This is a very interesting thread and I have enjoyed reading your original post, David, as well as the comments. Like virtually everyone who has posted on this thread, I received precisely the same advice. I initially found the prospect of grades as an indicator of anything that truly mattered about me absolutely absurd. After all, I think I’m a pretty interesting person with good judgment. Why on earth should my potential worth to an employer turn on something so arbitrary? This is all the more ironic given my background. I went to a predominantly Black high school in Louisville, KY, the alma mater of “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali. I graduated first in my class, expending only a fraction of the effort that academic “success” in college and law school demands. Back then, my ever-wise mother’s advice was: “You must demonstrate your intelligence in your interactions with people. Most people don’t know and, in fact, don’t care what grades are on your transcript.” This conventional wisdom is turned on its head in the law school setting. It is easy to bash law firms as being grade and “prestige whores”, but the phenomenon of grades as a gatekeeper, or proxy for intelligence and work ethic, applies to many public interest organizations with equal force.

There are a few among us who, for various reasons (scholarships, trust funds, etc.), are not making a financial sacrifice by being here. For others, like me, law school and, specifically, Columbia Law School, was a calculated investment. After all, if I did not believe in the power of the return afforded by the Columbia brand, I could have attended my local law school for free. Given that in the present system – for better or worse – grades are our currency, it would be counterintuitive to not fight to the death to maximize the return on this enormous investment. Many of us want to be world changers and, at the very least, a positive force in our communities. If you’re like me, and probably can’t sneak into your desired destination through a side window (i.e. you don’t have “friends in high places”), you’re left playing the game by the present rules.

But, all is not lost. In many institutions and systems that have eventually been dismantled, there was someone who mastered the rules, out-smarted the game, and ended up wielding the power. In this sense, forward-thinking and reform-minded people – not unlike those who advocate grade reform at CLS – have value in every domain.

-- JenniferGreen - 24 Feb 2010