Law Schools are Inflating Grades

We’re all familiar with gas prices being inflated over the last several years, but it seems like inflation has hit another area of our lives- grade inflation seems to be the rage in law schools now.  Recently Loyola Law School in Los Angeles has announced that it will provide all of its students with an extra 0.333 on their grade point averages.

0.333 is a lot.  That’s an extra third of a letter grade, so a Loyola student could potentially go from a “B-” all the way to a “B”, without even having to do anything.   That could make all the difference, especially with close GPA cutoffs.

The artificial boosting of student’s grades has long been a common practice in undergraduate schools, and several law schools such as Yale and Berkeley already have their own unique grading systems in place.  Other schools such as New York and Golden Gate Universities have recently made their grading schemes more lenient.

So why are law schools now opting to inflate students’ grades?

Experts cite the main reason why grade inflation has struck law schools as being (of course) the horrible job market out there today.  Law school representatives claim that boosting student GPA’s will help give them a competitive chance when applying for jobs, as employers usually consider GPA marks as one of their main hiring factors.

I guess this makes sense, especially at Loyola, where the average first year GPA is only 2.66, which is well below the average of 3.0 for accredited California law schools.  But as someone who has experienced the adventure of law school, like Bill and Ted, I can think of many reasons why law school grade inflation may be more bogus than it is excellent:

Grade Inflation Devalues Education

Synthetically raising student GPA levels undermines the entire purpose of education.  Of course, besides learning, one of the main functions of education is to provide an academically challenging experience.  Especially at the graduate school level, students are expected to participate in a mutually competitive environment.

The competition serves as an incentive for students to improve.  Yet if students don’t need to do anything to have their grades boosted, this may result in mediocre performance.  Now I’m not saying (as some critics have expressed) that grade inflation rewards “losers”.  But I do think that it may lead to a deflated zeal in students to push hard for top slots.

The Snowball Effect

Another heinous aspect of law school grade inflation is the “snowball effect”- if one school raises its students grades, other schools are sure to follow.  In the mad rush for jobs, how will employers be able to tell which GPA rates are genuine and which ones have had a face lift?  While some employers may do their research, it is easy to predict that grade inflation may become a major trend in law schools.  For a profession that deals with standards and regulation, it is not completely infeasible to set national standards for law school grading procedures.

Damage to Reputation

Another non-triumphant aspect is that inflating grades may skew reputations, and in several ways.  For the job applicant, how powerful can your first impression be when the employer knows that your grades have basically been institutionally doctored?  And for the school, doesn’t grade inflation send a message that the school is not doing enough to ensure that its students are doing well?

Again, I can understand why law school grades might be low- it’s a tough path to walk.  But if students are not doing well, why not institute other procedures, such as mandatory tutoring or extra classes before simply raising their grades?

Also, the reputation of the entire legal profession may suffer- law school is the backbone of the legal field.  Legal professionals already have a tainted reputation, with all the lawyer jokes circulating.  It’s not enough that lawyers have a reputation of shadiness, dishonesty etc.  Now it appears that their academic credentials are also “full of hot air”.

Dishonesty

Truth be told, raising GPA’s just seems dishonest.  There’s a good chance that employers will see right through the whole scheme and simply avoid such applicants altogether.  In other words, attempts at helping students secure jobs might just backfire with the result that less students are hired.  Maybe it’s time for higher level education to bring its focus back to the merits of good old fashioned hard work and (mental) elbow grease.

In closing, while students might not be complaining about the extra help, grade inflation is overall more harmful than it is helpful.  I’m no economist, but it doesn’t take a lot to figure out that grade inflation may cheapen the whole meaning of GPA’s.

It raises questions about the motivations of higher level educators, though we’ve yet to see if it actually yields more jobs for graduates.  But we can now add law school GPA’s to the list of things that may or may not be pumped up, alongside chicken breasts and Angelina Jolie’s lips.