Competitions & Awards

Honors

Upon graduation, the UNC School of Law awards honors to students who graduate with high grade point averages. Honors designations are not made until all of the spring grades have been turned in, so students who graduate with honors receive a diploma so noted near the end of the summer.

• Highest Honors = any student achieving a 3.9 GPA or higher.
• High Honors = the top 10 percent.
• Honors = the top one-third of the class.

An August or December graduate will be awarded honors, high honors or highest honors if the graduate's GPA was equal to or higher than that of the lowest students awarded honors, high honors or highest honors who graduated the previous May.

Order of the Coif

The top 10 percent of the graduating class is eligible for election by the faculty into the Order of the Coif, the national legal honorary scholastic society. Only students who have completed at least 75 percent of their law studies in graded courses are eligible for consideration.

The Order of the Coif defines "graded courses" as those for which academic accomplishment is recorded on the basis of educational measurement involving four or more discriminators.

Because UNC accepts transfer credits, but not grades, it is unlikely a transfer student can meet the 75 percent rule and qualify for Order of the Coif.