“With the information provided on the transcripts, students and employers have been able to figure out GPAs on their own and can still do so now,” said Law School spokesperson Robb London.

Students said that the change is understandable, but that they would have appreciated an explicit notification of the adjustment, especially considering the relatively newness of Pass-Fail.

“I really don’t care what system I am graded under,” said third-year law student William O. Scharf. “But I want to know my grading scale before going into my classes. It’s that lack of sureness that bothers everybody.”

Dein said she is currently compiling students’ concerns in a letter to Dean of the Law School Martha L. Minow.

“At the very least [the administration] should send out explanatory e-mail about the changes,” Dein said.

She added that some students have suggested using the formulas internally for Latin Honors but leaving it off of the transcript.

Regardless of the new system, “if you’re looking through a stack of Harvard transcripts, it’s easy to see who is doing well and who isn’t,” Scharf said.

He said he does not believe the school is obligated to spell out its grade distribution, but that a system needs to be in place long enough that there is “precedent and accumulated wisdom” about what each grade means.

“Now we are out at sea,” Scharf said. “I could not pin-point my position in my class within 20 percentiles. I have no idea where I stand.”

Weber said he believes the heightened anxiety is a result of the uncertainties in the job market.

“If we were in a booming market, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion,” Weber said, pointing to stable employment rates in the last few years as proof that even in the worst economic times, Harvard graduates are desirable hires. “It has nothing to do with what our grading system is.”

—Staff writer Zoe A.Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.