(Editor’s Note: Normally, we wouldn’t publish such personal information, but the author was quite insistent that we attach the provided transcript, because the article wouldn’t make sense without it. We try our best to respect the wishes of authors, especially then they are making a good point and are utterly right.)
I was thinking one of the best ways to talk about grades was to talk about actual grades. So here are mine.
One of the most ridiculous things to tell a group of law students is ‘don’t worry about grades.’ Oh, okay. How about don’t grade us? Or how about don’t have employers ask to see them?
I would like to be able to tell you I never think or care about grades on account of being so grounded and mature. I am, literally, a “mature student” (I’m 37); I am now a mother (I have the best little one-year-old son) and I am in 3L. I think about grades all the time.
I don’t need to explain how competitive the law school environment is. I have always been devastatingly uncompetitive. I would practically rather lose than win. But all that changes in law school, almost by osmosis we start to try (or at least WANT) to beat each other. I am constantly curious about people’s grades and wonder what/if people think my grades are like. I am always worried they think I am dumb and so my grades must be bad. Despite never having asked a single person about their (or anyone else’s grades), I could tell you at least 30 people’s grades in different classes, many of these people I have never even spoken to.
In first year I was so confused about what happened to people who got C’s. It seemed like they must all get rounded up and driven out of town. I went and asked Dean Sossin about it. I needed to hear it from the top that people who got C’s (not just one to make them seem well rounded) still graduated and became lawyers and lived fulfilling lives. He said they did. It’s hard to believe though right?
I want to show you my grades because I think it would be satisfying to see someone’s official transcript – the whole thing, not a rumour, the real thing. I have felt both thrilled by my grades and insecure about them. I was so proud of my A in Climate Change Law and then promptly wrote it off because the class was less than 15 people. I reread my contracts exam and still don’t really see the problem with it. I did not deserve a B+ in Copyright. I have thought about these, and also what I might get on my next set of exams FAR MORE than I would like to admit. So I am writing this in an attempt to try and take the power out of them. Here are my grades; I hope this makes them matter less, not just to me. They aren’t that interesting after all.