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Top 1/3

Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:21 pm
by Anonymous User
This might be a really dumb question, but here goes....When a firm says their cutoff is 1/3 what schools are including in this? I am particularly asking about T2 in this category.

Re: Top 1/3

Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:24 pm
by patentlaworbust
Most likely, they mean Top 1/3 of your class (i.e., class rank).

Re: Top 1/3

Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:28 pm
by Aberzombie1892
patentlaworbust wrote:Most likely, they mean Top 1/3 of your class (i.e., class rank).
This. Also, due to competition, the person who actually gets the job likely has a lot higher rank than that if your school outside of the top few.

Re: Top 1/3

Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 9:18 am
by 2LsAPlenty
Top 1/3. Most employers mean this to apply to schools outside the T20 and will go deeper for schools above that. Generally, the ones who advertise with cut offs like that will consider you if you are outside but close if there are other factors you can sell in a cover letter.

Re: Top 1/3

Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 9:25 am
by Anonymous User
From what I've found this generally relates to regional or local schools that tend to fill the firm. Though it can also refer to any school and there are firms that surely only seek top 1/3 from most any school, including T-14....Many of the T20 are more very strong regional schools whereas the T14 or more national so I wouldn't say top 1/3 doesn't always apply to T20 generally but more likely T14 minus Georgetown...

Re: Top 1/3

Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 2:47 pm
by LawIdiot86
We need to know the firm type and the school type to be helpful here. V10 might say top third to the T10. V100 might say top third to the T10-T20. NLJ250 might say top third to the T10-T30. Random local 10 lawyer firm might say top third to a TTT.

Re: Top 1/3

Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 2:50 pm
by Anonymous User
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Re: Top 1/3

Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 3:18 pm
by JusticeHarlan

Re: Top 1/3

Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 6:09 pm
by thesealocust
Good advice.

From that thread:
thesealocust wrote:
thesealocust wrote:
thesealocust wrote:
thesealocust wrote: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.