Got into Villanova with $$$ Forum

[philly_law]

Many people not from the area said they were grilled on why they would want to come here and if they were really committed to staying. I was born and raised here, and I was frequently asked by Philly firms if I wouldn't rather be in NY. The Wilmington firms were even worse. It seemed overly paranoid to me, but they all asked my about 8-10 questions about my past involvement with Wilmington, who I know there, isn't NY better, etc. It's important to them, it just is. I don't agree with it, I think going to one of the Philly T2s shows strong commitment to the area, and Wilmington is literally 25 minutes away. But from my experience and other people's that went through it, it just seems like it's important to the firms.

[HeavenWood]

Many people not from the area said they were grilled on why they would want to come here and if they were really committed to staying. I was born and raised here, and I was frequently asked by Philly firms if I wouldn't rather be in NY. The Wilmington firms were even worse. It seemed overly paranoid to me, but they all asked my about 8-10 questions about my past involvement with Wilmington, who I know there, isn't NY better, etc. It's important to them, it just is. I don't agree with it, I think going to one of the Philly T2s shows strong commitment to the area, and Wilmington is literally 25 minutes away. But from my experience and other people's that went through it, it just seems like it's important to the firms.

Right, having ties helps, but your prior post seemed to imply it was next to impossible to get a job here without them.

[philly_law]

Fair enough, didn't mean to imply that. It feels damn near impossible to get a job here with anything from where I'm sitting haha. And you're right, really stellar people got good jobs, regardless of where they're from. I just wanted OP to know it's another obstacle to getting a biglaw job, and that s/he will need good answers about being commited to the area.

[Wholigan]

I'll say this about ties - I do think it makes it harder without ties besides attending a Philly area school. I think for Wilmington, that is even more of a factor. Using my own experience (Not at Nova, Philly ties, but no Wilmington ties), I had a CB rate over 50% with Philly firms, while on the other hand I did 4 Wilmington interviews and got 0 call backs, including a couple of interviews which I thought went very well. I do know of at least one person who got a Wilmington offer with no other ties other than going to school in the area, but it's tough to do.

[beach_terror]

Villanova 2L here, if you're not in the top 25% after 1L just drop out. Top 15-20% "should" probably be the drop out line, tbh. Depends on your goals I guess, but SA class sizes are still extremely small.

[Noval]

Top 10% seems narrow, I was thinking more like 20%. I assume you're just talking about biglaw? TLS forgets sometimes that there are good jobs outside of biglaw.

That pay well? On the percentages this is really splitting hairs. I guess it matters whether 1 out of 10 students in the class get a job that will allow them to live comfortably and raise a family or whether 2 of 10 do.

From what I've seen/heard, top 10% to be more or less biglaw secure, top 25% to have a shot at midlaw on up. Not excellent odds IMO.

It's a myth, midlaw almost never recruits and when they do, they are looking for experience.

Believe or not, but Villanova, just like Temple = Top 10% or get fucked up unless you got a killer connection/sucked a lot of cock.

Not adding "luck" into account, but Top-10% is pretty the only position where you shouldn't worry about employment.

[beach_terror]

It's a myth, midlaw almost never recruits and when they do, they are looking for experience.

This isn't totally true. Technically, almost every DE firm is "midlaw" and a lot of philly firms are midlaw too. They don't recruit a lot, but they do recruit enough that people get jobs from them. That said, ITE midlaw and biglaw recruiting require the same grades.

[HeavenWood]

Technically, almost every DE firm is "midlaw" and a lot of philly firms are midlaw too. They don't recruit a lot, but they do recruit enough that people get jobs from them. That said, ITE midlaw and biglaw recruiting require the same grades.

This. Midlaw, while still tough to snag, is not at all a "myth" in larger secondary markets like Philadelphia.