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Mandatory Grade Policy

Type of Class

Minimum

GPA

Target

GPA

Maximum

GPA

Grade Distribution

(described below)
  • First-year doctrinal courses
  • Professional Responsibility (regardless of size)
 3.25 3.30 3.35 Must substantially follow distribution as determined
by the Vice Dean
  • Upper-level courses of 30 or more students
 3.25 3.30 3.35 Should follow distribution to the extent practicable
  • Upper-level courses of 10 to 29 students
  • All sections of Legal Research & Writing courses offered in the Legal Practice Program (regardless of size)
 3.20 3.30 3.40 Should follow distribution to the extent practicable
  • All Courses that Satisfy the Upper-Level Writing Requirement
 3.20 n/a 3.50 Should follow distribution to the extent practicable
  • Upper-level courses of 9 or fewer students
  • Clinics (regardless of size)
 3.20 n/a 3.70 n/a

Limits on Mean GPA

  • Faculty shall ensure that the mean grade for each class falls between the maximum and minimum grade means described above.
  • Faculty should not treat the upper (or lower) bounds as the target grade mean for their classes and should seek a target mean of 3.30 in classes enrolling 10 or more students.

Limits on JD Curve

If professors give different assessments to different cohorts within the same course (e.g. paper and exam), one curve only will be applied to all students.

Distribution of Grades

A (including A+ if available) 10%
A- 20%
B+ 35%
B 20%
B- or below 15%

Grade of A+

A single grade of A+ may (but need not) be awarded in a class with 30 or more students. No grade of A+ may be awarded in a class of fewer than 30 students.

Legal Practice Program

Grading in all first-year Lawyering Skills classes is on an Honors/Pass/Low Pass/Fail scale. The Director of the Legal Practice Program must supervise and coordinate grading in the Program and seek substantial uniformity in distribution across its sections.

Trial Advocacy

Trial Advocacy (Law 720) is offered in multiple sessions each semester. Eligibility for a High Pass (or Honors) grade will be determined based on the total number of students enrolled across all sections rather than on a per-section basis.

Certain Students Not Counted

Solely for purposes of establishing compliance with the Grading Policy, faculty shall disregard the following students:   

  • LL.M. students
  • Other non-J.D. students
  • Students awarded a grade of D or F.

Example: 32 students are enrolled in Taxation of Derivatives. Of the 32 students, one is an LL.M. student and one is a non-J.D. graduate business student. The faculty member awards one J.D. student a grade of D. All other students receive grades of C- or better. In order to satisfy the Grading Policy, the grade mean of the 29 J.D. students receiving a C- or better must fall between 3.20 and 3.40 (the range for a 29-student class).

The Registrar will identify non-J.D. students’ exam numbers to faculty to facilitate compliance with the Grading Policy.

The Grading Policy does not establish standards for grading LL.M. and other non-J.D. students.

Grades may be based on the results of assigned written work wholly or may include class participation.