Students at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles suddenly got smarter. The law school has increased the grade point averages — retroactively — across the board to make graduates more attractive in a tough job market. Loyola is not alone in such grade revisionism.
Loyola students will receive an added 0.333 to every grade recorded in the last few years. According to the article below, at least 10 law schools are also engaging in such grade revisionism, including New York University, Georgetown, Golden Gate University, and Tulane University.
Stuart Rojstaczer, a former geophysics professor at Duke who now studies grade inflation, explained “[i]f somebody’s paying $150,000 for a law school degree, you don’t want to call them a loser at the end. So you artificially call every student a success.”
The problem is that these transparent marketing efforts undermine the credibility of all grades — robbing them of any determinant meaning. Ironically, it is analogous to the current view of the law in general, as noted in last week’s column.
Source: here.
Elaine,
And the restaurant has such an appropriate name too!
Buddha,
My husband’s fave females are Catherine Zeta Jones and Kim Basinger.
**********
AY,
We’re going to have a great wedding! Lots of delicious food, wine, and good friends and family. We’re having the reception in a restaurant housed in a lovely historic building. My daughter worked there when she was in high school and college.
http://www.thelyceum.com/events.php
One lives to be of service.
Besides, I have to give Elaine the top shelf material after that lovely Rachael Weisz montage she gave me for my birthday.
Hmmmmm.
Rachael-icious.
Buddha,
That was great. The only problem is I did not think of it first.
Elaine,
Congrats indeed!
Best of luck on all the transitions in you life.
We’ll keep a light on for when “Our Lady of Lyric” returns.
Ooops, I forgot the reference from one of my three favorite movies:
Terry: You don’t understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it. It was you, Charley.
~On the Waterfront (1954)
Elaine M:
Many congratulations!!!!
JT:
Think they’d go back 26 years or so with that retroactive grade inflation.
“I could have been a “contenda’.”
Elaine M.,
Sorry about your mother. Have fun in D.C. and I am sure you are planning a wonderful wedding for your daughter. Good to hear from you. Mike S. has been on and off for a while.
Not that our justice system is working so well to begin with… but we’re sure it’ll get better when we let more idiots work in it… Actually I think they may even have a point there, if the system had something to do with ‘just this’ and wasn’t all about conserving interests.
Buddha,
Even the Jesuits! Who knew. I guess it’s a good thing that I sent my daughter to Saint Anselm, a small Benedictine liberal arts college where there is no such thing as grade inflation. The school was often referred to as Saint No A’s or Saint C’s by the students.
**********
P.S. I know I’ve been A.W.O.L. in recent weeks. I’ve been focused on plans for my daughter’s upcoming wedding and with elderly mother matters. My mother was hospitalized in early May and is now living in a nursing home. We family members have been trying to help her with her transition to her new living quarters.
I’m heading off to D.C. this weekend for the American Library Association Annual Conference. Grace Lin, a children’s author and illustrator who is one of my dearest friends, will be receiving a major award (a Newbery Honor Award) for her fantasy novel WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON. I know this is off topic–but I’m so proud of her!
I hope to be back commenting regularly after my daughter’s wedding in July.
Kind of a slap in the face to the students that got their A’s and B’s the od fashioned way, by working harder or smarter than others.
Way to make the degree worth less guys! If I had graduated from there I’d be demanding a refund covering the damage they did to my reputation.
I work in an industry that didn’t even exist 20 years ago and in a specialty that didn’t exist 10 years ago. I learned this crap from the ground up & have been doing it in some form for 20+ years but now I am beaten out in job interviews by kids barely out of college because they have a degree in it. If those colleges were really smart they would just give everyone a 4.0 & send out the door!
This does nothing If schools utilize class ranks, which most law schools do. “You may have a 3.4 GPA, but you still aren’t in the top third of your class.” *resume in trash*
“I may get Fs, but by God I earn them!” – Waldo Faldo
It is all in how you skew the Bell….For Whom the Bells Toll or is that Toils…Or who was Screwed by the Bell….
I’m laughing too. Grade inflation taken to a new level! Cool!
Buddha Is Laughing
Jesuits!
WTF!
You guys know better than this.
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I second that! For cryin’ out loud … I just sent another grandchild to a Jesuit University based on the the Jesuit’s ability to teach a young mind how to think … looks like I better rethink my opinion. I have 3 grandkids at University and 3 more to go so it’s time to make a few calls to Admissions and find out what the hell is going on.
Lets be honest. Law School Grades alone do not mean squat once you get past the bar. If you went to a top tier school the offers are already out there. Did not the guy who beat Pennzoil flunk Torts? So whats the beef….
Pennzoil v. Texaco
In 1984, Pennzoil made an informal but binding contract with Getty Oil to purchase the company. The Texaco oil company encroached on the deal in an attempt to acquire Getty for itself.
Pennzoil filed a lawsuit that turned out to be a landmark. At first it was adjudicated by Judge Anthony J.P. Farris; it was finished by visiting Judge Solomon (Sol) Casseb of San Antonio. Pennzoil, represented by Joe Jamail and Baine Kerr, won $10.53 billion from Texaco, represented by Dick Miller.
The case was appealed. The decision of the trial court was upheld on condition that Pennzoil file a remittitur agreeing to a reduction of punitive damages from $3 billion, to $1 billion. Compensatory damages of $7.53 billon remained unaffected. Pennzoil paid Mr. Jamail $335 million and Mr. Kerr $10 million for the victory.
Jesuits!
WTF!
You guys know better than this.
is that legal?