Pitt 2010 Forum

[badwithpseudonyms]

Got back today and found a letter waiting for me in my mailbox. Never received a 'received' nor 'complete' email. $14,000 a year. 168/3.5. Good luck all!

Are you mocking me??

Just got home... and nothing.

[aers32]

I stopped by my parents place (my listed permanent residence) and was surprised to see an acceptance from Pitt. Did anyone else receive it in a small envelope? I thought it was a rejection at first, but it was 3 papers clipped together with a really nice gold clip

[Nicholasnickynic]

Yeah, lol their acceptance letter really got me going.


I was like small package=fail.

then i opened it...

Gold clip=win?

then i unclipped it and looked at next line.

Win.

had my heart going up and down.

[Queenjane87]

congrats!! when did you submit?

[nyskidude]

Same here. Got back from Thanksgiving break and saw a letter from Pitt in my mailbox. The gold paper clip was a very nice touch.

[msteel12]

The small envelope scared me at first too but accepted with 12K a year scholarship

[pieceofbeth]

In with 14k/year

[fedtaxed]

For people who are getting their acceptances, when did you apply? Does anyone have a sense of how quickly I'll hear back if I submitted on 11/12 & should be an auto-admit?

Congrats to everyone who is getting in & especially to people who are getting money!!

[YellowCake]

For people who are getting their acceptances, when did you apply? Does anyone have a sense of how quickly I'll hear back if I submitted on 11/12 & should be an auto-admit?

Congrats to everyone who is getting in & especially to people who are getting money!!

Thanks.

My application was received 10/21 and my I got the letter on 11/27, but it was dated 11/20. My guess is you'll hear something in the next two weeks, really not basing that off of anything though.

[badwithpseudonyms]

Context
Sent: 11.03
Received: 11.14


Under review email ~10 minutes ago.

[Queenjane87]

Under review as well

[Nikiya]

Under review here too. I got the application received email 11/18.

[mshflyer]

under review email today. complete on 11/16.

[Headybrah]

under review as well - they received my app on the 18th or so... no notification of completion.... hopefully good news soon

[jack duluoz]

i went complete around 11/15 and nothing yet other than a complete email.....

[Headybrah]

never got a complete email but they received my app on the 17th of November

[jack duluoz]

yea...

i dont think it matters.

at least one person on here received an acceptance without a received or complete email.

[Nicholasnickynic]

congrats!! when did you submit?

10/17. never heard anyhthing then got accepted.

I still have the gold clip on my desk. I manipulated it so that its stands up on its own. Like a trophy.


dont judge me.

[Notor]

Also got the under review email today.

[Colton]

Pitt 1L here, taking a break from outlining at the moment. I'm willing to answer questions if people have them. I might not respond immediately though.

[Nikiya]

Pitt 1L here, taking a break from outlining at the moment. I'm willing to answer questions if people have them. I might not respond immediately though.

How happy are you with your decision to attend Pitt? I'm an undergrad here, so I'm more than familiar with the campus, but how do you like the law program?

How many hours per week do you spend studying? Is the environment pretty competitive?

[Headybrah]

how is the job situation going?

[Colton]

Pitt 1L here, taking a break from outlining at the moment. I'm willing to answer questions if people have them. I might not respond immediately though.

How happy are you with your decision to attend Pitt? I'm an undergrad here, so I'm more than familiar with the campus, but how do you like the law program?

How many hours per week do you spend studying? Is the environment pretty competitive?

I'm very happy with my decision. I've said it many times and my friends here all agree, that I never thought for a minute that my quality of life would be as high as it is.

As to studying, it varys a lot depending on whether there's a memo due for legal writing. But I would say on average, probably 3/4 hours in addition to class. I also spend about 10 hours on the weekend. So I would guess 45 or so hours total including class. The week leading up to a memo there's more and the stress level is higher.

I've been surprised by the lack of competition really - even now as exams are here. There are def. some gunners though. But, and think this goes to the type of students that seem to be here, most students here dont want biglaw and are less sharkish as a result I think. They want good grades, but a lot them are more interested in small/medium firms or public interest type jobs. Rightly or wrongly, most seem to think they'll be fine with median or so grades for those pursuits. Most seem to know they'll make 45K and are ok with it. I'm not, but that's me.

Also, the curve here is not bad. 3.0 so 50% of us are going to get B's or better. A lot of T2's have C+/B- curves it seems. We dont and that helps. Pitt also doesnt rank which reduces the competition.

how is the job situation going?

Well, I'm a 1L and we werent even allowed to apply for summers jobs until today per ABA/NALP rules. So I dont know how it will be for others in my 1L class. I'll have a better idea next semester. I'm lucky enough to have a few connections so I'll be ok - for an unpaid 1L summer job anyway.

I can tell you that full-time jobs are very hard to come by for 3Ls. I know that the Editor of the Law Review didnt (a month ago at least) have any quality (biglaw) offers and I know from my meeting with career services that about half of the LR doesnt have a biglaw offer. I was told that about 15 students - [thats a little less than 10%] have NLJ 250 offers. However there are many students who honestly don't want anything to do with biglaw here. A lot of people want to work in small/medium firms or public interest at Pitt. Most of the people I've talked to do have jobs. Most are paying 45K +/- 5K.

[Nicholasnickynic]

Not very competitive, huh?


Seems like a good place for me to a gunner. Kidding. Maybe.

Question, how anecdotal is your 45k thing? I mean the TLS pitt thing says average salary of 95k. Is that a complete lie? Or have salaries completly plummeted? or what? Thoughts?

I'm not in it for the money, and certainly don't want big law. But I was hoping to make more in the 55-70k range.

[Colton]

Not very competitive, huh?


Seems like a good place for me to a gunner. Kidding. Maybe.

Question, how anecdotal is your 45k thing? I mean the TLS pitt thing says average salary of 95k. Is that a complete lie? Or have salaries completly plummeted? or what? Thoughts?

I'm not in it for the money, and certainly don't want big law. But I was hoping to make more in the 55-70k range.

Well, gunning isn’t going to help your grades so it’s up to you whether you want to do it or not, lol. I don’t mean to imply that the students aren’t smart or driven, they're just not going to razor-blade pages out of books or steal your laptop like you hear horror stories about.

Certainly the salary number I gave is based on a small number of people. 15-20 students that I've spoken to or I've heard talking about it, and from my meeting with career services.

As to the 95K its probably not a lie or even manipulation. You just have to understand what it really means. That’s probably just private sector, 50% of Pitt students go in to private sector jobs. So really a median private sector salary represents the 75th percentile of earners. Also, if its average and not median its even less useful because there are definitely 20 or so people making 125-160K at large firms, or going to work for their family's firm. That affects the average quite a bit. There are also, despite what many TLSers say, non-Nalp firms that pay 70-100K starting that hire new grads.

As to the salary dropping because of the economy, I don’t know, but I would guess that salary didn’t drop much, but that there are just fewer jobs. I could be wrong. The employment numbers are probably based on 08, maybe even 07. So the current market is different than those numbers, and it will be different -hopefully for the better- in 3 years.

One last thing about salary. If you start out at 50K or whatever your first year, it’s not like you'll finish there. You'll get promotions, meet more clients, become a better lawyer and as a result you'll probably make more money. I know that's a foreign concept on these boards sometimes, but believe it or not people get promotions and make more money than they did when they started. You're not going to hit your income ceiling your first year on the job.