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Guidelines for Reporting Class Rank

Official Rankings

A violation of these rules may constitute an honor code offense or may prompt administrative disciplinary action.

Students at the Georgia State University College of Law will normally receive three official rankings during the course of their studies. These are the first and second interim rankings, which are calculated when students complete specific requirements and the final ranking, which is calculated upon graduation. Rankings are only calculated at the conclusion of a Spring semester.

The first interim ranking is based upon those courses which comprise the first-year full-time program (see the catalog for a description of this program), and is calculated only when a final numeric grade is recorded in all of these courses. Full-time students will normally be ranked at the completion of their first year in law school, while part-time students will normally not be ranked until the completion of their second year. For part-time students, we calculate a ranking average which usually differs from their overall average. This is done by factoring-out all grades except those received in the classes which comprise the first-year full-time program. Electives and second-year classes would not be considered in this ranking.

The second interim ranking is calculated when the student has received a final grade in all of required second-year courses (see the catalog for a listing). This ranking is based upon the cumulative numeric average.

The final (or graduate) ranking is performed following graduation. Since rankings are performed only at the end of Spring semesters, students who graduate in either the summer or fall will be ranked with students graduating the following June.

Reporting Rankings on Resumes

Students may report only their official ranking on their resume, and may not estimate based upon previous ranking lists. Class ranks are reported in terms of the student's position relative to the number of students being ranked (the ranking "cohort"). For example: "number 10 out of a class of 100 students." When reporting rankings on resumes, both the student's rank and the number of students in the ranking cohort must be reported. The student may state the ranking in this manner or by calculating the percentile, such as "upper 10%."

If the class ranking is included on a resume, it must be the most recent ranking. Students may include prior rankings as well, so long as the most recent ranking is included.