Night Students Already Ruin Your Class Rank, Do They Have To Ruin Your Graduation Too?

Commencement: emphasis on the "meh."

Oh night students, better known to law school deans as “amazing fountains of money.” The schools milk them for four years of tuition to do two years of work. But a lot of regular students resent night students because they don’t have to take a full course load, yet their grades are counted alongside day students when it comes to class rank.

(Note: this isn’t as much of a problem for schools that can get Biglaw jobs for students outside the top 10 percent.)

At one school, regular day students aren’t just competing with night students for class rank and jobs. They’re also competing with night students over the very scheduling of commencement ceremonies.

Competing, and losing….

A tipster at Suffolk University Law School tells us that the school has been making some big changes to the commencement schedule to accommodate night students and undergraduates:

Just got an email from the University President moving Commencement to 10 a.m. on a Monday… 1/3 of our class of 2013 is in the evening program.

We were told in October that our ceremony would be at night to accommodate the night students. This is after our commencement was moved to a weekday earlier this year so the undergrads could get more tickets to their graduation.

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Well, why don’t you just mail them their diploma with a coupon for a free burrito at Store 24? Or an application to work the register?

Look, having your commencement at 10 a.m. on Monday screams “afterthought.” It’s what happens when you get your certificate in air conditioner repair. It’s what happens when you get your class C driver’s license.

When you get your law degree, there should be some pomp with your circumstance.

And how does Monday at 10 a.m. “help” the night students? Isn’t Monday at 10 a.m. exactly when these night students should be at their “jobs”?

But maybe I’m behind the times on this. Maybe law school graduation should have more of a “meh” feeling. After all, it’s not really fun to celebrate “commencing” paying off your loans.

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