[gnicholas]

> one of the outcomes of chasing rankings are that transfer students end up as second class students, at least at Columbia.

Interesting — when I was in law school, transfer students benefitted from the fact that they avoided our harsh first-year grading curves (20% A's, 60% B's, and 20% C's). The curve for second- and third-year classes was much more lenient, and it was relatively easy to get a 3.5 average during those years.

As a result, the transfer students disproportionately ended up with the highest GPAs, which seemed unfair to those of us who were there all 3 years.