Berkeley, Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale
What do all of these law schools have in common? They all use an honor system for exams. They do not use exam software to lock down student computers. Why?
Is it that administrators at these schools recognize that their students are more honest than the rest of us? Is it that those schools have more money than the government of Belgium, and can therefore spend more on… wait… how would not using exam software cost more money?
Is it that they are just old and slow and stodgy, trapped in the 20th Century? That would explain the terrible IP law programs at these schools. Is it that these schools don’t care about cheating?
Something tells me none of these answers is the right one. So why do some schools opt for exam software, while others do not? And why do those that opt out seem to be disproportionately high-ranked schools?
Michael wrote,
I think part of it is that at the very top schools it is competitive to get in, but less competitive than many other schools once there. There’s an assumption that pretty much all the students are hard working and competent- so no one needs to cheat just to get by- and since it isn’t cut-throat in nature no one needs to cheat to rank higher than their class mates.
I think Stanford is the only one of the five that uses a traditional grading system. Harvard uses a fairly standard system, but doesn’t rank until graduation- so in many regards the rank doesn’t really matter in seeking jobs that will be offered after a summer associate position. I’m pretty sure Yale and Boalt don’t even rank their students.
I think all of this (the assumption of competence and the lack of cut throat competition) lead to an assumption that people aren’t going to cheat.
Link | June 14th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Erik Schmidt wrote,
Michael, thanks for the note. Your assessment makes sense, given what I’ve seen of how the law school pecking order works. But I wonder if there really is more of a threat of cheating from students in lower-ranked schools, or if the assumption is just that - an assumption.
Link | June 14th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Student wrote,
I’m in graduate school at one of these institutions (not law, but another professional school) and, yes, we sign an honor code. But I think it’s silly if administrators think that because we’ve signed it, we won’t cheat. I can tell you that these students are no more honorable than any other student at any other school, ivy, private or public. I went to a non-top-20 public university for undergrad and I can honestly say that I don’t see any difference in cheating, except that we have more oppotunity here at the ivy because we can leave the room during tests. I do agree with the above comment about everyone being very talented and there does seem to be less of a “need” to cheat, but that is in no way connected to the morals involved. It’s just another example of privilege.
Link | June 14th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
k wrote,
Northwestern has an honor code, no exam software requirements, and a traditional grading system. Northwestern doesn’t rank, but a lot of the top 20 schools, schools which do use exam software, do rank. I’m not sure the ranking thing is 100% the reason, therefore, though I’m sure it factors in. At Northwestern, I’m sure a factor is the somewhat higher average age–most students have been out of college for at least two years. I also am sure another factor is cost–it’s expensive to administer and maintain the software infrastructure to support exam software.
Link | June 15th, 2007 at 1:12 am
Erik Schmidt wrote,
I agree that the ranking is certainly not the only factor. Age may be part of it, but at Santa Clara we have a higher than average median student age, and we still use exam software. The cost issue would seem to militate in favor of schools with huge endowments, making it easier for schools like Yale and Stanford to use exam software and harder for schools like mine that have less money.
Link | June 15th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
M.R. wrote,
Note: Berkeley’s IP law program is No. 1 in the country 10 years running.
Link | June 25th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Erik Schmidt wrote,
Perhaps I should have made my sarcasm about these schools’ IP law programs a bit more obvious.
They’re obviously all top-notch.
Link | June 26th, 2007 at 5:07 am
C wrote,
I attend one of these law schools, and we used to use ExamSoft, which was very inconvenient for MAC users. Some rather brilliant students found a clause in some university documentation stating that students can bring a policy discrimination charge against the school, and when they do so, the school muct turn over all its documents about the program with a defined time period. if the school cannot turn over the documents, it must discontinue use of the program. These students alleged that the use of ExamSoft was discriminatory, the school could not turn over all documentation in time, and the use of ExamSoft was disconitnued.
Link | November 14th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Jason wrote,
Can anyone direct me to a list of law schools that do not rank their students? Or just create a list themselves to give me? My e-mail is Jimstark51@hotmail.com
Link | August 10th, 2008 at 3:29 pm