2015 Loyola Patent Law Interview Program - unofficial thread Forum

[SplitMyPants]

Do I need to explain a drop from Top 9% to Top 15% in my interviews or is that not bad enough of a drop to discuss?

Jfc.

[zosluu]

Do I need to explain a drop from Top 9% to Top 15% in my interviews or is that not bad enough of a drop to discuss?

Jfc.

I don't get why people need to be dicks on this site. Get a life man. It's a serious question. If you don't like the question just ignore it.

[Desert Fox]

fobstory.jpeg

[zosluu]

Do I need to explain a drop from Top 9% to Top 15% in my interviews or is that not bad enough of a drop to discuss?

Jfc.

I don't get why people need to be dicks on this site. Get a life man. It's a serious question. If you don't like the question just ignore it.

Don't ever preemptively try to explain, but have one ready if you need one.

Awesome. Thanks for the clarification.

[faintbeam]

I've received 14 pre-selects from PLIP, all of which are the ones that I'm highly interested. Problem is: PLIP only used the first semester (I'm a rising 2L) grades for deciding on pre-selects, and my grades plummet during the 2nd semester (now top 25% rank at a top 10 school) so I don't know if those awesome firms after seeing my 2nd semester grades at the screener interview would still be interested in giving me any callbacks. So I'm thinking whether I should include those 14 firms on my OCI bidding list? Would that give me a second chance to be considered for any interviews? Yes, I have a strong technical background.

Thanks!

Are you saying your grades "plummeted" such that you are now top quarter at a T14?...

Regardless, if you don't get the CB from Chicago after your "plummeted" grades, take the hint and let a classmate use the OCI slot, bc it won't do you any good. If a firm didn't extend a CB after a tech-oriented fair, why would the same firm extend a CB later from OCI?

Thank you very much! Our school does not really give out ranks so I don't know exactly what rank I'm holding. I only have a vague sense of it based on the four categories of GPA ranges that our CSO put us into for bidding strategy purposes (and I assume each category roughly correlates to a quarter of the rankings...?)

I think I'm not quite confident bc I just don't have any idea what's the pool of candidates with similar backgrounds attending PLIP this year. I have a master's degree in Biomedical Sciences and three years of working experience in a biotech company (midsize one, not any of those big names such as Merck or Eli Lily). I've heard that quite some ppl having PHDs in Biology are looking for IP positions as well...

There's always a decent number of people with PhDs at PLIP, particularly in the life sciences. It's highly preferred at a lot of firms, if not a requirement. Either that or a grad degree with work experience, which you have. So don't let that get your confidence down.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have experience or know what happens when you're in the middle of accepting a transfer position at a better school (think TT to T14) AFTER you've received your preselects but before your screeners/PLIP? Very confused logistically on this

[run26.2]

Congrats on your acceptance. To me, it risks being off-putting if you bring it up in a screener on your own. If it comes up, sure. But you already made their grade cut-off, so no need to brag about being able to move up.

Where it should help will be with the more prestige-conscious firms that would prefer to hire from top schools. I would head to the hospitality suites for those firms, schmooze a bit, and let them know of your impending transfer. If nothing else, you will be able to collect intel on the firms for use at OCI.

[SplitMyPants]

Won't your updated resume that you bring into the interview solve this problem?

[run26.2]

My point was there is no problem. Why does this person need to tell someone she/he is transferring? What if the interviewer is from the old school, or the firm wants to hire from that school?

Seems to me that telling someone your transferring (just to let them know as opposed to it naturally coming up) says two things: 1) I admit my old school isn't very good; 2) I'll trade up when the opportunity presents itself (ETA: which could include the firm conducting the interview).

I generally think transferring is a good idea when it's into a school that will give you vastly better employment options. But I don't see the need to talk about it at interviews where the OP already scored the pre-select.

[Anonymous User]

I'm the OP above and thanks for that

That was part of my question. The other part is does this affect my registration? Considering my original school paid for my registration and I would need to accept my new school before PLIP - does it matter logistically? It would be ridiculous for it to like un-register me, but I wanted to ask in case anyone had background on this.

Thanks in advance

[run26.2]

The fee is $35. Just offer to cut them a check.

[Anonymous User]

How much does your undergrad GPA matter to firms? I'm at a T14 with 8 preselects. 1 V10 3 V20s the remaining are V50s. My resume did not have my undergrad GPA on it. It was this way when I got my V100 1L SA position, and when I had my resume reviewed by the career office. It was only a 3.02. I'd like to think it doesn't matter since they preselected me without knowing it. However, it is a bit of a low GPA. What are your thoughts?

[kyle010723]

I'm the OP above and thanks for that

That was part of my question. The other part is does this affect my registration? Considering my original school paid for my registration and I would need to accept my new school before PLIP - does it matter logistically? It would be ridiculous for it to like un-register me, but I wanted to ask in case anyone had background on this.

Thanks in advance

Regarding transferring, just email PLIP that you are transferring to a new school and they'll print you a new name tag. Your old school can careless (as to PLIP), and be sure you update your resume and tell your interviewer you transferred. I know people that registered for PLIP under old school, send in resume to PLIP under a new school, and ended up accepting a transfer to yet another school before the actual interview. It is no big deal. PLIP is not like an OCI, you go there on your own behave, so no stigma for taking up spots from your old classmates.

