not AboveTheLaw until someone breaks out the sexism.

102-
Is AIDS at USC as giant sized as it is in Texas?
-Kirk Herbstreit

I'm disappointed by ATL's Snarky commentary.

Do any other schools have better reasons for setting their curve where they set it?

USC should get rid of grades altogether to be more in line with its peer schools: Yale, Cal, and Stanford.

ATL has declined in this law student's esteem.

This ranking obsession has gone too far.

It's really great that you bring sexism/assumptions about people into this.

I know Aly Parker, many of her friends, and other students at USC Gould, and from what I have seen and heard she is a great leader and a very nice person.

This commentary about her and USC students is unnecessary and pointless.

101: Calling a tall blond woman "Barbie" is funny?! Really?! You are human paraquat.

I bet you also think mentioning that a fat guy with a white beard looks like Santa is funny too. Or calling a short guy an oompa loompa. You suck at life.

I bet you have the First Season of "Home Improvement" on dvd. You turd sandwich.

I bet this is the most entertaining thing you have done in your 1L/2L/3L year. You black-hole-of-fun.

Your collective lack of a normal sense of humor is astonishing. You should all be tucked away in a dark cave to bill hours until you don't need your eyes or ability to speak anymore; the legal equivalent of the worm people from the Descent.

I want to force-feed you all LSD-25 until you develop normal human personalities. Asphinctersayswhat?

"Law stud" -- a law student that bangs horse-faced female law students.

106: The fact that you think Partners/Associates on hiring committees actually take the time, have the time, or even have the inclination to learn schools' grading systems is hillarious.

... "Home Improvement" was awesome.

"most simple" ? Elie - you're undoing grammatically all the good Jared did for Subway visually. Isn't this blog well enough off to provide you with a copy editor?

how is adding .1 any worse then changing to an all out pass/fail system, at least USC still gives real grades, and btw Los Angeles is the biggest legal market in the United State and USC is not a bad place to enter into it.

Bashing Aly is going too far. She is one of the smartest, most diplomatic, and inclusive students at USC Law. Students have been begging for some sort of grade reform and the fact that she helped bring it about (and yes, she did help) shows just what a great leader she is.

has atl replaced xoxohth.com?

There's a lot of diversity at USC. I drive a Mercedez. My friend drives a BMW. My other friend drives a Jaguar. Heck, we even have people that drive Vipers and Aston Martins! How dare you call us non-diverse!

Where can I find a pic of Aly Parker?

116: "how is adding .1 any worse then changing to an all out pass/fail system . . . ."

No matter how many .1s you add onto your GPA, it will never make up for your ignorance on the difference between "then" and "than."

i wish my school would do this. If nothing else, it would at least help me feel better about having only one testicle.

I'll second 121.

1) Raising it .1 is as arbitrary as being proud of yourself for being in the top-14 law school in the country (but if US News says it, it must be true). Maybe we should make it T-8 or T-16, but that wouldn't make as much sense as T14.

2) Most of you T-14 nerds don't even get grades at all, so chill out. Perhaps you're concerned SC personality + a .1 higher GPA = less offers for you? If so, I honestly pity your insecurities as I am confident they extend into all facets of your lives.

Who in the world would want to go to a school with these chicks?

http://www.trojanwire.com/football/usc-2-hottest-student-body.php

-Yale (aka 'gay harvard') 2L

120 - Have you ever heard of the google and its image search? Your research skills are TTT.

Google "Aly Parker USC Law." There is a pic of her on the website. She is way hotter in real life. I'm trying to find a pic of when she used to model - they said she used to model when she spoke to us USC 1Ls at the beginning of the year.

PS She is hella cool too - her speech was about baseball!

Elie's inability to grasp simple concepts (not to mention simple grammar) is fascinating:

"Free points for everybody, because halfway through the 2008/2009 school year USC decided that law school was just too damn hard."

"Even the school's stated reasons for this version of grade cheating..."

