cum laude and other honors

[luckyboy]

I heard that a Tier 4 school gives the distinction to graduates in the top 1/3, plus or minus a person, cum laude.  My school, T2, the cutoff is a GPA requirement which I hear translates into about the top 15% getting the honor.  What is the norm?  All I know is that now I don't think as highly as Cum Laude, well I might just be a little suspect.  Any truth to this?

[tortfeasor111]

I heard that a Tier 4 school gives the distinction to graduates in the top 1/3, plus or minus a person, cum laude.  My school, T2, the cutoff is a GPA requirement which I hear translates into about the top 15% getting the honor.  What is the norm?  All I know is that now I don't think as highly as Cum Laude, well I might just be a little suspect.  Any truth to this?

You don't think highly of graduating in the top third of your class?  I go to a T2 and cum laude is the top 25%.

[Budlaw]

I heard that a Tier 4 school gives the distinction to graduates in the top 1/3, plus or minus a person, cum laude.  My school, T2, the cutoff is a GPA requirement which I hear translates into about the top 15% getting the honor.  What is the norm?  All I know is that now I don't think as highly as Cum Laude, well I might just be a little suspect.  Any truth to this?

You can find out what every school's requirements for cum laude and other honors (such as law review, different journals, etc..) is on the Nalp website.

See this link: http://www.nalplawschoolsonline.org/

I was suprised to learn that Georgia's lawschool gives out cum laude to everyone in the top half of the class.

Does make you rethink when you see "cum laude" on some attorney's bios.

[luckyboy]

i was stating that at my school top 15% is cum laude, which is a t2 is an honor and well deserved, but i was just saying that at a t4 where they give it to the top third, it doesnt seem to be nearly as prestigious, just saying that its all relative

[CoxlessPair]

*

[TDJD84]

My t2 gives cum laude to anyone who has a 3.5 or higher cum

[Alamo79]

Just as grades are meaningless absent the context of the curve, Latin honors are meaningless without the context of the school's policy.  I'd be surprised if many attorneys responsible for hiring are going to be incommensurately impressed with honors that don't reflect a genuine high level of achievement.

[CoxlessPair]

Just as grades are meaningless absent the context of the curve, Latin honors are meaningless without the context of the school's policy.  I'd be surprised if many attorneys responsible for hiring are going to be incommensurately impressed with honors that don't reflect a genuine high level of achievement.

Not entirely credited.
I think law firms love having lawyers with these distinctions, meaningless or not, because it is easy to sell to clients. Save some highly sophisticated corporate clients, most will not really understand moot court, law journals, etc. But they will know it is "good" and they will want credentialed lawyers.

[holler21]

Just as grades are meaningless absent the context of the curve, Latin honors are meaningless without the context of the school's policy.  I'd be surprised if many attorneys responsible for hiring are going to be incommensurately impressed with honors that don't reflect a genuine high level of achievement.

Not entirely credited.
I think law firms love having lawyers with these distinctions, meaningless or not, because it is easy to sell to clients. Save some highly sophisticated corporate clients, most will not really understand moot court, law journals, etc. But they will know it is "good" and they will want credentialed lawyers.

Agreed.  Most people won't know the difference between cum, magna, and summa but they will all know that it's must be some kind of high distinction because it's in Latin and on the diploma.  As law students, we like to bicker back and forth over these types of things but I think that it's probably receiving a distinction at all rather than the quality of that distinction.

[TDJD84]

Just as grades are meaningless absent the context of the curve, Latin honors are meaningless without the context of the school's policy.  I'd be surprised if many attorneys responsible for hiring are going to be incommensurately impressed with honors that don't reflect a genuine high level of achievement.

Not entirely credited.
I think law firms love having lawyers with these distinctions, meaningless or not, because it is easy to sell to clients. Save some highly sophisticated corporate clients, most will not really understand moot court, law journals, etc. But they will know it is "good" and they will want credentialed lawyers.

Agreed.  Most people won't know the difference between cum, magna, and summa but they will all know that it's must be some kind of high distinction because it's in Latin and on the diploma.  As law students, we like to bicker back and forth over these types of things but I think that it's probably receiving a distinction at all rather than the quality of that distinction.

I don't know if that would hold true for clients at a big law firm.  Most of these people, being business people themselves who have gone through college and business schools will know the difference between cum, magna and summa.  I agree they probably won't really know the significant between law review, moot court and other extracurriculars