0L Here - Grades Needed @ SMU to land Dallas v100 Firm? Forum

[Youppi315]

Not that I will base my decision on this, at all, but I'm just curious what it takes to get dla piper, Weil, Jones Day, Fish, Vinson, etc. out of this regional school. I stress regional because, well, if it can't place into these big firms in Dallas at all (or it's nearly impossible) then...what's the point? (Excuse my exaggeration.)

If you could provide a break down of where grads/2Ls find employment, too, that would be very cool (e.g., top 10% get [x], between that and top 20% get [y] etc.).

[Anonymous User]

Not that I will base my decision on this, at all, but I'm just curious what it takes to get DLA Piper, Weil, Jones Day, Fish, Vinson, etc. out of this regional school. I stress regional because, well, if it can't place into these big firms in Dallas at all (or it's nearly impossible) then...what's the point? (Excuse my exaggeration.)

If you could provide a break down of where grads/2Ls find employment, too, that would be very cool (e.g., top 10% get [x], between that and top 20% get [y] etc.).

Top 10% and LR. Most big firms list top 10 to 15 (a few even 5) for SMU OCI. I'm a rising 2L top ~5%. I can PM u if u want and I can give you more info/advice.

[Youppi315]

Not that I will base my decision on this, at all, but I'm just curious what it takes to get DLA Piper, Weil, Jones Day, Fish, Vinson, etc. out of this regional school. I stress regional because, well, if it can't place into these big firms in Dallas at all (or it's nearly impossible) then...what's the point? (Excuse my exaggeration.)

If you could provide a break down of where grads/2Ls find employment, too, that would be very cool (e.g., top 10% get [x], between that and top 20% get [y] etc.).

Top 10% and LR. Most big firms list top 10 to 15 (a few even 5) for SMU OCI. I'm a rising 2L top ~5%. I can PM u if u want and I can give you more info/advice.

Please do.

[thesealocust]

Most big firms list top 10 to 15 (a few even 5) for SMU OCI.

A wise and insightful person once wrote:

PSA - when a firm lists its GPA preference and requirements, you should do the following: Ignore them entirely and mother fucking ask career services.

Firms lie through their god damned teeth on those things, and I want to keep harping on it, because it is VERY IMPORTANT TO YOUR CAREER PROSPECTS. The firms are lying or naive or outsourcing their symplicity profiles to India or who knows what, but if you ask a 3 year old with a box of crayons to draw you the cut off for a firm you'll get a better answer than the firm's published cutoff on your OCI software.

Firms aren't consistently high, or consistently low - they're just consistently full of shit. A firm that says "top third required" might hire to median, it might hire from the top 3% without exception, and there's even a remote chance it will hire from the top third. But those pieces of data simply cannot be relied upon at all. Not even in a cursory way. Not for comparison's sake, not when nothing else will do. You need to completely disregard them, and beg/borrow/steal data from career services. Your (and that's the royal 'your' for everyone out there reading in paranoid law student land) career depends on it.

[kalvano]

Not that I will base my decision on this, at all, but I'm just curious what it takes to get DLA Piper, Weil, Jones Day, Fish, Vinson, etc. out of this regional school. I stress regional because, well, if it can't place into these big firms in Dallas at all (or it's nearly impossible) then...what's the point? (Excuse my exaggeration.)

If you could provide a break down of where grads/2Ls find employment, too, that would be very cool (e.g., top 10% get [x], between that and top 20% get [y] etc.).

SMU career services doesn't break stuff down by grades because they suck.

However, so far, Jones Day, Fish, Weil, and several others are coming to OCI. You'll need, as the previous poster said, top 10% and LR. Top 10% at SMU this year is a 3.612.

[littlebit]

Youppi - take that rising 2L in the top 5% at SMU to lunch. Maybe he/she will share their outlines!

[thesealocust]

I realize I sound like a broken record, and if your career services office has no data then obviously you can't get blood from a stone. Still, absolutely ignoring the requirements the firms post on Symplicity (or whatever) entirely. Do your best to figure out selectivity by asking around, getting data from other schools, etc. But seriously, don't even use what firms post on symplicity as a ballpark. Recipe for disaster.

[Anonymous User]

Above poster is right, but I'm not sure this applies to SMU as much as it does higher ranked schools with more substantial OCI

[Anonymous User]

Not that I will base my decision on this, at all, but I'm just curious what it takes to get DLA Piper, Weil, Jones Day, Fish, Vinson, etc. out of this regional school. I stress regional because, well, if it can't place into these big firms in Dallas at all (or it's nearly impossible) then...what's the point? (Excuse my exaggeration.)

If you could provide a break down of where grads/2Ls find employment, too, that would be very cool (e.g., top 10% get [x], between that and top 20% get [y] etc.).

SMU career services doesn't break stuff down by grades because they suck.

However, so far, Jones Day, Fish, Weil, and several others are coming to OCI. You'll need, as the previous poster said, top 10% and LR. Top 10% at SMU this year is a 3.612.

yeah this was quite the annoying jump in top 10% cutoff from a 3.5. I also despise SMU not giving us invidivual ranks.

Necessary and obvious Caveat to OP and anyone else reading this thread: note that there are few ways to predict how high you're going to end up in your class, so counting on top 10-15% is ludicrous. You should know and understand the high probability of not ending up in the top, and be comfortable with it. High LSAT does NOT equal high LS GPA. I probably had one of the lowest LSAT scores in my 1L class.


OP--> PM'd. I got tons of help from ppl on here as a 0L so I'm happy to pay it forward.

[kalvano]

OP, check the SMU Class of 2013 thread, I posted some info I found about OCI there last night.

[IrwinM.Fletcher]

I realize I sound like a broken record, and if your career services office has no data then obviously you can't get blood from a stone. Still, absolutely ignoring the requirements the firms post on Symplicity (or whatever) entirely. Do your best to figure out selectivity by asking around, getting data from other schools, etc. But seriously, don't even use what firms post on symplicity as a ballpark. Recipe for disaster.

With pre-select schools, there is of course no harm in bidding on these firms even if you're well below their stated threshold. The worst they can do is say no. However, I think this advice is definitely more applicable to schools in the T14 (maaaaybe T25 to a lesser degree, at least those with a lottery/hybrid lottery).

You ain't gonna see Vinson Elkins or Baker Botts giving a callback to a non-URM candidate at SMU or similar schools who's outside the top 20%.