https://www.law.uchicago.edu/students/handbook/academicmatters/grading

It's honestly kind of a work of art. Used to be 55-86, which is a very UK/Canada approach AFAIK, but in American getting a grade in the high 70's looks bad so they added 100 to all the numbers.

On the one hand, it's granular and coldly unforgiving. Every exam matters because there's no "floor" on your performance and hardly any ceiling.

On the other hand, they've quietly made the median grade in any given class a high B, which is at least as generous as any other T14, and the system's opacity makes it easier to sell mediocre grades to employers. Does 173 (C-range, pretty close to the bottom of the class) sound that much worse than 179 (honors cutoff)? Hard to say. (Obviously, employers who care a lot about grades have it figured out, so it's not like this means #nogradez.)