"Can't [sic] you imagine UCLA football saying "USC has won all these championships, but our football program is as good as theirs. So, we just made up a PAC-10 trophy and stuck it in our trophy case. Everybody wins!"

Free points? Grade Cheating? Make-belief trophies? Really Elie? All that happened, far as I can tell (even though you did a decent job of burying it) is UCLA curves at 3.3, USC curves at 3.2. They adjusted their curve to match a peer school in a peer market. UCLA by no means has 'pac 10 trophies' and USC certainly doesn't have a bottom of the pac10 team. You're losing it.

Re: 121
Why do tools obsess over immaterial grammatical errors?
Sorry...circular questioning.

Does anyone know what the bonuses are for Pittsburgh Biglaw, especially Eckheart Seamans?

US News and Reports Ranks USC Law #1 for hottest women.

No lie.

Does anyone dispute this?

as a t10 law student, i think i should chime in here. :)

i'm sure usc is a great school and they seem to place well in southern cal and have a large alumni base. but people are silly comparing usc to a t14. i don't compare michigan to harvard and yale nor should i (although our football team would give harvard quite a handful even if we didn't win).

-nervous T-10 1L
email job leads to nervoust101l@yahoo.com

3 dings and counting :(:(:(
177 pending...

All you T-14 snobs need to remember something: you're not being hired because you're "smarter". The truth is that you are not any smarter than someone who score a few points lower on the LSAT and/or went to a state school because he couldn't afford the tuition at a private school.

You're being hired because the brand name on your degree will attract clients who are dumb and easily impressed. And for most of you, once you are finished with your 3-6 years of golden-handcuffed indentured servitude in salt mines of BigLaw, the reality of your own weaknesses will come crashing down on you like a ton of bricks.

129: Because, unlike you, some of us work in good law firms that don't want typo-riddled briefs.

But hey, good luck getting a job as a lawyer without basic proficiency in English grammar.

124

59 - Long live Dave.

73 - www.goatse.cx (it's dead though)

80 - Twin Falls, Idaho? Are you a Built to Spill or Ben Folds fan? Good song anyways.

ATL generally - damn, it really burns some of you that smart kids can go to T2 schools on scholarship and still get the same BigLaw™ jobs.

You've got to be kidding -- this MODEL chick is the one who came up with this idea? Wow -- this is too good to be true.

Why are people at USC so idiotic that they vote a MODEL to be a student rep? And USC students are so dumb that they can't google image?

Yes -- USC is in the running to be in the top ten now. They allow ex-model student baseball-aficionado Aly Parker to determine the curve?

Hate to break to USC but its the name on your degree that's hurting you in the job market, not that .1 GPA difference

Aly Parker is a mid to bottom tier women as far as looks go among fellow Female USC law students.

This is not a slight to Ms. Parker-the competition is just that fierce.

Also, polls not withstanding, USC is the best college football team in the country right now.

I wish USC could play Florida for the championship, that's the only other team that could hang.

124 - hit the nail on the head

138 - must be the subject of point 2 of 124

134
hmmm...
comparing nerdy lame law dork web site postings to real life...
tool?
See http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tool (I think definition 4 is most fitting here).

133 is a joke.

139- I am a 1L at USC. You MUST not go here. Aly Parker is easily the hottest girl on campus. Have you seen her in her work-out clothes?

Plus, she gave me a bomb GPA.

And she is funny.

I would marry this girl.

Back to studying/fantasizing about Aly Parker.

What's a t-14? Is that like a t-3 with 11 extra schools tagging along for the ride?

USC beats the crap out of UCLA.

A few things:

1) Aly Parker is one of the coolest, nicest people I know.

2) We go to school on a campus that looks like a resort and is full of beautiful and happy people and is 80 degrees all the time.

3) We are a kickass school nationally if you are upper 1/3 and a kickass school in California if you are just about anywhere near the median.

-USC Alum

I worked with Aly Parker and she is actually very smart. Is she single now? I want to get her to boost my GPA.

