Columbia EIP 2016 Forum

[jbagelboy]

Is there a detriment to just missing Kent (3.76)? Any advice for applying for NY lit with that GPA?

No real advice needed.

A detriment? I mean, as an obvious man once told, you won't be Kent. That being said you won't be excluded from any firm for that reason (except maybe Wachtell? I don't know, someone who actually got an offer there can say. It isn't disqualifying even for the other hyper-selective firms).

Advise for lit? Don't rely as strongly on vault as your corporate peers, even for general guidance. If a firm's biggest and most important clients are banks and financial institutions, you will suffer through securities litigation and that will become your life. If that's what you want, great. If not, your best bet is to stress white collar or to watch closely for whether the firm generates organic litigation clients that provide a majority of the matters, or whether the group simply handles spillover from the major corporate clients. The latter will be the case at many of the "top" firms.

[ph5354a]

ETA: I don't intend on scaring anyone into doing this (Mono will take care of that for me). If you're above median and only bidding NYC, EIP will probably be fine for you with some thoughtful bidding. But if you're in New York for the summer and have some connections to exploit, then there's no good reason not to explore this option.

I mean, I went on and on about how you want to mass-mail, and get as many interviews as you can, and bid conservatively, thinking I was trying to help, and last year's thread was nonetheless full of people going "None of my 12 interviews went well! OMG so scared guys!" and I was just sitting there like "I didn't need to be Cassandra to see that one coming."

But hey, why bother putting in a few days of effort to put yourself in the best possible position? Things will "probably be fine," and after all, it's only your career.

Miss you dude.

[Anonymous User]

Does it matter at all what grades you got in what class, or is GPA all that really matters? Looks like I might get a B in my elective course (not a BLL), which would be my lowest grade. Is this better than a B in a BLL class, or doesn't matter?

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

ETA: I don't intend on scaring anyone into doing this (Mono will take care of that for me). If you're above median and only bidding NYC, EIP will probably be fine for you with some thoughtful bidding. But if you're in New York for the summer and have some connections to exploit, then there's no good reason not to explore this option.

I mean, I went on and on about how you want to mass-mail, and get as many interviews as you can, and bid conservatively, thinking I was trying to help, and last year's thread was nonetheless full of people going "None of my 12 interviews went well! OMG so scared guys!" and I was just sitting there like "I didn't need to be Cassandra to see that one coming."

But hey, why bother putting in a few days of effort to put yourself in the best possible position? Things will "probably be fine," and after all, it's only your career.

Miss you dude.

<3

[Tiago Splitter]

Does it matter at all what grades you got in what class, or is GPA all that really matters? Looks like I might get a B in my elective course (not a BLL), which would be my lowest grade. Is this better than a B in a BLL class, or doesn't matter?

Definitely doesn't matter, and "looks like I might be getting a B" is very different from getting a B. Hang in there.

[Anonymous User]

If I have above a 3.41, can I put Stone Scholar in the honors section of my resume for the purpose of mass mailing even though the school has not officially provided us with honors designations?

Also curious about this.

I would.

I am right at the border for Stone, so before I list it, I want to double check I made it. My understanding is as follows: At Columbia, an A is a 4.0, an A- is a 3.667, a B+ is a 3.333, and a B is a 3.0. To calculate your GPA, you (1) multiply the GPA for the grade you earned in each of the seven classes by each class's corresponding credit hours; (2) add the seven numbers together; and (3) divide that number by the total credit hours. And above a 3.41 is always stone--i.e., it is not just an estimate. Is this understanding correct?

I know these are stupid/neurotic questions, but my undergrad had a different GPA scale and a weird system for class credits (a standard class was one credit instead of four), and I don't want to have put Stone Scholar down and be wrong.

[Anonymous User]

If I have above a 3.41, can I put Stone Scholar in the honors section of my resume for the purpose of mass mailing even though the school has not officially provided us with honors designations?

Also curious about this.

I would.

I am right at the border for Stone, so before I list it, I want to double check I made it. My understanding is as follows: At Columbia, an A is a 4.0, an A- is a 3.667, a B+ is a 3.333, and a B is a 3.0. To calculate your GPA, you (1) multiply the GPA for the grade you earned in each of the seven classes by each class's corresponding credit hours; (2) add the seven numbers together; and (3) divide that number by the total credit hours. And above a 3.41 is always stone--i.e., it is not just an estimate. Is this understanding correct?

I know these are stupid/neurotic questions, but my undergrad had a different GPA scale and a weird system for class credits (a standard class was one credit instead of four), and I don't want to have put Stone Scholar down and be wrong.

You're anon, what are your grades, someone might be able to tell you if that would be stone

That calculation is right, but idk if CLS is actually 3.67 and not 3.667, it might not make any difference for you though. I also thought Stone was 3.41 and above, not above a 3.41

[Tiago Splitter]

If you're not sure then don't list it. But the GPA calculation is pretty straightforward.

