SEO Corporate Law vs. Eurotrip Forum

[GOB Bluth]

I have a week left to apply for the SEO Law program, but I am trying to decide if I want to do that or go backpacking in Europe for a month in the summer. I just received my NYU acceptance letter today. Before that, I was not going to apply to SEO because I was sure I wasn't going to get in at a school that SEO wants.

Now I am totally split. This summer is probably the last time I will ever be able to take month long vacations before I retire. I'm not very well traveled: never been to Europe or even NYC. My best friend and I are already in the preliminary stages of planning the trip. Nothing is booked yet, but he'll totally hate me for bailing, especially because it was my idea in the first place.

I don't mean to be presumptuous, but from what I've read about SEO, with my NYU acceptance and financial WE I should be a shoe-in for the program.

So now please tell me what you guys think you would do. Thanks for any info in advance!!

[Supernova]

Europe ftw....you'll have plenty of opportunities to work countless hours for biglaw firms in your 2L summer and after you graduate.

[zettsscores40]

Go to Europe since you've never been. Get drunk, see the sites, get laid, do weird shit with weird people, get drunk, get laid.

[cannoneer]

Are you rich? I think the SEO thing pays. Also, it's an opportunity to get in good with a quality employer. You might be able to work yourself into a solid position for your first summer after law school if you go to work this summer. That means good money this summer, next summer, and the summer after. Less law school debt ==> flexibility to choose a career that doesn't preclude you from considering month long vacations. It's only Feb., so your friend has ample time to make other plans for the summer.

[rainmaker614]

Does NYU have any semester abroad programs in Europe? If so do that and go for SEO. I could imagine firms would love to hire a grad that has just a decent class rank and went through the SEO program, it shows a commitment to diversity and they're usually all about that.

[GOB Bluth]

Thanks for the quick replies already!!!

LOL I'm not rich at all. I have some money saved up from working in school, but nothing that would even get me a 1/4 of the way through a semester at NYU. So I'm gonna be in indentured-servitude levels of debt after three years, anyway.

Thanks for the tip about semester abroad, I hadn't even thought of that.

[zettsscores40]

Okay a serious answer this time. Going through Europe was a blast this past summer. I loved it and I'm itching to go back this summer. Studying abroad and going there on a trip are not the same in many respects. I'm thinking of it this way, if you're drafted to go off to war, are you going to spend the little time left learning the ins and outs of your weapons, techniques, war strategy, etc? Or are you going out with your friends for a couple of last hoorahs? You're going to be at NYU, connections and networking shouldn't be a problem unless you have the social skills of 3rd grader. Enjoy the summer, work, make some cash. Outside of the networking and supplements they give you, SEO seems like it would blow. The rest of it seems like a law school prep course more or less.

[OperaAttorney]

Eurotrip.

[spankercheese]

I was looking into the SEO thing too, but decided not to apply. I'd take the Eurotrip. You are going to a good law school. Assuming you don't end up at the bottom of your class, you will end up with a good job when you get out anyway. The SEO thing pays, and that's nice. But if you aren't from NYC, you are going to have spend a decent amount of money to temporarily relocate yourself there for the internship. I felt like, if I were already living in NYC, I'd be more inclined to do it, but that's just me.

[GOB Bluth]

*rubs beard* Interesting, very interesting. Please continue...

[OperaAttorney]

I was looking into the SEO thing too, but decided not to apply. I'd take the Eurotrip. You are going to a good law school. Assuming you don't end up at the bottom of your class, you will end up with a good job when you get out anyway. The SEO thing pays, and that's nice. But if you aren't from NYC, you are going to have spend a decent amount of money to temporarily relocate yourself there for the internship. I felt like, if I were already living in NYC, I'd be more inclined to do it, but that's just me.

+1

That's why I decided not to apply.

[txag_09]

Europe ftw....you'll have plenty of opportunities to work countless hours for biglaw firms in your 2L summer and after you graduate.

+1

[ArsenalGunner]

Ha-ha I've been debating about this for the longest time too! My SEO app has been completed since Dec!!! And all i need to do is hit send. Im leaning towards the trip(and i think you should too), my reasons being i really want to relax and take a long do nothing vacation the summer before school starts. Get out all the partying, laziness, drunkenness etc out of my system so hopefully by the time school starts i'll be sick of it( random i know).
Also do you have law firm experience already? I do, and I'm not sure what more i could learn if i did SEO.
And as everyone else said, you going to the number 5 law school in the nation, do well first semester and I'm pretty sure you will have numerous offers!
That's my advice...on the contrary SEO is a once in a lifetime opportunity, an experience that goes well beyond your OL summer. It would among many other things, provide you with tons of networking opps, clerkship opps(thru its program) and prepare you for 1L.
Good luck, let us know what you decide!!!

[GOB Bluth]

With 4 days left, I am leaning to eurotrip... Pro-SEO people, any final arguments???

[TheDreamKeeper]

I applied to SEO, but I highly doubt I'll get in. I'll likely go to a 15-25 school, and I'm pretty sure they want t-14.

[hopingtogo]

I thought the deadline for SEO was February 15th? Either way, I think you should go to Europe.