[GULCPerson]

How much does your undergrad GPA matter to firms? I'm at a T14 with 8 preselects. 1 V10 3 V20s the remaining are V50s. My resume did not have my undergrad GPA on it. It was this way when I got my V100 1L SA position, and when I had my resume reviewed by the career office. It was only a 3.02. I'd like to think it doesn't matter since they preselected me without knowing it. However, it is a bit of a low GPA. What are your thoughts?

Some firms (generally prosecution) will ask for an undergrad transcript. A few of them might even look at it or care what your GPA was. Most will not, unless there's some glaring issue. A low undergrad GPA is rarely going to disqualify someone otherwise qualified. Don't bring it up unless asked.

[Anonymous User]

How much does your undergrad GPA matter to firms? I'm at a T14 with 8 preselects. 1 V10 3 V20s the remaining are V50s. My resume did not have my undergrad GPA on it. It was this way when I got my V100 1L SA position, and when I had my resume reviewed by the career office. It was only a 3.02. I'd like to think it doesn't matter since they preselected me without knowing it. However, it is a bit of a low GPA. What are your thoughts?

Some firms (generally prosecution) will ask for an undergrad transcript. A few of them might even look at it or care what your GPA was. Most will not, unless there's some glaring issue. A low undergrad GPA is rarely going to disqualify someone otherwise qualified. Don't bring it up unless asked.

I probably should of put the GPA on there regardless. However, I can't do anything about it now. Thank you for the information!

[Anonymous User]

Our CDO told us if you are below 3.0, leave it off. You're so close I don't think it matters one way or another. If it was up to me, I would leave it off unless you have outstanding grades. When I did PLIP, my issue was I had "poor" uGPA, and many if not all of my PLIP interviews asked for an undergrad transcript. And they always look through my transcript during interviews, so expect to have questions about your uGPA if it is less than stellar. That really was the hardest question for me to answer during PLIP was to explain the uGPA. Ideally you want to be able to say more than it was engineering and it was hard, but at the same time, do not make up excuse and said you were sick or had undue hardship when that is clearly false.

[GULCPerson]

How much does your undergrad GPA matter to firms? I'm at a T14 with 8 preselects. 1 V10 3 V20s the remaining are V50s. My resume did not have my undergrad GPA on it. It was this way when I got my V100 1L SA position, and when I had my resume reviewed by the career office. It was only a 3.02. I'd like to think it doesn't matter since they preselected me without knowing it. However, it is a bit of a low GPA. What are your thoughts?

Some firms (generally prosecution) will ask for an undergrad transcript. A few of them might even look at it or care what your GPA was. Most will not, unless there's some glaring issue. A low undergrad GPA is rarely going to disqualify someone otherwise qualified. Don't bring it up unless asked.

I probably should of put the GPA on there regardless. However, I can't do anything about it now. Thank you for the information!

I think you made the right choice, actually. If your undergrad GPA was low, keeping it off your resume was the correct call. Why bring attention to a negative that most places won't ask about? I did the same thing when I went. Only three of the firms I was pre-selected for even asked me for an undergrad transcript, and none of them bothered to discuss my low GPA.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah. I'll definitely man up to it and explain what truly happened. But looking back it may have been a great decision to leave it off. Only two of my 8 firms I'm interviewing with have asked me to bring an undergraduate transcript.

[Spartan_Alum_12]

I wouldn't call a 3.02 in engineering low. More like average. I've heard both arguments for leaving it on or off around the 3.0 range. I had a 3.1 undergrad engineering GPA and kept it on, who knows how it affected things. I got a decent amount of pre-selects so it couldn't have hurt that much.

[Desert Fox]

fobstory.jpeg

[lhanvt13]

I wouldn't call a 3.02 in engineering low. More like average. I've heard both arguments for leaving it on or off around the 3.0 range. I had a 3.1 undergrad engineering GPA and kept it on, who knows how it affected things. I got a decent amount of pre-selects so it couldn't have hurt that much.

I had a 2.6 and nobody batted an eye when I was interviewing for Lit positions. Prosecution on the other hand... I kept my uGPA off those and then just explained later if they went through my transcript. Hard to explain why I was such a shitty person (1.xx) my freshman and sophomore year...

[rahulg91]

I think most firms asking for a UG transcript are factoring in UG grades, at least a little.

I'm pretty sure my 2.8 GPA hurt me at boutiques.

DF you're doing patent law at a biglaw firm right? Would you mind hollering at us about the differences between patent law practice at a large full service firm versus botique? Is the recent doom and gloom regarding IP generally credited or just hype?

I can also PM.

[BaberhamLincoln]

Was counseled today by an NU transfer alum not to put my GPA on my PLIP resume. I'm transferring and I know that's NU's thing (no GPA or rank on resume) but I worry that will look weird at PLIP versus at NU's Oci where it's commonplace. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[Desert Fox]

fobstory.jpeg

[fishfry111]

[