Legal Commentary

The Grading Scale for ?Internal Use Only? at Harvard Law

By Orin Kerr

From the Harvard Law Record:

Harvard Law School has shifted its grade publication policy again, according to Student Government representatives who met with Dean Martha Minow last week. The new 5.0 GPA scale that the Law School will use to calculate Latin Honors will no longer appear on the reverse side of current students? official transcripts.

This latest alteration comes only a few weeks after the administration acknowledged publicly that it had made material changes to the grading system, including moving to a new GPA scale to calculate Latin Honors.

The new system, put in place after faculty recommendations, closely resembles a traditional 4.0 GPA scale. It awards a student five points for each Dean?s Scholar Prize credit, four for each Honors credit, three per Pass credit, two for a Low Pass credit, and zero for a Failing grade.

. . . ?Because the numerical equivalents are really for that one internal use only [to assign ?Latin Honors? such as Cum Laude], the administration was considering whether to discontinue putting the numerical equivalents on transcripts,? Law School spokesman Robb London said. ?When student leaders expressed concerns about including the numerical equivalents on transcripts, Dean Minow agreed with them and decided that the numerical equivalents would no longer appear on the transcripts.?

So basically, Harvard Law has a traditional grading system: an ?A? is called ?Honors,? a ?B? is called ?Pass,? and a ?C? is called ?Low Pass.? But, it seems, they don?t want employers to know that. 

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on October 20, 2010 (boomark / email).