142--No, I wasn't kidding.

144

It's T5-T14 telling themselves they chose their school for better financial aid. You know, to help them go to bed assured that they are, in fact, intelligent.

146, Aly Parker is THE coolest person I know.

I'd take USC over UCLA any day. Top 50% of USC get good jobs. The competition isn't that stiff.

"* Several of our peer schools, notably including UCLA, have recently revised their own grading curves upward to reflect current quality of the student body."

What a joke. The school is saying that students are smarter, so they deserve better grades?

137 - You are a fucking doucheface. Just because someone is attractive and has done something in their lives that doesn't involve reading law blogs all day and talking about firms doesn't mean they are unqualified to be the SBA president. I know Aly, she is very smart, outgoing and has done a good job running SBA this year. Just because she likes baseball and has the looks to do some modeling doesn't make her any less qualified.

Go to hell.

I bet most of these negative posts are by UCLA students with T14 envy and Texas students pissed they chose Texas over SoCal and have now a higher hurdle to get there after school.

-Not affiliated with USC

SO IS ALY PARKER SINGLE? What are my chances? She did always wear spandex.

152:
How the **** do you think grading policies are set, ****tard?
Or maybe like this...
Yale: "we are stupid, so we should get rid of grades."
Cal: "regular grades are way too good for us."

USC basically offered me a free ride. I went to a top 10 instead. Word.

This is meaningless. USC is not a "peer" of the T14 schools and the job "funnel cloud" shows it. USC places maybe 1% more of its people in BigLaw than schools ranked 25-35 do, and their students go to the same NYC/DC off-campus interview with the same screening criteria as UCLA/MN/IA/WI do.

The rest of UCLA v. USC is Los Angelas d-baggery and the UCLA dominated law firms will continue to hire from UCLA and the USC firms will continue to hire from USC.

ok. I don't usually do this but did it anyway. I took the advice of some posters above and googled "Aly Parker USC Law." I got some interview page.

I have one question and two observations. First, the question:
What is a B.A. in Honors Communications? Is Honors Communications better than regular Communications?

In response to a question asking what she wants to do with her law degree, she responds: "Ultimately, I will use my law degree to help people without law degrees."

Ok, errr..... seems a bit vague, no? Helping people without law degrees? Kinda like all those doctors wanting to use their medical degrees to help people without medical degrees and those engineers wanting to use their engineering degrees to help people without engineering degrees.

Questioned about an accomplishment or ability of hers that people might not know about, she responds "My roommate holds the record for Ms. Pacman at the laundry place near my apartment. Seriously."

I suppose, her roommate holding some record can be interpreted by people without law degrees as her accomplishment or ability. Is that a “no” I hear?

Go here to read the "interview"
http://law.usc.edu/students/sconnect/article.cfm?newsID=956

149 = 157

75. Jealous because he's getting his ass kicked by BYU law students in the job hunt! We only wish they would stick to family law.

Hate hate hate.

I don't see the big deal...

From what I've heard, UCLA curves to a 3.4 and so does Vanderbilt.

USC curves to 3.2 even though the admitted students got roughly the same scores/grades.

Not all legal employers know about the "median" GPA ...and the most important legal employers already understand the concept of class rank anyways.

So, basically, all the admins are doing is turning an arbitrary number into a slightly higher arbitrary number.

Thank you 153. Aly Parker is great and she was pretty much the only person who talked to me for like the whole semester our first year at USC. She also spends a lot of her time volunteering. She doesn't deserve to be thought in terms of her looks because despite being so pretty she is very humble and one of the most generous people I've met; and this is my whole life; she is not an exception just in law school.

god. what a bitter bunch of dickheads. the interwebs is full of complete douchebags. 1 - 162.

164: LOL

Wow. It's like all the douchebags of the world got together and built a website where they could congregate.

166: Yes, I agree, there are a lot of USC folks here.

ooo good burn.

