NATHAN CARACTER V. CALIFORNIA WESTERN SCHOOL OF LAW

SUE THE SCHOOL?

Oh. My. God. Are you shitting me? Am I really going to do this? Well, I had another student that was in kind of the same boat that I'm in. His GPA was 73.5....PAUSE ONE SECOND. HUGE SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read "What To Do" parts 1 & 2, you should probably do that now. That's ok, go ahead, I'll wait right here...

I have completely exhausted my possibilities. Dean Brenner couldn't be bothered with me, the Academics Whatever Committee was useless, and Cal Western was charging me $12,000 because they dismissed me from classes. WTF!?

I'm sure that my description of the math used to arrive at GPA's didn't make a bunch of sense, I'm terrible at describing these things. So....here's a spreadsheet!

PTS SCORE = the scale 1 score which is your grade in the class or your scale 1 GPA. This is after the curve, but before it gets translated into a recognizable number for letter grade or GPA purposes.

Increment/previous step = this is the amount increased from the previous amount. When we look at PTS SCORE 95 it is a 1.0 increase from the previous increment of 94. Basically every increment in this column is an increment of 1.0. Easy enough.

% = is the percent difference that the increment differs from the expected or norm value. This is indicated by a color value.

plus 25-50%

plus 5-25%

plus or minus 0-5%

minus 5-25%

minus 25-50%

Because the amounts are integers, we expect them to increase by 1.0, and so all the % values are green.

The grey shaded values are the scale 1 numbers provided explicitly in the Student Handbook...we know precisely what Cal Western states that those numbers should be when we convert them.

This is the column which uses linear transformation to configure scale 1 (50-95) to scale 2 (0-4.33). These values are in the Student Handbook. We know the boundaries of these ranges: 50-54 =0, 55=0.01, and 95=4.33.

The formula is y=0.01+ ((x-55)*(4.33-0.01))/(95-55) where x is the known PTS Value and y=the equivalent scale 2 value.

Again, with linear transformation, even though the amounts have changed, the increments increase in an equal and proportionate amount.

THIS IS WHAT THE CONVERTED SCORES SHOULD BE.

This final column lines up how CWSL equates the PTS Values to the 0 - 4.33 GPA scale. Again, the grey shaded values equal the Student Handbook scores. This displays the complete unevenness of CWSL's conversion. The scores given by the professors increase evenly from value to value. However, when the Registrar's Office receives those grades, they convert them to a scale which does not increase evenly.

What this shows, relative to linear transformation, is that when a student's grade would be between 0.66 - 1.52 the increments to the next level decrease. So instead on increasing by 0.108 for every 1.0 points given by the professor - it increases 0.073 - 0.094 for every 1.0 points. The results of this halted increase means that by the time a 2.0 GPA is attained, it is actually 0.06 below what CWSL claims is needed.

Oddly enough, however, my Spring GPA of 76 should have (even according to the Student Handbook) should have given me a 2.27 on scale 2, but only received a 2.25.

I offered all this information to Vice Dean Hannah Brenner Johnson and she just dismissed my requests for clarification. So, if anyone doesn't understand why I plan on initiating a lawsuit - THIS is why.

These are the 3 sections side to side

Need more proof? Ask ChatGPT:

I figure now I have no choice but to file a lawsuit. The problem is I can’t really afford an attorney. Luckily, I ran across a student who found himself in the same predicament I was in. His cumulative GPA was 73.5 (mine was 73.9), but as it turns out, his score should have equaled a 2.01. He had a connect on an attorney downtown and offered to go halvsies with me if we found a lawyer.

Here’s the thing. I’m not very good at explaining my case. As I tell people about it, I hear myself speak and I sound like a bitter bitch that won’t accept the fact that he’s a law school dropout. But, once they see the math and start working through the formula themselves, they begin to see it. Same thing happened with this attorney.

So Steve and I decided to meet in the lobby of the building where his office was located, on the 23rd floor. It’s downtown so it was no problem for me. As I’m waiting there I get these texts from Steve* saying he’s running late but on his way. Not knowing the attorney’s name I suggest to Steve we call him. So Steve calls him and calls me back saying he's lost. So, we're late and here I am trying to give Steve directions, even though he's not quite sure what street he's on...

So Steve shows up, we take the elevator to the 23rd floor to his office. Maybe some of you have noticed that in the picture his building doesn't even have 23 floors. Maybe some of you should shut the hell up and let me continue my story, Aiden.

We're greeted by the receptionist who informs us he's not even in the office yet. She calls him and she then informs us he'll be there in 45 minutes. (Side note here: I really hope this all works itself out in my favor, because I am always running late and apparently you get a free pass to do so when you're a fucking lawyer)

Having some time to kill, we decide to head next door to Donut Bar. Y'all know that Donut Bar moved!? Yeah, much nicer joint too.

THE MAN OF THE HOUR

We head back to the building and meet with the attorney. No, we didn't bring him a fucking donut, his ass was an hour late.

So, he asks Steve what hew can help him with. Steve motions to me AND MY VOICE FUCKING CRACKS! Like a goddamned 13 year old talking to a college sorority girl. Jesus Christ. I feel stupid, I feel sweat start forming. I start explaining to him the math involved and he counters. I counter back. We spar for awhile and he stands up and says, "Hold on, let me get some paper, I'll show you what I mean." Steve gives me a sideways look:

The attorney. comes back with his yellow legal pad and starts jotting down some of the numbers I''ve brought in. He works on a problem, shakes his head, then scribbles out what he wrote. He does this 2 or 3 times before he finally concedes and says "You definitely have a case here.

Steve and I are like "Sweet, this is perfect!"

"BUT I CAN'T TAKE YOUR CASE"

What the motherfuck...?

Apparently our attorney is looking to make the switch to academia soon. With a limited number of law schools in San Diego - he doesn't want to run the risk of burning any bridges.

I guess back to the drawing board.

Steve says he'll search for an attorney. I'll do the same....