. Forum

[Roundhill]

.

[cavalier1138]

If your goal is obtaining biglaw jobs in NY, then none of your choices work. Less than a third of the class at Illinois ends up in a big firm, and those are not New York firms. Same goes for Fordham (except some are NY firms there). BU gets you slightly better results in biglaw, but you're in Boston, not NY. New York has too many competitive schools in close proximity for the city for them to go looking for graduates from lower-tier schools halfway across the country.

If you've read anything on these boards before posting this, you already know the answer. You want biglaw in Chicago or NY? Retake and get offers in the T14.

[ponderingmeerkat]

What do you guys think of University of Illinois w/ full tuition scholly with the goal of obtaining big law (personally not a fan of big law, but would like to have a few years big law experience for resume). I have some ties to Chicago and would not mind working there for a few years.

However, I would prefer to be in NYC. I know Chicago big law offices come to Illinois for OCI (Like Kirkland, Sidley and Jones Day). Do regional offices interview for just their region office or would it be possible to get a summer associate spot at their NYC office via their Chicago hiring office?

My other options are Fordham and BU, both will cost ~110K. I also know I would need top 25% grades at all three to have a decent shot as well.

Dude...you're just not going to have the outcome you're looking for with these options. Period. You're not going to get there from here.

Study your ass off, retake and improve on what sounds like a high-150's/low-160's score (157-161??). With some time and dedication 165+ is absolutely attainable and you'd be a fool to not afford yourself the best opportunity to succeed and meet your goals.

Good luck applying for the 2017 cycle!

[fallingup77]

Rising 3L at Illinois here. Top 1/3 after 1L, hit NYC market hard with mass mails. I emailed a ton of Illinois alums in NYC, applied to every big and midsized firm there. Got literally 0 interest. At OCI, some of the firms will let you interview for their NYC offices. I don't know how successful this is for people. My theory was that it was wiser to focus on Chicago at OCI b/c it is the home market. Even for Chicago biglaw you really need to be top 25%. I had a bunch of screeners, but no callbacks. And I don't think I'm a bad interviewer. All said, I'm happy with my result, though. I snagged an SA at a midsized firm in downtown Chicago after doing a later OCI session.