In a foul mood...

I'm just generally in a bad mood for all sorts of reasons, but one of them is my disappointing Law School grades.  With three grades in, I have a B+ and two Bs.

Not so bad, but that's with my two strongest subjects in there.  The remaining classes were my weakest.  The deadline for reporting grades is tomorrow, but it wouldn't surprise me if they're posted a lot later than that, especially for one prof who had to grade another prof's exams after having to take over the class on short-notice due to an emergency.

I'm worried about both exams.  Made big mistakes on both of them. 

Now, I do think my grades are fair.  I guess I'm just in awe that so many people kicked my ass.  Property was the real stunner.  I thought I nailed that thing, but if I got a B, that means that probably 10 other students, give or take, did a better job than I did.  Smart people in this class, no doubt. 

Also, the gravitational pull of the B is starting to dawn on me.  We have roughly a 3.0 curve at the school.  I think only about 10% get As, but there's a little latitude in there.  Not sure how many get B+ or A-.  Figure if another 5% or so get those grades, then we're talking maybe 8 people in a class of 50 would get something higher than a B.

I'm also hoping it works in reverse:  that on a 3.0 curve, that also means that only 8 people or so will get less than a B. 

This means that, in a class of 50, about 35-ish will get a B.  An unlucky 8 or so get less than a B.  A very smart 8 or so get more than a B. 

Also, it's hard to guess how you did in a class. I thought I did pretty poorly in my legal writing class, but when the points were tallied I was almost spot-on for being right at the mean.  I honestly feared a C in that class.

Torts?  Felt really good after that one, and did end up with a B+.  So, who knows.  Property, I honestly thought that was my strongest exam and I got a B. 

I'm hoping the gravitational pull of the B will also keep me from getting a C in Civ Pro and Contracts.  I should know tomorrow.  That's the deadline, but like I said, it wouldn't surprise me if I only knew one of them by then.

It sorta sucks knowing that I'm an average student.  I did work pretty hard on this and put in a lot of prep, even before the semester started.  It does remind me a bit of b-school.  I was always getting my ass kicked by the touchy-feely types in classes like organizational behavior and labor and human resources.  I was always getting my ass kicked by the engineers in all my quantitative classes.

In the end, I got a 3.5, which wasn't competitively graded, but if I had to guess, was probably about average for the program.

In Law School, it's looking a lot like I may end up with a 3.0.  Average for the program.

Of course, both b-school and law school attract a lot of driven people who want to do well because a lot of money can be at stake.  Figure you take the general population.  Only 1 in 3 get a bachelor's degree.

Of those, most feel like they have more than enough school and never go back.  Then, you have the folks who think about law school.  You pretty much need an average or better LSAT to even get into an accredited law school.  In the end, my peer group in law school might very well be representative of something like the top 4% of the general population.

(33% of population gets a bachelor's degree.  25% of them even think about going on for graduate school.  50% of them can't test well enough to get into law school.  That works out to roughly 4% of the population.  Being average in that cohort means you're at about the 98th percentile in academic chops.  Also, being top 10% means you're in the top 4/10ths of a percent of the population as a whole.  Sort of shows why it's hard to get an A.  Those percentages aren't authoritative, by the way.  They're just my guesses as to what they should be.)

Now, on the bright side, I won't have to spend all that time working on law review! 

Ah well.  Schtuff happens.  My only worries related to my GPA are that I won't maintain a high enough GPA to keep my scholarship.  I need a 3.2 and as it stands now, I'd have about a 3.08 if I pull Bs in my two other classes.

The other worry is that I would like to gain some experience working for a law firm before I graduate.  Preferrably a personal injury firm.  However, if my grades aren't good enough, I won't be able to score an internship. 

All in all, not the biggest deal.  Really, in the final analysis, I need to remind myself that my A plan at graduation was to hang out a shingle and start a solo practice.  Nothing has really changed about that.