That interview is hilarious! Is she being serious? And she is from SOUTH BOSTON? Could she be any trashier?

I thought they didn't let poor kids into USC. She probably volunteers with poor people because she feels more comfortable with them than in a firm. Good luck finding a job, model!

166: Kill them. With FIRE.

Well that's just plain mean. Could be worse, she could be from the IE.

USC has made a point of cutting down enrollment over the past few years so that their percentages are better. This means that the curve might be harder. But to try and have both seems to be having your cake and eating it too. And before you start, yes I was admitted there and was given a massive scholarship, but decided to go elsewhere. No hard feelings.

Aly Parker is one of the the smartest and most charismatic people I've ever met. We went to undergrad together and she is an extremely hard worker, and completely self-made. She went through hell to come as far as she has (I just found out she is at SC Law - cheers!) and it makes me sick to hear people who have never met her comment on her life and judge her.

167: Too damn funny and true.

By the way, UCLA curves to 3.3 and when they did revise the system they didn't make it retroactive for current students.

- Perfectly happy Bruin who turned down the amazing USC and somehow still has a BigLaw job.

166--actually, you're thinking of AutoAdmit.

Rather late on the west coast here but it seems everyone missed the point (or points as it were).

Short Story: My high school teachers AND college professors used to throw points out at the students during class by holding an imaginary bag and pulling imaginary points out of the bag and strewing them on the entire class like confetti while repeating something to the effect of "points, points, here take all the points you want."

The point is: all grade and point systems are fabricated and imaginary; any administration at any time can add a .1 or subtract a .1 and so forth.

Judges are also capable of arbitrary behavior so it is good practice for being a lawyer.

USC law students are not particularly rich. USC undergrads are. USC law students take out student loans just like everyone else. USC Law is also generous with scholarships. Not a lot of full rides, but generally enough to bridge the gap vs. the UCs.

This girl Aly Parker is hilarious. Wow! This was her idea? Wow -- she obviously didn't major in Honors Math at BC.

I would totally do her, though.

178: Aly Parker will always be awesome, and you will always be a tool.

Hey Choads.

I don't think the SBA President has the ability to change the school's grading system.

175: this site has become autoadmit and xoxoxoxoxo all rolled into one douchebaggy package.

I think UCLA's curve seems something more like a 3.2, hard to say though

Never understood how people get so riled up over the minor differences between these schools. Both are good but not great schools.

Trojans have a hilarious chip on their shoulder re UCLA.

It's because UCLA has the better basketball team.

182, UCLA curve is 3.3

156,

You wrote "152:
How the **** do you think grading policies are set, ****tard?
Or maybe like this...
Yale: "we are stupid, so we should get rid of grades."
Cal: "regular grades are way too good for us."

They raised the curve because their students got "better." Yale got rid of their curve. Two very different things. Then again, this may be difficult to comprehend for a Trojan.

Hahahaha you're all a bunch of tools

Yea. Tools.

Aly Parker's poop is a cure for the gout

University of Southern Californians.
University of Sorority Chicks.
University of Sorority Children.
University of Spoiled Children.
University of Spoiled Californians.
University of Spoiled Chinese.

Any others?

University of Southern Californians? Seriously? Who was your mentor? Pauly Shore?

E-Thugs Unite. Hate online because you can't in real life. I wonder if your keyboard smells like poo, or has your thumb been out of your ass long enough.

Think your school is better than ours? Well, guess what? I will prove it is not!!! How? See the following list:

1) I can beat you in Egyptian Rat Screw
2) I have fewer nipples than most of you
3) I can beat all of your basketball players in a Geography Bee
4) My hair smells really good today
5) Mm, i mean really good
6) Hey lookin good too...
6) Steady...
6) No one is looking...
6) mmm yes

AAAAHHHHHH FUCK

*wipes ego off the mirror*

Standford's GPA is set at a 3.3.

