Curving Around the Weldon Tradition

I remember the first time I spoke to a lawyer in my chosen area of practice; she referred to law school as being “the worst – everyone is competing with everyone else from Day 1." I walked into Weldon cautiously guarded, wondering if the stories I’d heard about textbooks being hidden in the stacks to prevent other students from accessing them and erroneous CANs being published intentionally were true.

First experiences with The Curve

The Pass/Fail grading structure of the Intensives promoted camaraderie amongst the 1L class instead of competition, and I didn’t notice a marked difference when we started our core courses. That changed when the weather got colder, November turned into December, and our Public exam was looming.

I kept to myself quite a bit in 1L, mostly studying alone at home. It had been a difficult semester for me personally as I participated in an administrative process related to the job I’d left to come to law school. Despite best efforts, none of my professors were able to provide me with guidance as to how I could receive accommodations if I were recalled for a short period of time and unable to complete assignments or come to class. The issue was resolved quickly without too much of a distraction from my studies, but I realized that if I found this policy gap to be a barrier, others likely would as well.

I’d received some good feedback about the notes I posted in the Class of 2026 Facebook group during the Intensives, so I posted my Torts and Contracts notes in the Section B group chat a couple of days before the exams, my logic being that if someone had missed classes due to a lack of child care, a medical appointment, or frankly just because they were having a bad day, my notes could fill a gap the school currently didn’t.

Hallway encounters at Weldon

Days later, someone pulled me aside and said that they’d heard that other people were upset that I was “screwing with the curve”. I felt like I’d been slapped in the face, and this was diametrically opposed to the number of grateful messages I received. While many classmates have been incredibly supportive of me, filling in the gaps as I dipped in and out of class for clerkship interviews, this cold shoulder wasn’t an isolated experience.

I came into law school with a substantial amount of privilege and have never needed to worry about where I would land after I graduate. In an increasingly competitive job market, marks can be the determining factor between getting an interview during recruit and staring at your silent phone during call day.

I don’t fault my classmates who shy away from collaboration because mathematically, we can’t all get As – some of us must be curved to a C – and I struggle to see why. In researching for this article I searched high and low for the reason that law school grades must be curved and remain unconvinced. Arguments seem to center around the requirement for standardization and the complexity of grading as fluid and ambiguous concepts.

The Weldon Tradition vs The Curve

However, I haven’t seen this requirement duplicated in Liberal Arts degrees and also know many professors use marking templates to standardize grades. I’ve also heard that the curve works to the benefit of students more frequently than bringing their raw scores down. To that, I’d suggest that if students can’t pass an exam without grade inflation, perhaps the evaluations themselves are too challenging.

I miss my engineering undergrad where we’d order pizza to the lab as we spent hours coding, citing our classmates in the “Acknowledgements” section of our reports, unconcerned that our success would cause a classmate’s grades to suffer.

As my law school career comes to a close, I refuse to allow the curve to dictate my actions, as I firmly believe that rising tides lift all boats. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the place of the curve in a school that prides itself in unselfish public service.