Friday, June 02, 2006

Grade Grumbling

Ah yes, the grade grumbling has already begun on my law school's listserve. It seems that most students, on average, only have about 1 grade posted so far. The last final exam was given at my school during the first week of May, so many students are mad that it is taking professors more than a month to get grades in. Along with the complaints are that potential employers want to see grades already, bars want to see grades, and those who might be considering transferring want their grades too.

What I want to tell them is that my old law school seemed to take forever to post grades too. As it happens, at almost every law school grades take what seems like forever to post. Northwestern, and a few other schools seem to be an exception -- at Northwestern all grades are posted at the same time, so students there just have to wait until they get an email from the registrar saying grades are ready. For the rest of us, we have to hold our breath each time we log-in to check our grades online to see what has posted, and what we still have to wait for. So many times I've held my breath, and either squeeled with excitement, or felt like I was kicked in the gut over a really high or low grade.

So the grumbles continue, and it is also about that time where the rumor starts circulating that professors are fined a specific amount of money for each day they are overdue on turning in their grades. I heard said legend at my old law school too, and I just don't think it is true. If someone wants to point me towards written confirmation I would be overjoyed to see it, but I just don't think that is the case.

Finally, one student at school proferred that perhaps we should all delay paying our tuition for the number of days the last student had to wait for her grade the previous term. While this is interesting idea, I doubt the effects would be felt on the professors, who are ultimately in charge of turning our grades in ontime. Stifling law students need for instant gratification (if getting certain grades really is gratification) seems to be uniformly difficult at law schools across America.

Good luck with the grade wait...I recognize for many of you your transfer dreams hang in the balance, and for others employment prospects hang on the line too. We're all in it together...hang in there.