USC Law students -- girls and guys -- are far more attractive than any other graduate program -- T14 or otherwise. I should know, I went to UCLA and my buddy went to USC. While he was hanging out with "Barbie" and the rest of the hotties, I spent my 3 years swimming in a sea of Hasians.

University of Snappy Comebacks
University of South Carolina
University of Synchronized Caterwauling
University of Sassy Chickens
University of Smoking Chronic
University of Slippery Catfish
University of Snorting Cocaine
University of Swashbuckling Cuthroats

Only one person on this blog has shown signs of human life: the dude with one testicle. 122.

I think all you "indoor kids" on this blog should leave the library, walk out onto the street and repeatedly smash yourselves in the groinal axis with Black's Law Dictionary until you can feel something other than the overwhelming sense of self-importance that has sustained your pathetic, shallow lives until this point.

Then make a giant phallus out of the piece of paper that is your law degree, drop trou, and stand on the corner saluting the phallus until a crowd gathers and tells you what an important and amazing person you are. If they don't show up immediately, it's ok; the talent scouts from Paul Hastings, Baker McKenzie will be sure to see the size of your diploma-schlong from their high-tech-asshole-detecting satellites.

As a final coup de grace, find another boring law student and reenact the Kama Sutra using your diploma phallus, all the while chanting "US News and World Report, the greatest news source in the world, validates my existence and my school's ranking gives me Sampson-like strength."

ALERT: XOXOHTH.COM IS PLANNING A COUP - THEY ARE IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING A FIRM LAYOFF CHART AND ARE POSITIONED TO TAKE MARKET SHARE FROM ATL.COM....DEVELOPING

/ _ \
/ __ \
(drudge siren)

All your base are belong to us

192-

Hey, man, sorry if we offended you by using anonymity to insult your sensibilities.

But listen, It is just out of fucking line to say that my "keyboard smells like poop" or to insinuate that I have my thumb constantly up my [rectum]. That's really gross. I am a serious student. This is all I have. I may not be pretty, or "able to interact with people on a social level," but I do still have my dignity. All that I really want to say is WOOOO FUCKIN HOO GO MY SCHOOL YOU SUCK BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT SMART AS ME!!!!!

If you can't allow me to do this without your petty insults, all I ask is that you leave me my dignity.

Mr. T wants to eat your balls

198 -

That's not even proper English, Goon Sire!!!!!!! ^____^

Some perspective: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_school_GPA_curves

Of the T14 that have curves, Stanford used to be, Cornell is on the more generous side. Duke, UVA, and Northwestern are generally in the middle. Michigan and GULC are on the stricter side.

The others are either pass-fail systems (Boalt, Yale, soon to be Harvard & Stanford), or undisclosed (Columbia, NYU, Penn). Chicago, of course, is its own beast with its weird system that's known to be tough.

get up
get on up
get up
get on up
and DANCE
:D-<
:D|-<
:D/-<

197: IT HAS BEGUN...i knew this day would come...

the second coming of xoxohth.com, we just needed the anti-christ elie to come before xoxo could rise like a phoenix.

Some more educational internet perspective, from someone who cares:

http://www.planetperplex.com/img/sofitel_toilet.jpg

Thank Jesus that we have Wikipaedia (the Encyclopaedia that anyone can edit!!) Master to conduct that search for us!

Now we can get to the root of this all. Thank you. Really was waiting for someone to come in with some information to counteract all this silliness. Now we can get back to the serious task of comparing law school prowess.

Next you are going to tell us about google.

This guy rocks bell curves and loves to post on ATL:

http://www.planetperplex.com/img/sofitel_toilet.jpg

This is boring. Can we go back to talking about the art of douchery?

Dear Lat/Elie,

As much as I've enjoyed Aly Parker and friends coming to her rescue in the comment section this evening, it seems only fair to follow standard ATL policy and delete all Aly Parker references to protect her name from future employer google searches.

With that said, could some Aly defender please link to a better picture of Ms. Parker than the one that comes up from google image search. That's a beastly photo.

