Pittsburgh 2011

[OGR3]

Accepted via Status Checker today. Under review since 12/08. Went to PITT for undergrad and still live in Pittsburgh, so in-state tuition makes this a tempting offer.

Congratulations!

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

Congrats! Stats? Thanks

[bigbubba]

To those that are current students, can we get a conversation going about how your summer employment search and employment of other Pitt students is going? Would like someone to lay some truth down regarding the actual difficulties of securing positions etc. Hard to take employment statistics from schools seriously as you never know how many ppl are responding back, actual positions, etc. Has recruiting been really down at Pitt? Are students having to rely more upon themselves making connections as opposed to career services, on campus recruiting etc? Have 1Ls been able to find summer positions?

At the moment, potentially I may end up paying sticker here and I'm wondering if I should bother or go to a similarly ranked school where money was offered. My sister graduated from a law school in Pitt and worked in-house for a large corporation there for a few years and received offers from other firms at the time so she's been painting a rosy picture for me in attending Pitt. But then again that was 5-7 years ago so the employment prospectives have obviously changed.

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

I don't mean to kill the thread or seem like a jerk, but wouldn't the above conversation be more appropriate if it was started on the "Choosing a Law School" forum? I mean, a link to that thread could even be posted here. I know most of you have received a decision already, but I haven't because I had no choice because of circumstances but to apply late. I am very interested in if people got accepted/rejected, stats, and UR date. Thanks

[Murray]

Congrats! Stats? Thanks

Stats are in profile. 3.1/161.

[bigbubba]

I don't mean to kill the thread or seem like a jerk, but wouldn't the above conversation be more appropriate if it was started on the "Choosing a Law School" forum? I

I would have posted that there but it seems as if this forum is a lot more active with current students giving info regarding housing options, professors, bickering back and forth, etc(see last few pages). Although I do feel your pain of anxiously waiting. I had a 3.11 and 161 and went under review on 1/20 and accepted 2/21. Hope you hear back soon

[OGR3]

I don't mean to kill the thread or seem like a jerk, but wouldn't the above conversation be more appropriate if it was started on the "Choosing a Law School" forum? I

I would have posted that there but it seems as if this forum is a lot more active with current students giving info regarding housing options, professors, bickering back and forth, etc(see last few pages). Although I do feel your pain of anxiously waiting. I had a 3.11 and 161 and went under review on 1/20 and accepted 2/21. Hope you hear back soon

We tried a 1L answering questions thread, but people directed most of their questions to this thread. It was just easier to consolidate all of it to this thread.

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

I don't mean to kill the thread or seem like a jerk, but wouldn't the above conversation be more appropriate if it was started on the "Choosing a Law School" forum? I

I would have posted that there but it seems as if this forum is a lot more active with current students giving info regarding housing options, professors, bickering back and forth, etc(see last few pages). Although I do feel your pain of anxiously waiting. I had a 3.11 and 161 and went under review on 1/20 and accepted 2/21. Hope you hear back soon

Yeah, I know, there is a lot of what you stated above. That's why I stated there could be a link to a thread posted on here to get rid of it. I guess an active thread is better than no thread.

[OGR3]

To those that are current students, can we get a conversation going about how your summer employment search and employment of other Pitt students is going? Would like someone to lay some truth down regarding the actual difficulties of securing positions etc. Hard to take employment statistics from schools seriously as you never know how many ppl are responding back, actual positions, etc. Has recruiting been really down at Pitt? Are students having to rely more upon themselves making connections as opposed to career services, on campus recruiting etc? Have 1Ls been able to find summer positions?

At the moment, potentially I may end up paying sticker here and I'm wondering if I should bother or go to a similarly ranked school where money was offered. My sister graduated from a law school in Pitt and worked in-house for a large corporation there for a few years and received offers from other firms at the time so she's been painting a rosy picture for me in attending Pitt. But then again that was 5-7 years ago so the employment prospectives have obviously changed.

I haven't found it difficult to find a summer position (and fingers crossed, a second), but I have a relatively specialized interest, relied almost entirely on networking, and had prior experience in the field. I'm not sure about OCI because I'm not really gunning for a firm, but I have heard it's not pretty for the 2Ls.

Our career services office is essentially worthless, but they recently brought in someone with a ton of legal recruiting experience to lead PI/Government recruitment, and I have friends who have been very impressed with her. Luckily, it's been my experience that most attorneys are more than happy to meet with students for informational interviews, and in my case, one of those interviews resulted in a job offer.

I know very few people working in firms 1L, and those that are either worked there before law school or went out to places like Erie to get them.

The picture your sister painted is very rosy, and your chances of doing the same are next to none, regardless of the school you attend. If you want to work in Pittsburgh or Western PA, there's no better choice than Pitt. I'd advise you to email the admissions office with your other scholarship offers if you don't receive one.

[kk19131]

The career services office is worthless???

[HeavenWood]

The career services office is worthless???

Here we go...

[Dr. Review]

Career services at any school is hit or miss. It's true that I haven't been pleased with Pitt's CSO, but their primary purpose is to set up networking events and review resumes/cover letters, along with helping you focus your search. This year, the staff was pretty inexperienced, but that's something that obviously changes over time.

I wouldn't count them out for next year, but they didn't help me land a job, either.

I didn't have a lot of trouble getting a job, and I just landed an externship with a federal magistrate judge, which isn't too bad. Pitt is held in pretty high regard in the region.