[KP429]

I applied, just to see if/where I get placed. If it's a firm I like, I'll do it. Otherwise, chillen back home for the summer.

[OperaAttorney]

With 4 days left, I am leaning to eurotrip... Pro-SEO people, any final arguments???

Eurotrip.

I visited the SEO website and read the materials I received via snail mail. What I read made me roll my eyes--before tossing the envelope in the garbage can .

[KP429]

The SEO online brochure/informational stuff doesn't even hide the intent of the program which is simply to make it easier for the top firms to recruit the very best minority students to eventually fill "diversity" quota spaces. One of the quotes was so ridiculous, I should re-post it here:

"SEO interns are some of the nation’s brightest
college graduates. We give them an opportunity to experience
first-hand the practice of a Wall Street law firm and in exchange
we get a jump on the fierce competition for top legal talent.”


-Sigh..-

[gahhhhhhhhhh]

The SEO online brochure/informational stuff doesn't even hide the intent of the program which is simply to make it easier for the top firms to recruit the very best minority students to eventually fill "diversity" quota spaces. One of the quotes was so ridiculous, I should re-post it here:

"SEO interns are some of the nation’s brightest
college graduates. We give them an opportunity to experience
first-hand the practice of a Wall Street law firm and in exchange
we get a jump on the fierce competition for top legal talent.”

mhm...aka photocopying. I am very skeptical of how substantive the work given to SEO interns is. Photocopying is probably a stretch, but I doubt it's much more than work similar to what would be given to a junior paralegal.

[OperaAttorney]

I just can't get with SEO's nauseating elitism. If SEO's intent is to give the most promising minority 0Ls a headstart, then it should aptly consider factors other than a t14 law school acceptance. I'd like to think SEO does; however, the information provided here and elsewhere suggests otherwise.

I suppose an SEO internship would benefit someone looking to make quick money before law school or someone looking for a cursory introduction to corporate law culture. Because I love my family and will see them less often once I matriculate in August, I've decided to spend the summer close to home. I'll chill with my family, lift weights, do the beaches, and read law review articles.

[GOB Bluth]

SEO is pretty legit opera. Their undergrad intern program is very inclusive. I've heard nothing but good things from my friends who worked at NY investment banks over the past two summers.

As far as the "elitism" that you find nauseating, I don't think its all based purely on a t10 acceptance. You still have to have something else going for you. I said I was a shoe-in for the program only because I have relevant WE in addition to the NYU offer. But even if it was just based on being a minority and in at at t10 or t14, so what? They are a private program, and as we implicitly agree when we go along with "elitist" talk of "top fourteens" or "top" anything, private individuals and organizations have the right to seek the best options for themselves. SEO is just using t14 admit status as a signaling mechanism for a competitive candidate. We may find that dumb, but it doesn't make it "wrong" or "right".

The only talk I've heard on TLS is that a t14 admit makes you very competitive for this program, not that the absence of a t14 admit completely rules it out. ( p -> q =/= -p -> -q)

LOL, with the deadline passed I've not applied anyway. Thanks to everyone who put thier two cents in.

Next question: Where do I HAVE to go in Europe???? But that should be another thread...

[OperaAttorney]

Kudos on your decision to explore Europe.

Where to go? That depends on your interests. If I visited Europe from, say, July through early August, I'd head over to Austria for the Salzburg Music Festival. All of Mozart's operas, as well as a careful selection of operas by other composers, are performed. But that's me

[GOB Bluth]

Salzburg is definitely on the list. I know Austria is beautiful, but Vienna is kinda out of the way, so I will definitely be visiting salzburg.

Here is a very rough draft that we came up with. I was gonna do it in a different thread, but oh well. Everyones here anyway.

Days-Place
2 Dublin
3 London
2 Amsterdam
1 Travel to Berlin
2 Berlin
1 Travel Munich
2 Munich
1 Salzburg
1 Travel to Venice
1 Venice
2 Rome
1 Genoa
2 Marseille
2 Travel to Barcelona
2 Barcelona

Everything after Rome is negotiable. We just know we want to go from Rome and end up in Barcelona somehow. We figured we can just kinda wing it through Northern Italy and the South of France, or just take a direct flight Rome to Barcelona if we're short on time.

[Kohinoor]

The SEO online brochure/informational stuff doesn't even hide the intent of the program which is simply to make it easier for the top firms to recruit the very best minority students to eventually fill "diversity" quota spaces. One of the quotes was so ridiculous, I should re-post it here:

"SEO interns are some of the nation’s brightest
college graduates. We give them an opportunity to experience
first-hand the practice of a Wall Street law firm and in exchange
we get a jump on the fierce competition for top legal talent.”

mhm...aka photocopying. I am very skeptical of how substantive the work given to SEO interns is. Photocopying is probably a stretch, but I doubt it's much more than work similar to what would be given to a junior paralegal.

Here's the conundrum. They can't give you junior associate biglaw research because you don't have the legal foundation to follow stuff particularly well. They can't give you junior associate biglaw drudge work or the program would get terrible reviews. The only option is a summer of wine and cheese receptions.

To OP, go to Europe. Some of us desperately want SEO.