Possible bottom 25% at MVPNDC. What should I do? Forum

[MrAnon]

Bottom 25% at any school outside of HYS means your life in corporate law is over. Your life in public interest law is dead in the water. You should pick up books on becoming a solo attorney. This is practical advice.

Should I tell my friend who frequents this site and got BigLaw with ~3.1 that his life in corporate law is over?

ITE?

If I had a dollar for every friend who finished below median and got biglaw then I could afford 3 years at New York Law School. OP could also take a $50K loan from the bank and put it all on lottery tickets. After all, I have a friend who won the lottery.

I stand by my advice.

[Kohinoor]

Bottom 25% at any school outside of HYS means your life in corporate law is over. Your life in public interest law is dead in the water. You should pick up books on becoming a solo attorney. This is practical advice.

Should I tell my friend who frequents this site and got BigLaw with ~3.1 that his life in corporate law is over?

ITE?

If I had a dollar for every friend who finished below median and got biglaw then I could afford 3 years at New York Law School. OP could also take a $50K loan from the bank and put it all on lottery tickets. After all, I have a friend who won the lottery.

I stand by my advice.

Below median and below a 3.1 are two different worlds.

[MrAnon]

Ha. At what school???

[Kohinoor]

Ha. At what school???

UVa for one, where below median gets biglaw maybe and ~3.1 is irredeemably fucked.

[BruceWayne]

Ha. At what school???

UVa for one, where below median gets biglaw maybe and ~3.1 is irredeemably fucked.

Something like 30 percent of the class gets a 3.1; they've lost all hope?

[Kohinoor]

Ha. At what school???

UVa for one, where below median gets biglaw maybe and ~3.1 is irredeemably fucked.

Something like 30 percent of the class gets a 3.1; they've lost all hope?

For biglaw, sure.

[Veyron]

For those of us following along at home, what does UVA curve to?

[Aqualibrium]

Ha. At what school???

UVa for one, where below median gets biglaw maybe and ~3.1 is irredeemably fucked.

Something like 30 percent of the class gets a 3.1; they've lost all hope?

Interesting that about 30% of your class is below 3.1 while only 25% of my class is above 3.1 lol. Gotta love curves.

[Doritos]

For those of us following along at home, what does UVA curve to?

3.3 is median

[Veyron]

For those of us following along at home, what does UVA curve to?

3.3 is median

Wait - and yet people make fun of Penn for having a high median? If anything ours is the same or lower - or are you talking median upon graduation?

[Doritos]

For those of us following along at home, what does UVA curve to?

3.3 is median

Wait - and yet people make fun of Penn for having a high median? If anything ours is the same or lower - or are you talking median upon graduation?

3.3 is the straight up median. this is nifty...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_la ... GPA_curves

[RVP11]

Bottom 25% at any school outside of HYS means your life in corporate law is over. Your life in public interest law is dead in the water. You should pick up books on becoming a solo attorney. This is practical advice.

Should I tell my friend who frequents this site and got BigLaw with ~3.1 that his life in corporate law is over?

ITE?

This year.

[markymark]

Bottom 25% at any school outside of HYS means your life in corporate law is over. Your life in public interest law is dead in the water. You should pick up books on becoming a solo attorney. This is practical advice.

Should I tell my friend who frequents this site and got BigLaw with ~3.1 that his life in corporate law is over?

ITE?

I know 3 people with sub 3.3 GPAs (below median) that got biglaw.

[RVP11]

For those of us following along at home, what does UVA curve to?

Theoretically, 3.3. But the only rule on GPA is that every class must average to a 3.3 (or as high as a 3.34, actually), so the actual median could be any number right around there.

[Veyron]

Bottom 25% at any school outside of HYS means your life in corporate law is over. Your life in public interest law is dead in the water. You should pick up books on becoming a solo attorney. This is practical advice.

Should I tell my friend who frequents this site and got BigLaw with ~3.1 that his life in corporate law is over?

ITE?

This year.

What was the kid's angle?

[markymark]

What was the kid's angle?

you dont need an angle. I know a 3.15ish from Penn who got V50. Its not that uncommon if you aren't asocial/ugly.