[BarbellDreams]

The CSO made a decent amount of events that involved attorneys from firms and PI/gov work. Its really up to you to network with them yourself. The CSO does not put on a formal OCI for 1Ls like some other schools do, the best they do is get you in touch with someone working in an office and after that you're on your own. From personal experience I would say the CSO didn't help me much with anything, all of the interviews that I got were found on my own through networking. I will say I got an interview from a judge posted by the CSO which is my #1 choice so they do post jobs once in a while. In contrast though I have reciprocity from my undergrad so I use their symplicity job posting site as well and they post a lot more jobs than Pitt did on their site.

It also heavily depends on where you want to work. There are a lot of PI jobs here and the majority of people that applied for them got interviews/offers. Firm work is nearly impossible to get without amazing connections as 1L. I also dont know many people with paid internships set up and those that do are around the $10/hr., nothing huge like you see in biglaw. From what I heard from 2Ls OCI was rough, but by the time 2L rolls around you will generally have some sort of options through networking.

[bport hopeful]

Everyday that I dont hear from pitt, other schools look better and better.

[HarveyBirdman]

Regarding summer employment, did you guys who now go to Pitt and have found jobs for this summer, find paying positions? Is that uncommon?

[boilerup89]

Regarding summer employment, did you guys who now go to Pitt and have found jobs for this summer, find paying positions? Is that uncommon?

Curse you birdman why didn't I make make that my name....*thinking of making reducto or Ken Sebben alt. account*

Sorry for random thread derailment

[BarbellDreams]

Regarding summer employment, did you guys who now go to Pitt and have found jobs for this summer, find paying positions? Is that uncommon?

Curse you birdman why didn't I make make that my name....*thinking of making reducto or Ken Sebben alt. account*

Sorry for random thread derailment

Paid jobs are generally uncommon. I know of a handful of people who landed small firms paying $10-15/hr. but nothing more than that. Of course I should mention that if you are a diversity SA candidate your chances at landing, well, everything go through the roof.

[rs2004]

Regarding summer employment, did you guys who now go to Pitt and have found jobs for this summer, find paying positions? Is that uncommon?

Curse you birdman why didn't I make make that my name....*thinking of making reducto or Ken Sebben alt. account*

Sorry for random thread derailment

Paid jobs are generally uncommon. I know of a handful of people who landed small firms paying $10-15/hr. but nothing more than that. Of course I should mention that if you are a diversity SA candidate your chances at landing, well, everything go through the roof.

when you say diversity, what does that mean exactly?
is it like URM diversity or anything-but-caucasian diversity?

[Scurredsitless1]

I have had 3 interviews and I have 3 coming up. 4 of the 6 interviews are for paid positions, and 3 of them were on-campus interviews. However, I don't have anything locked up yet.

I think reading these boards has deterred some people from aggressively applying for paid positions because we're constantly told that they are so rare. However, I have found that getting interviews for paid positions hasn't been all that tough.

I did have practical work experience before coming to law school though and that probably has impacted my job search.

I think the timeline for obtaining summer work in Pittsburgh tends to be a little behind what these boards indicate the timeline is in the major markets. Before 2 weeks ago, I didn't know very many people at all that had work lined up. A lot of people have gotten offers in the last few days. It seems things are now heating up. There's an in-house job on symplicity that pays $25/hr and they just started taking applications. I guess what I'm saying is that it might be a little early to make a judgment on how the market for 1L summer work is going.

(BTW I'm non-diversity)

[BarbellDreams]

Regarding summer employment, did you guys who now go to Pitt and have found jobs for this summer, find paying positions? Is that uncommon?

Curse you birdman why didn't I make make that my name....*thinking of making reducto or Ken Sebben alt. account*

Sorry for random thread derailment

Paid jobs are generally uncommon. I know of a handful of people who landed small firms paying $10-15/hr. but nothing more than that. Of course I should mention that if you are a diversity SA candidate your chances at landing, well, everything go through the roof.

when you say diversity, what does that mean exactly?
is it like URM diversity or anything-but-caucasian diversity?

Honestly not sure what it means cause I am a white guy who doesn't qualify, all I know is there is a girl who has received like 10 interviews in summer "diversity programs" at firms.

[mhd08]

(For those of you who are concerned) Not everyone is like Barbelldreams here at Pitt. The majority of people are NOT d-bags...

I leave for a few days and come back to this? What's with all the animosity? Barbell is not a d-bag, for the record. He's just trying to be honest and helpful.

[VTOrange19]

This came across my mind earlier...

Do you think they are holding out on acceptances, WLs, and rejections until next week when they get the scores from February's LSAT? I am applied but not complete, as I am waiting for a highly boosted score from the terrible December administration. Do you think they could be holding all of the applications they have until everything is complete so they can sit back and say "Here is the rest of our choices and we have ___ spots to fill..." and continue on with assembling the class?

That seems logical to me for the long wait, but then again, what do I know?

[northwood]

if you are waiting for a score- they very well may wait until they get your score before making a decision on your application

[VTOrange19]

if you are waiting for a score- they very well may wait until they get your score before making a decision on your application

Oh I know that much. I am within the splits with current numbers, but hopefully this LSAT will clear it up beyond doubt. I know I am on hold until they get that score. What I meant was, if you applied in the second half of January/February, maybe they could be sitting on the apps till they have everything from everyone (assuming more than a handful of people like myself took the LSAT in February), just so they can view everyone at once and kind of see the overview. Because I would imagine if you weren't one of the people that got accepted quickly with high numbers, then you are in the "in-the-running" crowd that they are about to break into once they get all scores.

[bport hopeful]

Seems logical, but I sure hope not.