Bidding on Boston Forum

[Anonymous User]

Sorry if this is a repost but I couldn't find any threads to answer my questions. I know that the Boston market can be very locally focused, so I'm looking for advice on how competitive one has to be in terms of GPA (from a T14) and ties. Do the top firms have GPA cutoffs similar to the top NYC firms (3.6+)? I'd be happy to share more personal details in a PM, but I don't think there are many people in my class bidding on Boston so I don't want to reveal too much on here. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

[DoveBodyWash]

I had some offers in Boston (grew up there though) but not attending a Boston school. Happy to answer questions via PM

[Anonymous User]

I did the Boston OCI circuit last year. ~ Top 1/3rd at MVP, originally from Boston, and struck out of the big 3 (Ropes/Wilmer/GP). Several classmates with very high grades who are not remotely from New England got offers at those firms. In my experience, the local tie thing is overblown (although you need a good answer to why Boston) and the importance of top grades is underemphasized. Those three firms are the only ones that hire sizable summer classes, so if you don't have very top grades from a top school it'll be a crapshoot. I ended up with several V10 NYC offers and chose a DC firm, but got nothing in Boston, which I was targeting.

[Anonymous User]

The unpredictability is definitely my main concern, so (genuinely) thanks for the honest advice. It's difficult because there's so much data on the NYC firms but Boston seems like a bit of a black box.

[Anonymous User]

It is. Several of my median or below-median friends were able to land Boston offers with firms with smaller class sizes, so landing an SA in Boston is definitely doable, but its a stressful process. The moral of the story is bid NYC too to be safe.