We are in the midst of some changes over here at the law school. For years, NUSL has prided itself on not having grades, and instead having narrative evaluations, individually done for each student by the professor. Coming to NUSL, the lack of grades was not a prominent consideration in my mind. However, having been here almost two years now, it has taken on greater significance. I have seen first hand, again and again, how lack of grades (and consequential lack of class ranking) really leads to a community of cooperativeness. This wasn’t a reality to me until I met people from other schools who knew the exact rank of others in their class, and I realized what a different environment there is at Northeastern. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I have felt no competitiveness while studying for finals. There is no incentive not to share notes and outlines, or not to study together, because no one benefits by another doing poorly on the exam (there’s no such thing as a curve here at NUSL!). I credit this almost entirely to the lack of letter grades and rankings. To be sure, the eval system has had its disadvantages: quality, length, and clarity of evaluations varies greatly between professors; some employers are (understandably) confused by the system; and the process of converting these evaluations into page long transcripts as required by some federal employers can be unwieldy.

For better or for worse, however, this system is changing. Starting next year, students will continue to receive written evaluations but will also receive key words such as "good" and "excellent." Some (including me, to be honest) fear that this will create a system tantamount to traditional grades. Others welcome the standardization. Multiple school wide meetings have been held about the issue, with various student groups giving their two cents. Regardless of your opinion on the issue, it’s a conversation that’s going on here, and one you should be willing to get involved in if you come to NUSL.