Why are we all going to law school? For most, it is so we can take the bar and become licensed to practice law. In order to take the bar you need to graduate from law school (with few exceptions). In order to alleviate a little bit of the stress and anxiety you may be feeling, here is a little secret: the bar doesn’t care that you got all A’s. To that same end, the bar doesn’t care that you got all C’s.
I remember after my first semester grades came out I heard students saying “C’s equal degrees.” And that was the mantra they have maintained throughout their law school career. Those students chose to do the bare-bones work that was required, put in the amount of effort they felt was sufficient to get a passing grade and they were fine with that. However, these were also the same people who seemed a little less stressed because they utilized their free time to go out with friends, spend time with their families, and enjoy their time leisurely as opposed to being locked away in a library reading supplements and going through practice question. These people are still going to walk out of the law school with the same degree as all those people who chose to be disciplined enough to read the supplements, meet with professors to review concepts that they don’t understand and who took the extra time to run through some practice questions and ace their exams.
When I say law school is only a means to an end, you should take that with a grain of salt. Although you ultimately are enrolled to obtain a degree to take the bar, there are some VERY good reasons why you should strive to obtain good grades to get that degree.
Here are some reasons why I did not subscribe to the mantra that “C’s equal degrees.”
MONEY
Need I say more?! If I maintained a 3.0 average, my generous scholarship would be renewed and possibly increased! Not to mention, for those who plan on getting a big law firm job after graduation, you may want to assure you can put a good GPA and class rank on a revenue.
RECOGNITION
Whoo-wee, recognition is nice. Even if it is just from my husband telling my I did a great job or my school noting my academic achievements in the newsletter or various monitors around the school. Furthermore, potential employers may recognize one candidate’s higher GPA over the next candidate.
SATISFACTION
Don’t you feel better at the end of the day knowing you worked hard for that degree? That you didn’t take the easy way out? That you set goal and gave it everything you had to achieve it? I know I do. I get satisfaction knowing I earned by grade.
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