USC post attracts an interesting crowd

USC post attracts an interesting crowd

USC post attracts an interesting crowd

What a mean and unfair article. Why the USC hatred, Elie? My guess is pure sensationalism to increase clicks. So, SC set the curve to be in line with its peer school UCLA. What's the big deal? Why didn't you bash UCLA when they set their curve? Pathetic. How about bashing NYU or Stanford for abandoning grades?

I suggest you delete this article to regain some credibility.

Why the USC hatred? We're a highly selective national law school with a 100 year history of academic excellence. We boast a collegial student body, beautiful weather, and an attractive student body. What more could you ask for? Moreover, we are on par with peer schools such as UCLA, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Texas, and Vanderbilt. (you can't just measure everything by U.S. News) We're more than numbers.

Please stop listing fellow classmates on this blog.

Everyone delete yourselves.

213: Because USC did it retroactively when their kids couldn't get jobs in a crap market. Plus, adding .1 and switching grading systems altogether are different.

213: seconded
The original posting is ugly and some of the commentary is worse, actually to the point of being embarrassing to the legal profession.
This would be typical at other web sites, but I thought ATL was better.

I am so embarrassed. Everyone quick: take yourselves too seriously, because this is not what is wrong with the legal profession.

Bunch of pretentious assholes being themselves.

juicylawschool.com

Here I come to save the dayyyyy. That means that self-righteous prick is on his way!

197's "(drudge siren)" wins.

Everyone else = epic fail.

Sounds like one of those midlevels at Hastings is working late and getting a little testy....

I'm going to come to your house, give you a bad performance review, make you sign a non-disclosure agreement and give you only a week's severance pay!

LIVE IN FEAR

This whole section reminds me of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_xqLaj0tvM&feature=related

fyi, from the memo sent to USC students:

>>>If adopted by the faculty, the revision of the first-year curve will be effective in the current semester and will be applied in future years. The first students it will affect are the current first-year students (the class of 2011). This change will not be retroactively applied to grades earned previously by students or graduates.<<<

Funny, this whole section reminds me of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH8gtrD4_C4

why is there no article, or comment, about Mr. Price, and Arent Fox, and the fact PC is the new AG????

if thats not a topic on this board, what is?

1. this was a funny and good post

2. after going to a t6 and spending the summer in LA, i realized UCLA are much nicer people than USC students, it's not even close

3. USC students are half retarded if they think the .1 boost will help them get biglaw jobs in any way. maybe it'll help them get small firm jobs where they have no clue how the curve of the various schools work, but do you really think the big 3 or S&C or Skadden or whichever else firm doesn't adjust for grades when they look at your resume?

How is this any dumber than Harvard graduating the "top 70%" as cum laude back in the day? or changing that ridiculous standard to "top 45%" or whatever it is now?

look at all the worried law students. ha! Not even bright enough to figure out it's all bullshit.

228 - your English is embarrassing to T6.

Actually, this whole page is embarrassing.

231, as you can see, i wrote that at 5:19 in the morning. it's been a long night

anyone who is concerned about this 0.1 point shift probably also believes that law school grades are not somewhat random.

Good luck with that.

law schools should get rid of curves, it sets up classmates as competitors instead of team mates.

at least they aren't going P/F like several joke law schools.

classmates are not team mates...WTF

Once again, everyone can't just be happy with doing their best and realizing that sometimes their best isn't enough. Welcome to the "Everyone Gets to Be Student Of The Month Generation".

How does one get a 3.2 in Torts?

229

Surely Harvard Law School does not graduate over half of its class with "honors"??? That would certainly attract a comment clusterfuck of disdain and horror!

the P/F system is a joke and is utterly useless. At least USC is trying to be on par with its peer schools. Why can't NALP just create a sample grading curve that schools have to abide by?

It's a little stupid that some schools have tougher curves than others. It just gives students from those "easier" schools an easier time, and then creates this adjust-the-curve-slightly-till-it's-no-longer-a-curve game that you are seeing here.

