Professors are grading stacks of exams as the due date for grades quickly approaches. The law school is like a ghost town when it comes to faculty presence. The few colleagues who prefer to grade exams in their offices rather than at home give daily updates on how many questions/exams down and how many to go.
Some courses are already completed and the grades posted. Our trusty Registrar's staff members post grades as soon as all of the procedures for a course to link names to exam numbers and grades are completed.
The emails, telephone calls, and visits are starting from anxious students who are waiting to see whether they will meet the academic requirements. Many of them have one or two of their grades posted at this point and are frantically calculating what they need in their other courses to make the minimums. They are losing sleep over whether the next course posted will help or hurt them.
Their angst is increased because of their prior feelings as they came out of their exams. In some courses, they felt confident and visualized getting some kind of B or A. In other cases they felt discouraged by rules recalled after leaving the exam room, running out of time, or "flipping a coin" between two good answers for the best answer. Add those post-exam discussions with classmates, and they have worried about missing things other people saw.
When the first posted grades were not the hoped for As or Bs but instead Cs or lower, they likely visualized the bottom dropping out. If they were so wrong about success in those courses, what will the other grades be like? Even if the disappointing grade might be the result of a tight curve rather than their own lack of understanding, it is little consolation.
Every law school is different when it comes to policies and procedures. Here are some thoughts to help students who are concerned they may not make their academic standards:
- Read the student handbook, on-line policies/procedures, or other materials provided by your law school about academic standards. Answers to many of your questions are already available in these materials.
- Review the specific options, if any, that you may have for your law school. Some law schools dismiss without any options. Some law schools have processes for immediate petitions while others require students sit out a period of time before a petition may be filed. Some schools allow readmission on probation while others only allow repeating the first year.
- Read carefully all letters and materials you receive about your academic status. (If you were already on probation, re-read the prior letter and materials.) Answers to many of your questions are given in those communications.
- Meet any deadlines that you are given for the options available to you at your law school.
- If documentation is required for petitions (examples: doctor's letter, psychiatrist's letter, report on ADHD testing, etc.), make sure appropriate documentation is provided.
- Be honest with yourself. Law school is not the path for everyone. Is law school what you really want to do? Did you only attend because you were not sure what else to do? Do you find the law intellectually stimulating and interesting? Instead, is it drudgery for you? What is your passion? What do you really want to do with your life?
- Consider how to tell family and friends about your academics. Having support is important. Hiding the situation from those who care about you may add to your stress. Decide whether you want to talk to significant people in your life now or later about your law school career. Perhaps talk to someone at the university's counseling center if you need someone to help you with the anxiety and decision-making.
- Have your Plan B (and Plan C and Plan D if necessary). Begin to devise what you will do next if law school is no longer an option. Application to another graduate program? Certification in a new skill? Return to the career/job you left before law school? Move back home temporarily?
- Consider the implications of probation or dismissal for your financial aid. Talk to the financial aid person for your institution. Your university may have academic progress requirements that affect financial aid for probation students. Find out loan repayment procedures if you are dismissed.
As you wait for grades, realize that you are still the same intelligent and talented person you were before law school. Not becoming a lawyer (whether you decide not to continue when the grades turn out okay or you are dismissed) is not the end of your choices. You will have a positive impact on society in other ways. And the critical thinking and writing skills you have learned in law school will translate to other fields. (Amy Jarmon)