[jbagelboy]

I would not put grade honors on your resume before the honors have been announced.

There's no reason you would need to do anything with your resume before honors are announced anyway (isn't that pretty soon? I don't remember).

[Anonymous User]

I would not put grade honors on your resume before the honors have been announced.

There's no reason you would need to do anything with your resume before honors are announced anyway (isn't that pretty soon? I don't remember).

I think someone said mid-July earlier in the thread, though I could be mis-remembering or they could be wrong.

I have gotten requests for my transcript and resume from a couple of the firms I applied to for 1L SAs over the last few days, which is why I was interested.

[Anonymous User]

I would not put grade honors on your resume before the honors have been announced.

There's no reason you would need to do anything with your resume before honors are announced anyway (isn't that pretty soon? I don't remember).

I think someone said mid-July earlier in the thread, though I could be misremembering or they could be wrong.

I have gotten requests for my transcript and resume from a couple of the firms I applied to for 1L SAs over the last few days, and these firms typically higher 90% + Stone Scholars.

They're not idiots, they can still do the math. You can say in an e-mail back or cover letter that CLS has not released honors yet, but that you expect to receive Stone, since your GPA is above a 3.41

[Anonymous User]

Regarding mass mail:

1. What should we do if we don't know anyone personally at a firm but we're interested? Just reach out to recruiter and ask to meet with attorneys?

2. What if we're not in the market we're mass mailing (i.e. I want to interview for NYC firm but over the summer I'm in DC)? Is it still useful to reach out?

[Anonymous User]

I would not put grade honors on your resume before the honors have been announced.

There's no reason you would need to do anything with your resume before honors are announced anyway (isn't that pretty soon? I don't remember).

I think someone said mid-July earlier in the thread, though I could be mis-remembering or they could be wrong.

I have gotten requests for my transcript and resume from a couple of the firms I applied to for 1L SAs over the last few days, which is why I was interested.

I called Registrar office and they told me they would do the honor calculations at the end of this month

[Anonymous User]

I would not put grade honors on your resume before the honors have been announced.

There's no reason you would need to do anything with your resume before honors are announced anyway (isn't that pretty soon? I don't remember).

I think someone said mid-July earlier in the thread, though I could be misremembering or they could be wrong.

I have gotten requests for my transcript and resume from a couple of the firms I applied to for 1L SAs over the last few days, and these firms typically higher 90% + Stone Scholars.

They're not idiots, they can still do the math. You can say in an e-mail back or cover letter that CLS has not released honors yet, but that you expect to receive Stone, since your GPA is above a 3.41

Doesn't OCS say you can put Stone (calculated by student) or something on your resume before official honors go out?

[Anonymous User]

Law school uses this exact same formula. Just plug your grades in here: https://www.college.columbia.edu/academ ... calculator

[MCFC]

Law school uses this exact same formula. Just plug your grades in here: https://www.college.columbia.edu/academ ... calculator

Except A+s are just As.

[Anonymous User]

Law school uses this exact same formula. Just plug your grades in here: https://www.college.columbia.edu/academ ... calculator

except it doesn't for A+

[Anonymous User]

GPA:3.61. Should I be mailing to get an early offer? Any suggestions on where to go?

Nah, you should be fine at EIP. No need to mass mail.

[smaug]

GPA:3.61. Should I be mailing to get an early offer? Any suggestions on where to go?

Nah, you should be fine at EIP. No need to mass mail.

But you should reach out anyway.

This is bad advice.

[Anonymous User]

Do we have to have the exact format of the OCS resume? Or is there some lee-way? I submitted my SJI resume which I like the formatting better, will I need to change it?

- Pearl

[MCFC]

Do we have to have the exact format of the OCS resume? Or is there some lee-way? I submitted my SJI resume which I like the formatting better, will I need to change it?

- Pearl

From what I remember, SJI resumes don't include interests, right? If that's the case, I'd add some on, even if you don't make any other substantive changes.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know where a 3.5 GPA falls out in terms of class rank?

[Anonymous User]

Do we have to have the exact format of the OCS resume? Or is there some lee-way? I submitted my SJI resume which I like the formatting better, will I need to change it?

- Pearl

Do not do this. You want the formatting of your resume to exactly match your peers. When I get a resume from someone I'm interviewing, its one of the first things I check, since, much to everyone's dismay, the ability to format a document exactly like every other doc and exactly as instructed is kind of a critical legal skill.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone willing to share the first failed bid report that was given out last year? Not sure when it is coming out this year, and either way it might be good to see some trends in case last year was a one off.

[Anonymous User]

Two quick questions-- how much do firms care about grade trends? (3.11 fall semester, 3.65 spring semester)

How much do firms care about just outside stone and low stone? (3.407... literally the difference between a 3 and 4 credit class) There was some discussion about this in the 2015 thread but didn't seem like there was consensus.

-Ruspin