238 = Fails. One gets a '3.2 in torts' because a curve mandates so.

Let me explain, there will be a student that gets a 3.2 in torts (or its equivalent) at a top ten school.

There will also be a student that gets a 3.2 in torts at Cooley Law.

Does this mean that each students has an equal understanding of torts? That neither student 'understood' torts?

This would never happen at Hofstra.

Doesn't UCLA have a 3.3. curve? If so this make sense. I wouldn't want to be the USC grad competing with a UCLA grad down the line.

"Well you see here, my 3.4 is actually equal to his 3.5"

169 = total MORON. "South of Boston" != South Boston"

There are lots of suburban towns south OF Boston, like Weymouth, that are nothing like the part of Boston known as South Boston. Idiot. I'm glad you'll be nowhere near my firm when/if you graduate law school (assuming you'll even get a job). We require our associates to have a minimum level of reading comprehension.

This is stupid. Elie, how can you get worked up when a school takes an arbitrary average grade and adds .1 to make the school's average at par with other schools' GPAs?

I could understand if law school grades were objective in the sense that a 4.0 meant the student got everything right on the exam. But a 4.0 just means you were better than everybody else, even though you may have only gotten half the answer right.

Pretty women get bashed for being pretty.

Ugly women get bashed for being ugly.

Average women get bashed for being average.

So sad that there are so many misogynists on here.

USC just got rick rolled.

I was at Duke when it switched from 3.1 to 3.3 - I have to say it was a good move even if it makes my 1L grades even more mediocre. This only affects the middle, not the top 10 % or so.

I am sure that it affected my ability to get jobs at some firms (but it worked out). I can recall my callback at Fried Frank, one 2d-3d year douche said "What's with your grades, I thought we had higher cutoffs." I actually laughed. Then when I explained we had a 3.1 median, he argued with me.

Anyway, I am very happy not to be at that firm, but it is not unrealistic to think that other firms and people with better social skills at least thought the same way, even if they did not come right out and say it.

fun times.

116- you're an idiot

It's funny how worried people on this website are that USC's proposed grade adjustment might actually do what it is intended to do: even the playing ground, which is currently skewed do to YOUR schools' grade inflation.

125- Thank you
129- We obsess over grammatical errors because lawyers get paid to do thing PERFECTLY.

250 here, *due to...

250- lol. do THINGS perfectly?

251- lol. do THINGS perfectly?

214-
Vandy has a 3.1 1L median, is ranked better than your school, and our old contracts prof is now your dean.
PWN3D

ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER ALY PARKER

Thank you for getting my joke
- 250

255 - And you play computer role-playing games on Friday nights. Please stop saying "pwn" and "pwn3d" around here.

46: "Alumni" is plural. You are a USC alumnus.

Way to prove a point.

My alma mater had a 3.3 median. And so do many schools in the west. I don't see why all you little pu**ies are bitching about USC changing the grading scale to match. It makes perfect sense.

248: Yeah, Duke having a 3.3 median didn't exactly help my chances when I was at UNC Law, which has a median 3.0 curve. It gave Dukies not only an advantage b/c they went to a higher ranked USNews school, but also a higher curved GPA. I guess there's a reason you pay a higher tuition.

Side note: I always found it funny how many professors taught classes at both UNC and Duke. If you think about it, Duke students are paying three times as much to have the same professor teach them the same material. I guess it's arguable which students are more intelligent.

261: as a UNC grad, you should know that it's spelled "dook."

Has anyone run the numbers on this plan? Doesn't seem like it works out exactly as they predict.

261 - UNC does just fine in DC. And you could always console yourselves on the job front with more realistic options made possible by that $5k/yr tuition.

I didn't take any classes from UNC profs, although I heard the admin law guy was good.

Yes, I heard the administration ran the numbers on their special machine: http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/MickeyMouse-Calculator.gif

Is this a student body initiative or an administration initiative, who exactly is running the show?

