3.40 at Columbia- Where should I bid? Forum

[spondee]

thanks for snuffing out the flames, keep the good info coming!

as an 0L heading to ccn this is premature and career services will probably explain all of this to us next year... but out of curiosity what kind of school-sponsored preparation do you guys get in advance of the bidding process? are there pamphlets that outline what your range of firms are based on your gpa? and do most students reach out to career advisors for help preparing their list? my instincts tell me that the best sources of info would be those 2Ls who have been there and done that. are there career peer mentors for 1Ls?

A little bit of all of the above. The exact form of it will vary by school. It doesn't begin, or matter, until nearly the end of 1L year.

[Anonymous User]

thanks for snuffing out the flames, keep the good info coming!

as an 0L heading to ccn this is premature and career services will probably explain all of this to us next year... but out of curiosity what kind of school-sponsored preparation do you guys get in advance of the bidding process? are there pamphlets that outline what your range of firms are based on your gpa? and do most students reach out to career advisors for help preparing their list? my instincts tell me that the best sources of info would be those 2Ls who have been there and done that. are there career peer mentors for 1Ls?

I personally find Columbia's career services to be completely useless. I have an appointment in a couple of weeks for bidding advice, so maybe that will change my mind.

There is a mentoring system, I believe (they were taking applications for mentors), but I think it might best to have a 2L that you're friends with mentor you informally. Definitely get in touch with older students, though. There is a lot of stuff I wish I knew earlier on in the year, like not to attend or read for legal methods at all.

[Anonymous User]

There is a lot of stuff I wish I knew earlier on in the year, like not to attend or read for legal methods at all.

lol, please elaborate! im starting this in 2 months and have no idea what to expect. isnt there an exam for it in october? is it a lot of work? or just columbia's unique version of orientation at other law schools?

[Anonymous User]

There is a lot of stuff I wish I knew earlier on in the year, like not to attend or read for legal methods at all.

lol, please elaborate! im starting this in 2 months and have no idea what to expect. isnt there an exam for it in october? is it a lot of work? or just columbia's unique version of orientation at other law schools?

There's an exam, but it's three weeks or a month after methods ends, when everyone doesn't remember anything. Our exam last year wasn't even based on the text. They gave us a packet to read the day before (that's the study period for methods) and the pass/fail test that no one fails was based on that. This is indicative of how much effort you should put into legal methods (none).

If you have Strauss or Sovern there could be what seems like a lot of work if you do the reading. Don't really do the reading and make sure to go out and meet classmates as much as possible during Methods. If you have Bobbit, you and your plus 1 will spend the three weeks of methods going on awesome class outings and attending fancy-ass cocktail parties with your professor.

Just use this when you're on call if you fear embarrassment: --LinkRemoved--) .

[PKSebben]

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[Anonymous User]

as far as career services prep, they are useless. they refuse to tell you where to bid or what firms are reaches/targets. they essentially go out of their way to make the whole process as opaque as possible.

OP -- your best bet really is biggest firms with biggest classes, regardless of rank. you have a better chance at a V10 or V25 taking 75 summers than a V50-100 taking 15 summers. look at the bid info given by career services and base your bids on that, based on size, and percentage of callbacks offered.

[deneuve39]

Do any of the rising 3Ls or recent grads know when the honors designations come out? Do you just see them on lawnet?

[Anonymous User]

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[thesealocust]

edit: n/m

[PKSebben]

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[Anonymous User]

Let's turn this into a CLS bidding advice thread.

So, what about below median? What should the optimal bidding strategy be, assuming OCI might actually yield something.

[toaster2]

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[Anonymous User]

What about trying to go from CLS to a regional market (grew up there but no connections)? Not-DC/LA/CHI. I think I'm at median.

[Anonymous User]

bump

[Anonymous User]

Bumping this. Looks like my GPA is 3.396. How screwed am I? Missing Stone sucks. Is it worth mass mailing now before they announce honors?

[Anonymous User]

yea, I was the kid in the library studying my ass off until 3 am every night. Needless to say, I didn't exactly work on my networking. I naively thought that good grades + ccn = v10. ITE and not ITE this was never true.

2l's go to the lunches, seriously.

lol wut. Everything I've heard is good grades + decent interviewing puts you in a great position for a job. Networking isn't necessary at all. Lunches? Lolwut

[thrillhouse]

Do any of the rising 3Ls or recent grads know when the honors designations come out? Do you just see them on lawnet?

