Class Rank is out: Did I get screwed out of top 10%?

[Rajah]

My school has a definite hard cutoff for firms that interview. The top firms only interview the top 10 percent at my school.

Tha rankings came out today.

Top 10%: 3.69 and up
My GPA:  3.6896

Only the broad range has been posted. I have not received any notification of where exactly I am.

I check my online transcript. 3.68 is what it says. They rounded down. Apparently I am .0004 from being at a 3.69.

Do you think they may have rounded the 3.69 in the rankings for simplicity's sake or am I really going to miss out interviewing with the best firms because I am 4 ten-thousandths of a point off?

If true, .0004 could actually cost me a lot of interview opportunities. That's messed up.

Do you think I've actually been rounded up and not been notified yet?

[StevePirates]

Sorry to bear bad news, but as far as I've heard anywhere, law schools round down to protect the percentile.

(i.e.  10.0000232% is outside the Top 10%)

I hope that your year had a soft curve, so maybe you're the last guy in the 10% list.  But, it kind of seems like you're the first guy in the 11%.

I share your pain man, I was the first person to miss grading onto law review at my school.  I know how it feels to be the first guy cut.

[jacy85]

Just because your school doesn't allow you to interview OCI doesn't mean you can't apply outside OCI.  I'd be putting my gpa on my resume to the farthest decimal point allowed and list something like (Top 10% = 3.XXX) so schools interested in looking at your resume can see how narrowly you missed it.

One caveat though - MAKE SURE YOU CHECK YOUR SCHOOL'S POLICY RE: LISTING GPA/RANK/%ILE before putting anything on your resume.  While my strategy may be allowed according to one school's guideline, your school may place different regs on how they want their students to report stats on their resume.

[SASS]

On your resume put your class rank and gpa. It is not like you have to put top 10% or anything. Your rank will appear to be top 10% to employers anyway. For example, 25/249 (top 10.004) looks pretty good.

[StevePirates]

Another thing to think about.  What else have you done so far in law school?

What makes you more attractive than the guy that finished one spot ahead of you?  Have you formed a close enough bond with your career services office that they can give you a little "push" with some employers?

[OConnorScribe]

I agree with the assertion that you can proceed with submitting materials directly to the firms. OCI is a nice mechanism, but it's not the only path you can take. If your school wants to slap you down in such a ridiculous way, treat it as a ridiculous slap it is and proceed independently with confidence. Because top 10.04% of the class is still damn good, even if the school deems you to be too short to ride the roller coaster.

Never let a law school mess with your psyche. I've adopted that philosophy, because fear, uncertainty and belief in the school-bred mytholology damn near killed me (physically and spiritually), and now that I'm six or seven weeks removed from the first-year fishbowl, I see how ridiculous that was. Part of my experience this summer has been to learn who *really* to listen to and trust. Hint: It isn't your school's administration or career counselors or fellow students.