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I want my grades!

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:07 am
by benbenny
Hello everyone,

I just transferred from CUNY Law School to Fordham, and I just got a copy of the final CUNY Law transcript which they've sent to Fordham. Turns out CUNY doesn't report the first semester grades on the official transcript. Internally, these grades are available to us—they were allocated by the professors at the end of the courses, and they are listed on the "CUNY First" intranet web portal. Given that those first semester grades were all A's, it is in my interest to have them listed on the transcript. CUNY says that this is their policy and that's that.

Any advice on how I can get them to make an exception and include my first semester grades on the transcript? Any direction on legal arguments that might be relevant?

Many thanks!

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:39 pm
by SomewhatLearnedHand
Just print an unofficial transcript of your first semester grades and Cuny's grading policy and explain the situation

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 12:50 am
by Wild Card
CUNY is a great school. Why in heaven's name would you transfer to Fordham?

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 4:19 pm
by DerKatze
Wild Card wrote:CUNY is a great school. Why in heaven's name would you transfer to Fordham?
Is this a flame? CUNY is a TTT school ranked 125. Last year, no graduate got employed at a law firm with more than 10 lawyers. None. Fordham is ranked 37 and sent 30% of last year's class into biglaw. Even if you're joking, I hope you realize many of the people lurking can't tell.

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 12:08 pm
by ReganSays
DerKatze wrote:
Wild Card wrote:CUNY is a great school. Why in heaven's name would you transfer to Fordham?
Is this a flame? CUNY is a TTT school ranked 125. Last year, no graduate got employed at a law firm with more than 10 lawyers. None. Fordham is ranked 37 and sent 30% of last year's class into biglaw. Even if you're joking, I hope you realize many of the people lurking can't tell.
They actually sent closer to 40% of their class to big law last year.

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 12:37 pm
by LSATWiz.com
ReganSays wrote:
DerKatze wrote:
Wild Card wrote:CUNY is a great school. Why in heaven's name would you transfer to Fordham?
Is this a flame? CUNY is a TTT school ranked 125. Last year, no graduate got employed at a law firm with more than 10 lawyers. None. Fordham is ranked 37 and sent 30% of last year's class into biglaw. Even if you're joking, I hope you realize many of the people lurking can't tell.
They actually sent closer to 40% of their class to big law last year.
That says more about the current economy than it does about Fordham. Cuny is a school that tends to attract those interested in public service, and most students there would look down on those who want big law.

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 7:13 pm
by Wild Card
DerKatze wrote:
Wild Card wrote:CUNY is a great school. Why in heaven's name would you transfer to Fordham?
Is this a flame? CUNY is a TTT school ranked 125. Last year, no graduate got employed at a law firm with more than 10 lawyers. None. Fordham is ranked 37 and sent 30% of last year's class into biglaw. Even if you're joking, I hope you realize many of the people lurking can't tell.
I was actually dissing Fordham. As in, CUNY charges $15,000 per year and Fordham $70,000 per year.

If you're going to "trade up" and take on $120,000 in debt, why wouldn't you go to Columbia, NYU, or even Cornell?

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:06 pm
by DerKatze
Wild Card wrote: I was actually dissing Fordham. As in, CUNY charges $15,000 per year and Fordham $70,000 per year.
I realize you were dissing Fordham. But if Biglaw is the goal (or even smaller firms), then Fordham is a far better school. CUNY is great for some things, e.g. government like UBETutoring said, but saying it's a "great school" generally just isn't true.
Wild Card wrote:If you're going to "trade up" and take on $120,000 in debt, why wouldn't you go to Columbia, NYU, or even Cornell?
Presumably because they didn't get into a T14.

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2018 11:30 pm
by benbenny
Love the direction this discussion has taken :)

So to give you guys, and anyone else who might be reading, the full picture: I'm, an evening part time student, and it turns out its impossible to go from CUNY to T14 as an evening student. The first obstacle is that you only accrue 22 credits during the first two terms, with the remaining 6 accrued in the summer term. Except for Cornell, all the T14 have transfer application dates that are are long expired by the time you get your summer grades. Presumably, it is for this reason that NYU does not even accept applications from part time students. Second, CUNY does not include your first term grades on any official transcript (original reason for this post). So though internally you get a letter grade from the professor which is also listed on the grading system, the official transcript only shows a pass/fail. This means that my applications only had 3 completed courses, totaling 11 credits, that had a letter grade, and my perfect 4.0 GPA meant very little to whoever was reviewing my application.

That's my theory about this. My understanding is that the other primary criteria looked for in transfer applications is letters of recommendations. I had the maximum amount allowed including 3 from CUNY law faculty and 1 from my employer, all strong. Admittedly my LSAT score was not great (153), but my understanding is that becomes less significant compared with GPA and letters of rec on transfer applications.

What do you guys think?

But rest assured, I am not financing the admittedly absurdly expensive Fordham Tuition with loans. I'm lucky enough to have sufficient savings to cover it. The decision to forgo that type of capital for the sake of a Fordham degree was a hard one, but I feel its worth it. My understanding is that getting any competitive attorney job, from clerkships to jobs at the justice department would benefit from a more prestigious degree, not just biglaw. Fordham is not a great launch point to get the very competitive jobs, but at least there is a better chance then from CUNY.

So I take it there isn't much I can do to get CUNY to give me an official transcript with those grades?

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2018 6:47 am
by nixy
I’m not sure why not having the first semester grades would matter? You still have a 4.0 for the year, which is what schools care about, and presumably you wouldn’t have that gpa if you’d tanked first semester. There isn’t really a conceptual difference btw two semesters each with an A grade, and one A grade for the whole year.

Also as others suggested, just submit the unofficial letter telling what those grades were.

And anyway you’ve already transferred, so why do you need the first semester grades again? If you’re thinking about job applications, employers also won’t care about individual semester grades vs a whole year grade. They may care that the GPA was from CUNY, if that’s a school they wouldn’t normally hire from, but I’m confused what the purpose of an official copy of the first semester grades would be.

Re: I want my grades!

Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 12:15 pm
by benbenny
nixy wrote:I’m not sure why not having the first semester grades would matter? You still have a 4.0 for the year, which is what schools care about, and presumably you wouldn’t have that gpa if you’d tanked first semester. There isn’t really a conceptual difference btw two semesters each with an A grade, and one A grade for the whole year.

Also as others suggested, just submit the unofficial letter telling what those grades were.

And anyway you’ve already transferred, so why do you need the first semester grades again? If you’re thinking about job applications, employers also won’t care about individual semester grades vs a whole year grade. They may care that the GPA was from CUNY, if that’s a school they wouldn’t normally hire from, but I’m confused what the purpose of an official copy of the first semester grades would be.
Fair enough. Thanks!