Law School Grade Inflation Grows in Popularity

Grade inflation at the nation’s law schools appears to be gaining steam. According to a story in the New York Times, at least 10 law institutions have altered their grading systems to make them more lenient over the last two years.

The latest, Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, is hoping to bolster its students’ chances of finding work in today’s tough jobs market by retroactively bumping all grades from the past few years by 0.33.

According to the Times, grade inflation is just one of several maneuvers employed by law schools to improve their students’ record, which in turn, protects the schools own reputations and rankings.

“If somebody’s paying $150,000 for a law school degree, you don’t want to call them a loser at the end,”said  Stuart Rojstaczer, a former geophysics professor at Duke and grade inflation expert. “So you artificially call every student a success.”

The story said it is unclear as to how effective grade inflation is at helping students obtain jobs, especially at larger firms. That’s because they can afford to research each school’s curve and put a students’ qualifications into better perspective.

In addition to Loyola, the Times cited New York University, Georgetown, Golden Gate University and Tulane University as institutions that have softened their grading policies in recent years.