[worldtraveler]

This is the OP. Thanks for all the advice. Brutal, but candid. I plan to call career services tomorrow to get the scoop on how URMs with my first semester grades fared in the short as well as long-term, and then really buckle down and make a decision. If it's true that BigLaw and realistically-paying PI (above 35K starting off) are 95% out of my reach now, and I really don't want to go solo (since don't you need some prior firm experience to be taken seriously as a solo, and going solo is essentially setting up your own business?) with massive amounts of non-dischargeable debt, then I really see no point in continuing. Frankly, I've had worse things happen to me than this, and it's a bummer, but I have to be cold-eyed and realistic about my options. I'm no longer a dew-eyed 22 year old lost in an idealistic fog (there are so many at my school, it's quite endearing hearing them talk at times), and this is an investment more than anything else, so I have to see it as dispassionately as possible. I only owe it to myself, since I don't want to be stuck with +100K more in non-dischargeable debt and career prospects marginally better than what I can have now if I just bail. (Granted it's a recession, but recruiters I know from years past have gotten to emailing me every week or so over the past two months with a new job opportunity in the 45-60K range, so the employment situation can't be all that bad in my niche right now. And I have great references from previous jobs, so there is a back-up plan of sorts, I suppose.)

I do fear, though, that I'm being a bit alarmist. I have a nasty habit of catastrophizing. With the half-scholly, I can throw the dice again and see where I land second semester (though I stand to lose another ~19K in the process). And I know that I can throw myself and work 12-16 hour days to see that I can get some good scores the second time around. What to do? What to do? This is killing me.

Besides big law, what kinds of law interest you? Immigration? Family? There are other options out there, even if they don't have stellar pay. Non-prestigious PI also does not care as much about grades, and if there are PI things which interest you, it may be worth staying. I wouldn't give up yet unless you had your heart set on big law.

[Veyron]

What was the kid's angle?

you dont need an angle. I know a 3.15ish from Penn who got V50. Its not that uncommon if you aren't asocial/ugly.

Do not feed me HOAP.

[Kohinoor]

What was the kid's angle?

you dont need an angle. I know a 3.15ish from Penn who got V50. Its not that uncommon if you aren't asocial/ugly.

Hm. In my own experience, biglaw with a 3.15ish was very uncommon but maybe we're asocial or something.

[BruceWayne]

Hm. In my own experience, biglaw with a 3.15ish was very uncommon but maybe we're asocial or something.

The message that I'm getting from this thread is that I need to hang around RVP and stay away from you---sorry!

[Aqualibrium]

Hm. In my own experience, biglaw with a 3.15ish was very uncommon but maybe we're asocial or something.

The message that I'm getting from this thread is that I need to hang around RVP and stay away from you---sorry!

"If you hang around smokers you're most likely to be one, so I'ma hang around money cause I'm tryna get me some."

Loads of e-cred for anyone on this site who can actually identify the artist and song that came from.

[joemoviebuff]

Hm. In my own experience, biglaw with a 3.15ish was very uncommon but maybe we're asocial or something.

The message that I'm getting from this thread is that I need to hang around RVP and stay away from you---sorry!

"If you hang around smokers you're most likely to be one, so I'ma hang around money cause I'm tryna get me some."

Loads of e-cred for anyone on this site who can actually identify the artist and song that came from.

Miley Cyrus. (fingers crossed)

[Aqualibrium]

Hm. In my own experience, biglaw with a 3.15ish was very uncommon but maybe we're asocial or something.

The message that I'm getting from this thread is that I need to hang around RVP and stay away from you---sorry!

"If you hang around smokers you're most likely to be one, so I'ma hang around money cause I'm tryna get me some."

Loads of e-cred for anyone on this site who can actually identify the artist and song that came from.

Miley Cyrus. (fingers crossed)

LOL not quite.

[Veyron]

What was the kid's angle?

you dont need an angle. I know a 3.15ish from Penn who got V50. Its not that uncommon if you aren't asocial/ugly.

Hm. In my own experience, biglaw with a 3.15ish was very uncommon but maybe we're asocial or something.

Penn ftw?

[LameLawStudent]

to OP: It depends where you are. Best advice is to go REGIONAL, big time. But this I mean put strong efforts into your hometown and into some other smaller, not major northeast, markets where the school has strong connections.

So for Penn it would be Philly, Pitt, South Jersey (?). For M: Detroit, Chi, Small midwest. For V: Atlanta, Charlotte, Richmond, Texas.

For all 3, any chance of DC is basically done. Can shoot really wide for NYC, but that may not happen.

NDC? --> probably harder, but same idea

To Penn Pal: I dont know much about Penn, but I know that UVa has a true median, for all classes (including seminars and clinics) for all 3 years, which is why it is 3.3. I think penn has a median for 1L year, but then gives up, right? UVa has a tougher curve than basically every school as far as I can tell, so they set it at 3.3

And most of the people I know at Penn law who wanted jobs in DC really struggled, so I don't know about your claims to easy v50 . . .