2L spring grade drop, how bad is it? Forum
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Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about clerkship applications and clerkship hiring. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
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Anonymous User
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2L spring grade drop, how bad is it?
basically: just finished 2L at a "lower" T14 (not HYSCCN), came into this semester with a 4.0 and top ~2% in class, but got mid grades in the spring and dropped to a 3.93, top ~5%. I can't tell how big an impact this will actually have on my clerkship chances. I am on law review (but not EIC or articles), did moot court (but didn't make it out of the first round), etc. . . . I worry that, without a flashy GPA to help me stand out, I'm a boring candidate. Is this typical law student neurosis or am I actually cooked?
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Anonymous User
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Re: 2L spring grade drop, how bad is it?
I clerked in a major metropolitan district. Top 5% versus top 2% wouldn't have mattered much to us at all, as we mostly used grades or class rank as a cutoff to give your application a close read. If an application was in the ballpark on grades, we cared much more about what the letters said, or if there was anything else interesting or notable on the resume.
Maybe there would be a slight plus to an application from like someone who graduated summa or was on track to be number one in their class, but (1) we would only really understand that about a 2L application if a professor said it in a letter, and (2) that probably wouldn't be an independent reason to give someone an interview.
Maybe there would be a slight plus to an application from like someone who graduated summa or was on track to be number one in their class, but (1) we would only really understand that about a 2L application if a professor said it in a letter, and (2) that probably wouldn't be an independent reason to give someone an interview.
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Anonymous User
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Re: 2L spring grade drop, how bad is it?
Thanks for the reply! I guess my fear is that I will be directly compared against all the other people from my school who are also applying to clerkships, and if I have a 3.93 and someone else who applies to the same judge has, say, a 3.97 or something, I'm cooked (even if our resumes both say "top 5%").Anonymous User wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2026 9:38 pmI clerked in a major metropolitan district. Top 5% versus top 2% wouldn't have mattered much to us at all, as we mostly used grades or class rank as a cutoff to give your application a close read. If an application was in the ballpark on grades, we cared much more about what the letters said, or if there was anything else interesting or notable on the resume.
Maybe there would be a slight plus to an application from like someone who graduated summa or was on track to be number one in their class, but (1) we would only really understand that about a 2L application if a professor said it in a letter, and (2) that probably wouldn't be an independent reason to give someone an interview.
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Anonymous User
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Re: 2L spring grade drop, how bad is it?
3.93 is still elite. You'll be fine.
