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NIED: On the Cusp (The Last Year of the 40%/50%/65% Scholarship Cut-Offs)

 

I found out on June 8th that my class rank was 239/475.  This puts me in the top 50.3% of the class.

 

A person that I do not know but hope to contact is ranked 238/475—and they are in the top 50.1%.

 

Person #237/475 is ranked in the top 49.9% of the class, and is in the clear.

 

#238 and myself are not the only ones in the class of 2013 who may have a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress—but the other 473 don’t write a weekly column on it.  So allow me to stand on my soapbox for an issue affecting a small number of students that underscores another reason why law school can drive you insane.

 

It is perhaps worth noting that I drafted column #13 as a response to my grade in Corporations, which I felt was an unfair course, and requires a more significant time commitment than other 4-credit classes.  This is not to say I think it should be a 5-credit course, for then I would not be in this frustrating (yet oddly serendipitous) position.  I contend that I deserved a B+ in that course but this is a personal thing to take up with my professor, and I do not think the authority exists to change grades, particularly after the class ranks have been announced.  Chalk up my negligence to the fact that I’m in Chicago and can’t review my exam in person.  Oh well.

 

On BLSConnect, it reads: “While we feel that these minimum academic rank requirements are generous, they nevertheless are exact.  Rounding a rank that is different in any amount from the required renewal rank cut-offs is not permissible for scholarship renewal.” See Merit Scholarship Renewal Upper Class Students, available here (last visited 6/10/12).

 

Maybe it is just me, but I feel that all of the little descriptions on BLSConnect need to be revised extensively.  There are also these confusing charts:

 

100% of Scholarship Renewed 80% Renewed 55% Renewed 0% Renewed
Class Rank Required Upper 40% Upper 50% Upper 65% Below 65%
Approximate GPA Cut-Off 3.355 3.244 3.099 Below 3.099
Number of Scholars 162 39 60 97
Percentage of First-Year Scholars 45.3% 10.9% 16.8% 27%


 

100% of Scholarship Renewed 80% Renewed 55% Renewed 0% Renewed
Class Rank Required Upper 40% Upper 50% Upper 65% Below 65%
Approximate GPA Cut-Off 3.221 3.116 2.975 Below 2.965
Number of Scholars 102 24 32 58
Percentage of First-Year Scholars 47% 11% 15% 27%
The first graph was compiled from currently available information on BLSConnect, noting that 358 Merit Scholars were enrolled at the end of 2011’s spring semester and giving a total cumulative renewal rate of 72.9% from the fall of 2011. The second graph can be found here  (last visited 6/10/12). The site notes that this information was compiled from data that BLS submitted to the ABA in 2008, and updated in July of 2010.

 

Some of us may vaguely remember the school’s announcement in December 2010 that it would “boost” our GPAs in a similar way that Loyola Law School (our unofficial “sister school” on the opposite coast) did several months earlier.

 

Maybe the school thinks we should feel lucky that we weren’t graduating in 2009, 2010, or 2011…. At the time this chart was published, this website noted that full-time tuition was $43,990.

 

I am sure this (Chart #1) will be updated come Fall 2012, but from what I recall, these numbers (approximate GPA cut-offs) did not change from last year.  After Fall 2011, my GPA had risen from 3.14 to 3.26.  So I thought, okay, I’m in the clear, I just need to do as well as I did this fall.  And this was not an easy task, for I did no worse than a B+.  My GPA for the fall was a 3.5.

 

I checked Spring 2012 grades with bated breath, and when I saw that B in Corporations, I asked my parents if I could borrow their keys, took the car to the local Dominick’s, and bought 12 cans of Bud Light, came home, and drank.  My parents were having a moving sale and I sat outside and drank like Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go.  Then, my last grade came in the next day—an A in a 3-credit course.  I screamed, “YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”  My GPA went up to a 3.31.  I sighed in relief.  Clearly, I would hit the top 50%–and while it was highly doubtful I’d hit the top 40, it might even be possible.

