HLS Transcript*

Meanwhile, back in the other Cambridge, HLS seems to have changed it's grading system from the old one of A, B, C, D, F (with pluses and minuses also available to subdivide A's and B's), to a new one of Honors-Pass-Low Pass-Fail. Now, I have honestly never particularly worried too much about my grades at HLS (and my grades at HLS have somewhat reflected this). So I don't really care, either way. Under the new system, I think the Honors mark corresponds with an A, Pass is a B, Low Pass is a C, and fail is an F. The one issue is that I have managed to scrape up a number of B+'s and A-'s in my time (pretty middle-of-the-road, gradewise, at HLS), that would undoubtedly be equivalent only to Passes, rather than Honors. So, were I to start again today, I'm quite sure that my transcript would simply be an undistinguished sea of Passes. Oh well, whatever.

The one concern that I actually have now is that my law school transcript is going to need to now come with a longwinded explanation from me. My first two years were graded with letters (which are converted into numbers for determining GPA -- except even the numbers don't correspond correctly -- an A is a 7, not a 4.0). My next year, here at Cambridge, is truly pass-fail as far as my law school transcript is concerned (however, my Cambridge degree will indicate what sort of honors I graduate with: first, 2:1, 2:2, etc. (2:2 may be more likely -- as long as I avoid the dreaded "gentlemen's pass")). Finally, my last semester at Harvard will have, in theory, Honors-Pass-Low Pass-Fail grades, which I'm hoping will all be Passes. That's going to be somewhat interesting to explain.