They come as letters via snail mail. For recent grads, they've already been sent and received. For others, it'll happen later because they grade the exams later. Not sure how much later. Sorry about that.

For the people with 3.396 and 3.4, don't worry. You aren't screwed. You are going to get multiple calls back AND offers. It might not be at the firms you had your heart set on when you entered school, but firms lower in the rankings pay the same and are generally nicer places to work anyway.

Feel free to PM me to talk. I"m happy to help fellow CLSers (and it'll be a welcome break from Barbri).

[swc65]

OP here. Thanks for the responses. A couple more questions if you have any information/advice.

Do you guys think V10 firms are reaches?

Do you have any idea what firms I should use as targets and how low should I go for safeties?

Depends on the V10. I know of a few people who said (said) they had offers at Cravath w/out Stone. There is a document on the bidding page of symplicity that shows the percentage of offers that went to Stone/Kent or non-stone for each firm. Take a look at that.

Also, you missed it by .01, not .1

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Thanks for the responses. A couple more questions if you have any information/advice.

Do you guys think V10 firms are reaches?

Do you have any idea what firms I should use as targets and how low should I go for safeties?

Depends on the V10. I know of a few people who said (said) they had offers at Cravath w/out Stone. There is a document on the bidding page of symplicity that shows the percentage of offers that went to Stone/Kent or non-stone for each firm. Take a look at that.

Also, you missed it by .01, not .1

Haha, sorry, I bumped an old thread that was relevant to my situation. OP's issues are long resolved, but I appreciate all the information anyone can provide.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Thanks for the responses. A couple more questions if you have any information/advice.

Do you guys think V10 firms are reaches?

Do you have any idea what firms I should use as targets and how low should I go for safeties?

Depends on the V10. I know of a few people who said (said) they had offers at Cravath w/out Stone. There is a document on the bidding page of symplicity that shows the percentage of offers that went to Stone/Kent or non-stone for each firm. Take a look at that.

Also, you missed it by .01, not .1

Yeah, do try for Cravath. But just add it, don't bid it, as Cravath will almost definitely be underbid. Not sure about Simpson and S&C, though. I don't recall hearing about any non-Stone who got offers there, and I think they're typically not as underbid as CSM.

[Anonymous User]

How do you know you're not Stone? Rising 3L. Pretty sure honors haven't been released yet, and the cutoff varies a bit year to year.

[bravos89]

How do you know you're not Stone? Rising 3L. Pretty sure honors haven't been released yet, and the cutoff varies a bit year to year.

Are you sure? It seems like the cut-offs are pretty formulaic according to the criteria on the CLS website?

http://www.law.columbia.edu/academics/r ... ecognition

[Anonymous User]

I'm gonna keep trying with the central thread action

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=187757

[azntwice]

I'm pretty sure the grade cutoff for Stone and Kent are constant. I think anon user is thinking of the percentage of students that receive honors -- for 1Ls, it's usually top third although the grading curve change will probably change that, and for 2Ls/3Ls, it can be as high as 50%. And I'm pretty sure that they have not been calculated yet -- we got an email last year (after 1L year) saying that they had been calculated and posted, and the deadline for grade submission was only a few days ago (June 22).

Regardless, anything super close to Stone probably looks pretty enough that you can afford to bid on Cravath, which took 95% honors kids two years ago. I would still definitely put it on my bid list, but put it towards the bottom since it will most likely be underbid (similarly to Davis Polk, which interviewed something like 240 kids last year). The other V5s and V10s are also worth a shot.

[swc65]

I'm pretty sure the grade cutoff for Stone and Kent are constant. I think anon user is thinking of the percentage of students that receive honors -- for 1Ls, it's usually top third although the grading curve change will probably change that, and for 2Ls/3Ls, it can be as high as 50%. And I'm pretty sure that they have not been calculated yet -- we got an email last year (after 1L year) saying that they had been calculated and posted, and the deadline for grade submission was only a few days ago (June 22).

Regardless, anything super close to Stone probably looks pretty enough that you can afford to bid on Cravath, which took 95% honors kids two years ago. I would still definitely put it on my bid list, but put it towards the bottom since it will most likely be underbid (similarly to Davis Polk, which interviewed something like 240 kids last year). The other V5s and V10s are also worth a shot.

Theyre constant. 3.41=stone 3.81=kent (plus some weird metric)