 

My first year, I had a merit scholarship in the amount of $24,300.

 

My second year, this total dropped to $13,365.

 

My third year, this total will either be: (1) $13,365; or (2) $19,440.  This is a difference of $6,075.

 

(Full Disclosure: My need-based grants have risen from $4,200 my first year, to $8,400 my second year, to an astounding $9,200 for my third year—while these are pleasant surprises, and I could potentially receive up to $28,640—or $240 more total dollars in funding than I had my first year—tuition hikes have made such a windfall relatively moot.)
Then I get the Class Ranking, and several arguments come to mind as to why I should be entitled to coverage in the top 50%:
 

  1. Only a few students can ask for similar relief (and it is questionable what the change in #238’s scholarship amount reflects, if any — but for me, it is a matter of some $6,000.)
  2. The new policy for incoming 1Ls (they only must be in the top 80% to recover 100% of their scholarship).
  3. Tuition Hikes: the Class of 2013 has seen its tuition rise from $46,300 (approximately) to $48,090 to $49,486 for our last year.  (I am not going to get into the living expenses that the school calculates at $5,880—but please sign up for MEP in the fall if you want to investigate this issue more closely.)  So the total cost is an additional $3,186, or about the cost of a Bar Review Course.
  4. 2L Transfers: Their first-year grades are eliminated for purposes of calculating their class rank.  If you treat me like a second-year transfer, my GPA is 3.5005, and I’m in the top 40%.  Oh.
  5. NYU gives students grades, but does not rank them, and does not set a cut-off for OCI.  I know BLS is not NYU but I do believe the students here are generally of as high a quality as there, and we should do away with rankings and just set these scholarships according to GPA.
  6. I took the Health Law Practicum internship where I got an “HP.”  Some students get grades for clinics (graded on a different-scaled curve) and some just get high passes or regular passes, and some get both grades and passes.  When some students are able to benefit from “grading clinics” and others are not, perhaps it only results in a small degree of inequality–but it is just such a difference  that separates me from $6,000.
  7. To me this was the final straw — the last time the school could screw us — and it’s trying to take advantage of the opportunity.  Please join me in this fight for economic justice.

Christopher J. Knorps is a 3L at Brooklyn Law School.  He serves on the Career Services Committee as an Upper Class Delegate of the Student Bar Association, is the Founder and President of Monthly Expense Project, a subsidiary of the Thrift Club, and is incoming Managing Editor of The BLS Advocate.  He seeks Person #238 from the Class of 2013 in particular, and any other students “on the cusp” to form a group to collectively bargain with the school in regards to this issue.

Inter Alia: Monthly Legal News Recap

BLS

 

  • BLS bids farewell to the Class of 2012; EDNY Chief Judge Carol Bagley Amon cracks a few good jokes before imploring grads to pick up their phones when their mothers call.
  • The NYC chapter of the Guild  honors Cristina Lee, ’12, and Emily Jane Goodman, ’68, among others.
  • Mike Scala, ’12, makes it onto the Congressional ballot for NY’s 5th District. [Scala for Congress]
New York
  • State legislators want to ban anonymous online comments. LOL. [ARSTechnica].
  • Catholic Church sues DHHS over contraception mandate. Immaculate conception still legit. [NY1].
  • Separation of Church and Upstate. [WSJ]
  • Committee tasked with implementing pro bono requirement introduced at Cardozo. [NYLJ]
National
  • Stand-your-ground laws still standing…ground. [USAToday]
Supreme Court
  • $22,500 for an Incubus song? Not cool, bro. [CBS].
  • Posthumous conception is a thing now. [WP].
  • States fight Citizens United decision. [NPR]

Photo credit: Nicole Lauterbach, ’12 (top photo)

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The BLS Advocate is published by students of Brooklyn Law School but is not affiliated with Brooklyn Law School. The views and opinions expressed in The BLS Advocate are those of the publication or its individual writers unless otherwise indicated.