Also, did they make sure to CC the NLJ 250 about this plan? It will be nice when employers merely take .1 off of everyone's GPAs, hurting people disproportionately who don't game the system.

2Ls next year competing with 1Ls with complete grade inflation will have a fun time! And clerks!

this is an initiative by the same type of people that want gov bailouts of shitty companies

An ATL story on USC and all the d-bags come out of the woodwork.

Coincidence?

Re: Aly Parker

Its hard to respect anyone that went BC undergrad and USC law.

Two of the most douchiest schools on god's green earth.

269: Wow, you are made for this profession, if you judge people solely by what school they attended. I'm sure you get along in the office with everybody who went to the same TTT school as you did. Trolls, trolls everywhere!

So many opinions! I will offer mine as well.

Look, I am from the Northeast. I got into a number of excellent law schools, among them NYU, Michigan, Duke, Penn, Texas, Vanderbilt, USC, and UCLA. I had never heard of the term "T14" or any similar nonsense. Additionally, I did not have a great desire to join a so-called "BigLaw" firm (another term I had never heard before) upon graduation, as I view the privilege to work well over two thousand hours a year just to earn a touch more than $150k to be a bit overrated. (As a sidenote: there are, in fact, many people who attend law school with the desire to use their education to have a positive impact upon the society around them.) So how could a legal profession "noob" like myself possibly choose the right law school?

Looking at the numbers offered by US News and some other sources, I determined that (huge surprise here, prepare yourselves) there is no great difference between any of these schools. The students are amazingly similar in numerical achievement (no, those two LSAT points do not differentiate you all that much, sorry), the schools are powerhouses in their regional job market, and the faculties are all prodigious authors of published, scholarly works. I was confident that I could not make a wrong decision by choosing one of these fine institutions, so I looked at less academic factors. I like big cities, so I eliminated Michigan, Vanderbilt, Texas, and Duke. I was rather tired of cold, dreary winters, so I eliminated Penn and NYU. If you're keeping score at home, this left UCLA and USC. These two law schools, I thought to myself, are so similar in every measurable way that they may as well be the same place. Thus, I decided to make a few visits to each school to get a better handle on what life is like at both.

I was amazed by the friendly atmosphere (bordering on camaraderie) at USC. I asked a few students why this place did not meet my expectations of a quiet, sullen mausoleum of studying and stress, and they all answered the same way: the weather is great, and the school does not rank its students, instead giving 10% cutoffs each year. Alright, fine, I thought. The weather is great at UCLA, too, so perhaps those students are just as happy. This was not the case. UCLA was much closer to the stereotypical law school environment. I returned to UCLA three more times and found the same atmosphere each time. That settled it--I was choosing USC.

This proved to be an excellent decision. I made a great many friends, never once found myself too stressed or panicking, was almost happy to attend class each day, and received the job offer I really wanted. I am proud to have been a part of USC Law School.

I must say, I cannot really understand the vitriol I am reading. I can only assume it is coming from stressed law students and hen-pecked first- and second-year associates at big firms whose bitterness has overrun any joy they may have had for life prior to entering the legal profession. You have my sincerest condolences.

As it relates to the point of this article, we can surely agree that most, and perhaps all, law school grading systems are a bit arbitrary. If USC believes that making its grading curve as high as UCLA's, why should it continue to adhere to its current system, which is just as arbitrary as anything else they might devise? Truly, those of you thumping your chests and declaring your "T14" allegiances with such pride are missing the point. First, USC is primarily competing in the Los Angeles job market, and the biggest "competitor" is UCLA. Since these two schools are six one way, half a dozen the other, does it not make sense to align their grading systems? Second, as I have stated above, you are unlikely to be demonstrably better than those who attend schools such as USC, UCLA, Texas, or Vanderbilt, and this notion many of you possess that most students attend these four schools I've just mentioned because they "can't get into a T14" is fallacy. Many of them have simply made a different decision than you have. Why be so divisive?

271,

You got into NYU and you went to USC? Idiot.