Seeking Advice and Providing a Cautionary Tale Forum

[Anonymous User]

To OP:
As someone with great grades (top five in my class) at a T30-40, I am supremely envious of the opportunities afforded to people at T6. I've networked or mass-mailed into around a dozen interviews at big law firms and 8 callbacks. Still no offers, though I've arranged some recent late-stage interviews through mass mailing that I feel confident about. I have met around 40-50 students from other law schools interviewing at the places I interview at and I think a total of 4 that were not from T14 schools. My success has a ceiling; lots of firms reserve too many slots for OCIs to be hired by them through an outside process. Some firms I know would never hire someone without a T14 degree. I'm mostly fine with that; I'll graduate with 20k in debt and still have a good shot at BigLaw or a good clerkship.

But please don't give me crap about how it's easier to not go to a T14 or how Columbia and NYU grads don't get jobs and it's too hard. Anyone not in the T14 and in BigLaw is there due to a hell of a lot of luck.

[cavalier1138]

I reread through this thread again and I want to close with one final thought. I want to put in a plug for Harvard Law. I don't go there, but I think Harvard really is the best law school. It's really difficult to fuck your life at HLS in a way that's entirely possible at a place like Penn, Stanford, or NYU (I'm not sure about Yale). LIPP is the ultimate protection and thus mitigates the risk of misfortune in ways other law schools don't. It doesn't matter how much money you make or what kind of legal job you do, HLS will repay your loans. You may have a "Shitlaw" job and make 5 figure but you'll be solidly middle class and make more money than most Americans ever would. I think that's worth something and not really spoken about on this forum. My school (T6) will only repay if you work for a qualified organization. Sall firms and some PI jobs don't qualify. I incentives misfit careers and tactical positioning for jobs that piles on the misery and randomness of this profession. My loans are non-dischargeable in Bankruptcy and unless I find something higher-paying before graduation, I probably won't be able to afford a house or a car newer than 10 years until I'm in my 40's. I was a top 1-2% applicant based on my numbers coming into law school. I'll end up graduating in the top-half to top-third of my class and I'm wholly fucked for the next 15 years or so. It's quite possible, depending on how my situation plays out over the next year, I could have made more money serving tables at Red Lobster than I'll take home with a T6 law degree. Think carefully about your risk and whether you have the wherewithal to survive in this profession.

I understand that you're feeling down right now, but the right track for you is to go to therapy, not spend time making up fantastical stories about what life at Harvard must be like. Median-ish grades (or whatever passes for grades at Harvard) and bad interviewing/social skills would also fuck you over at Harvard OCI. Additionally, despite LIPP's broad coverage, you'd still end up paying a significant chunk of change on your loans at any job paying over $40k-ish.

I'm pretty sure CCN each offer free therapy to students; I'd highly recommend taking advantage of it. Your reaction to your current situation isn't healthy or sustainable, and you're putting your mental health at serious risk if you don't get help.