Healthy Competition

I stumbled across this at design darling and it made me think about competitiveness and law school and the legal profession as a whole. I am more competitive than your average Jane and I know that competing with myself is essentially more important than competing with others. However, I’m in LAW SCHOOL. 

I think law school is where they created the idea of competition. I’m serious. Especially since in my law school they have decided to use the bell curve for grades (STUPID) which makes people INSANE.

But how much competition is too much competition? When do we cross the line? I know med schools in the US are taking measures in the admission process to weed out potentially self-harming people because of the competitiveness. Some are even making grades only pass-fail to lighten the psychoticness of it all. There’s talk on implementing the same ideas in law schools now. 

I know these are good ideas, but at the same time, how much is it actually going to help? Competition comes with the legal profession. People are power hungry. People are obsessed with having what others don’t have.

So how do they help students that are one day going to be in this profession? I think students need to be reminded that YOU ARE NOT YOUR GRADES. Grades are arbitrary. I don’t care what anyone says, they are. Especially when you add a bell curve into the mix. Law schools also need to show students how to BALANCE life. Studying is obviously important, but so is living life. Make yourself work out, make yourself eat real meals and make yourself enjoy a couple nights a week with friends.

What’s your take on competition? What’s the healthy level?