This misrepresents the purpose of an information-gathering project. The purpose of this isn't to guide people into restricting where they apply, it's to provide information that may or may not be useful to any individual user. To the extent it is useful, it wouldn't be in that it discourages someone from applying to a certain firm or market, but rather in that it encourages someone to more heavily target a certain firm or market, given their background.Jay2716 wrote:Anonymous User wrote:This. Prioritizing firms and markets is really important. Asking everybody to mass mail everywhere does not help anybody even if you have unlimited time and energy. I guess the data helps people who MM with a strategy or goal in mind, instead of doing it blindly.RareExports wrote:No one is saying that it's wise to apply to less than every firm. But public information about this is useful for prioritizing firms and markets. I mass mailed the entire NLJ 350 and I would have liked to have this kind of information.Jay2716 wrote:Why is it useful when the only thing it could do is lull people into a false sense of complacency or discourage people from applying? What strategic value would it add to your job hunt? If you want biglaw, you should apply to every firm you would work at that comes to EIW, OCI, and every off campus program. You should mass mail every biglaw firm in New York, every big law firm in any market you have ties to, and any other market you would conceivably take a job in. You should also use all of the networking connections in St. Louis and your home market you've developed. Knowing past year's gpa performance wouldn't impact that strategy at all, it could only hurt it.
No one said you should literally mass mail everywhere. You prioritize markets by your ties, not by how some kid who grew up in Indiana did. Data that (1) is statistically invalid and (2) does not apply to you anyway does not help you strategize. You have a strategy; you mass mail New York and other markets to which you have ties. If you want to delude yourself into thinking your laziness is strategy, go ahead. For the 2Ls who actually want jobs, I suggest doing what generations of TLSers have found works.
Ideally, it will not be statistically invalid, and if it is, it likely won't be pervasive enough to do anything, anyway. And just because one data point out of x does not represent you does not mean that there aren't other that do represent you. The spreadsheet has columns for geographic ties, patent bar eligibility, URM status, journal, etc. If you are targeting midwest markets in general without ties to the area and find a certain market that appears to be more welcoming to those without ties, you might then be encouraged to apply more heavily and invest more time there, but it certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from applying elsewhere.
ETA: If anyone wants to discuss the merits of this further, feel free to PM me. I would rather not clog up this thread.
lol. Last summer, I always let it go to voicemail because I couldn't take the nerves of answering the phone..
