Below Median OCI 2015 Forum

[Anonymous User]

I was 3.0 at CCN and struck out. I had to hustle and it worked out fine, but it would have been better to have hustled earlier. If you are on the fence, start the hustle now.

[Anonymous User]

How did you hustle and how did it work out for you? I'm around the same from CCN.

[Jmart082]

.7 below median at a T14 so I have a significant uphill battle. But I am entering OCI with a V50 firm offer despite my grades. I also have two pre-OCI interviews. It helped to have a 1L summer associate gig and WE. We will see what happens. Just doing this for options.

So you dont have an uphill battle at all is what you're saying?

I wish I had these kinds of "problems."

[052220152]

also if youre .7 under median at a t14 that means you're basically bottom of the class. you won if you already got a v50 offer.

[Anonymous User]

At least at NU, .7 under median is approaching academic disqualification.

[Anonymous User]

yea at my school if you're .7 under median, you must straight up not do any of the reading and write in klingon on the finals.

[Anonymous User]

Interested in hearing about interview strategies. Is it better to sell yourself for a particular practice area that the firm is really well known for, or talk about a few practice areas (or lit/trans generally) with a softer pitch?

I feel like being under median requires you to be pretty focused on one or two practice areas. Candidates with better grades can talk about their interest in being exposed to lots of different practice areas, but I don't see how that will change an interviewer's mind about a sub-median candidate. Thoughts?

[Anonymous User]

I was 3.0 at CCN and struck out. I had to hustle and it worked out fine, but it would have been better to have hustled earlier. If you are on the fence, start the hustle now.

Same minus the worked out fine part.

Hustle, folks.

[Anonymous User]

How did you hustle and how did it work out for you? I'm around the same from CCN.

I signed up for every interview I possibly could and got my name out there. I did everything I could to network and was put on the road to my summer associate position when an attorney from the firm was involved with one of my extracurricular activities. I took it even thought I knew they couldn't extend me a full time offer and worked as much as I could that summer. I learned a lot and I honestly believe it was the best possible placement I could have gotten in terms of how much work I got to do on some high profile cases.

In the mean time, I got my grades up and did clinics and RAships to get experience & network even further. I applied to everything I thought could teach me something, including working two legal research jobs while studying for the bar. I had a handful of federal clerkship interviews lined up right after the bar, loved the judge in my second one, cancelled the rest, and am now clerking.

I love where I am and, to be honest, would not have hustled as hard as I did if I hadn't had the sword of Damocles over me. But life would have been a LOT easier if I had hedged my OCI bets by doing mailings before I'd struck out.

[Anonymous User]

I have an informational interview tomorrow--I've done several of these over the last few weeks and every time I wore a suit since I was working downtown anyway. My summer job is now over, so should I still wear a suit? It's over lunch fwiw.

[Anonymous User]

.2 below median at mvp, so we'll see how this goes..

[Anonymous User]

.2 below median at mvp, so we'll see how this goes..

Ditto. Nabbed about 35 school sponsored screeners, but most are with firms that are such a long shot its nigh impossible. 1 pre-OCI screener, I think it went well but I haven't heard back from them yet. Good luck everyone.

[052220152]

I have an informational interview tomorrow--I've done several of these over the last few weeks and every time I wore a suit since I was working downtown anyway. My summer job is now over, so should I still wear a suit? It's over lunch fwiw.

Yea dude. Better to be overdressed. Either:

1) you wear the suit, didn't have to, and they think, at least he's taking this serious

Or

2) you don't wear the suit and it didn't matter

Or

3) you don't wear the suit and they think, man this guy couldn't even be bothered to look decent

[Anonymous User]

At least at NU, .7 under median is approaching academic disqualification.

Not really, unless you're suggesting NU's median is below a 3.0:

To maintain good academic standing, a student's grade point average must meet or exceed 2.25

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/registr ... ingpolicy/

[Anonymous User]

.7 below median at a T14 so I have a significant uphill battle. But I am entering OCI with a V50 firm offer despite my grades. I also have two pre-OCI interviews. It helped to have a 1L summer associate gig and WE. We will see what happens. Just doing this for options.

So you dont have an uphill battle at all is what you're saying?

I enjoy having options.

As an update I was able to land another pre-OCI interview.

[LA Spring]

Regarding OCI and median grades. One of the partners said that because of my school (T10) they never really looked at my grades. I heard they attribute that because of the idiocy of the curve and that those attending a T ten are smart. This is a decent sized firm, paying market, with a half dozen offices and a fair number of associates from T tens.

[Anonymous User]

I mean that's interesting, but it doesn't explain how I got preselects with the firms that are less grade selective and not the ones that are slightly more concerned about grades

[Anonymous User]

just got a call from a firm in my hometown--the associate on the phone didn't really introduce herself and I had no idea what was going on. until the end i realized she was asking me to a screening interview and i was bumbling all over the place trying to figure out who the fuck she was. I'm letting it go to voicemail next time

[Anonymous User]

3.2x -- I should still include transcript with my mass mails + GPA on resume, right?

[Anonymous User]

Same question. 3.1, should I send in transcript? Got 0 results so far.

[Anonymous User]

Bump.

[Anonymous User]

Same question. How far above/below median should you put your GPA on your resume? Does it depend on the school? Lower T14 here

[Anonymous User]

I'm just below median at lower T 14. Didn't put my GPA on my resume but I included my transcript in mass mails. No need to show off that GPA more than once but recruiting is going to ask for it anyway. I've gotten some bites by meeting with alumni--the networking thing really works

[JustHawkin]

Same question. How far above/below median should you put your GPA on your resume? Does it depend on the school? Lower T14 here

Came across a quote in the clerkship forum that I thought was pretty relevant to this question:

Don't make me look super hard to figure out your grades. I know, I know, if your grades suck, you want people to see the real you, so there's probably some bad-grades threshold at which it's beneficial to you to not include them on your resume, but I assure you it's pretty low. Let's not kid ourselves here, grades are by far the most important factor in clerkship hiring. Calculate your GPA on your grade sheet and put it on your resume. (Obviously not including HYS in this. Berkeley has those helpful top x% honors, include that. All other schools, you have a GPA, so give it to me.)

Replace "clerkship" with "firm" and this has to be pretty on point.

[Anonymous User]

Same question. How far above/below median should you put your GPA on your resume? Does it depend on the school? Lower T14 here

The wisdom I've heard at Duke is to keep your GPA on your resume as long as it begins with a "3." If you keep your GPA off, the employer might think it's worse than it actually is.