<p>Hey, </p>
<p>I have read somewhere that Obama graduated first in his class at Harvard.</p>
<p>Is this true? Also, how does class rank work at Ivies, particularly at Harvard? (I would imagine a large number of kids getting perfect gpa’s, so how does one distinguish the first in the class?)</p>
<p>bump, sorry</p>
<p>Obama graduated from Harvard Law School, not Harvard College. He was president of the Harvard Law Review.</p>
<p>Obama is a Columbia University graduate, after transferring there from Occidental College.</p>
<p>I’ve heard perfect GPAs are virtually non-existent. Makes sense.</p>
<p>A large number of kids get perfect gpas? lol it’s harvard, not high school.</p>
<p>Only 8 students have ever gotten perfect GPAs in the history of Harvard. That averages out to one person every 45 years. You will not be the next person. Sorry.</p>
<p>Harvard doesn’t rank all its students. The top student gets the Freund Prize, the next 10% are designated John Harvard Scholars, and the 10% after that are Harvard Scholars. The next 30% usually graduate with honors or cum laude (based on departmental and overall GPA, respectively). The bottom 50% become investment bankers.</p>
<p>Source: [Senior</a> Earns Perfect Grades | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/6/5/senior-earns-perfect-grades-lisa-b/]Senior”>Senior Earns Perfect Grades | News | The Harvard Crimson)
For the ranking info, see the Handbook for Students.</p>
<p>I believe the top 5 percent are named John Harvard Scholars. And actually, high gpa is very much a requisite for recruitment in IB, at least these days.</p>
<p>3.5+ puts you in the running for IB (assuming you’re not Blankfein’s kid… in that case, I don’t think GPA matters)</p>
<p>Well thanks guys for posting, and thanks kayabertz for calling me out like that.</p>
<p>I had no idea that Harvard was based off a 15 pt scale.</p>
<p>It’s not on the 15 pt scale any more.</p>
<p>Wow. That’s one great gene pool: brother and sister the only two people between about 1980 and 2003 to get perfect GPAs at Harvard. And what’s even more impressive is that she managed to do this while juggling an equally impressive extracurricular load.</p>
<p>justforgetme, </p>
<p>what scale is it on now?</p>
<p>A four point scale:</p>
<p>[Grade</a> Point Averages for Undergraduates](<a href=“http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter2/GPA.html]Grade”>http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter2/GPA.html)</p>
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</p>
<p>Insane. Not just a gene pool, but likely familial and other influences as well - probably not an accident that both siblings are pursuing careers in the public service sector with law degrees, and that both were presidents of the Mock Trial Team, et cetera.</p>
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</p>
<p>Hahaha. If only.</p>
<p>but anyway, back to the topic of this thread:</p>
<p>does anyone else have any idea to what degree Obama excelled in Harvard Law School? (gpa?) I know that he has never officially released any thing (hence the “birther” conspiracies), but any thing said by former professors, etc?</p>
<p>Obama was president of the Law Review – isn’t GPA a component of being selected as an editor?</p>
<p>Also, (College) honors are not just GPA based, but contingent on your thesis. If you don’t write one, you have to have a summa (or magna…don’t remember) level GPA to get cum laude honors from the college. My year (09), I think a summa was 3.8 something and magna was 3.72+. Cum laude was around 3.45-3.5. (Again, all contingent on the thesis, with the exception of some quant/science concentrations). The cutoffs change every year, as they are determined by percentage of graduating class. </p>
<p>I have no idea how HLS honors/grades are determined.</p>
<p>The Law School wouldn’t dare release Obama’s transcript. Nor will Columbia.</p>
<p>GPA is a small obstacle to overcome in the larger interests of the institution.</p>