UChicago OCI 2014 Forum

[20141023]

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[Anonymous User]

Last is 9/22 in CA.

What cleary office for the offer? Grats, anon.

[Anonymous User]

My last one is 9/12 (in NYC). I was worried that this was kind of late, but it sounds like that is not the case based on the above poster.

Also, congrats on the offer!!!

[Anonymous User]

Last is 9/22 in CA.

What cleary office for the offer? Grats, anon.

NY, and thank you.

[Anonymous User]

Gibson offer.

[Anonymous User]

My last one is 9/12 (in NYC). I was worried that this was kind of late, but it sounds like that is not the case based on the above poster.

Also, congrats on the offer!!!

I did one in NY last year on like 9/22 that still turned into an offer so don't worry.

To the extent anyone hasn't scheduled any yet though, sooner is always better (even if later isn't bad).

[Anonymous User]

i have one in ny after 9/22 so you're not late at all

[Anonymous User]

I have one in Chicago on 9/22 - anybody else doing Chicago that late?

[Anonymous User]

It's so late I'm sure it's wrapped up, but anyone hear of any Foley Chi CBs?

[Anonymous User]

It's so late I'm sure it's wrapped up, but anyone hear of any Foley Chi CBs?

I heard 9/20 and interviewed 9/19.

[20141023]

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[Anonymous User]

Sidley (Chi) ding via email just now.

+1

[Anonymous User]

Sidley (Chi) ding via email just now.

+1

+1. Officially struck out in the city of Chicago.

[Anonymous User]

Sidley (Chi) ding via email just now.

+1

+1. Officially struck out in the city of Chicago.

What was your grade range? Did you have any ties to the city? You don't have to answer just curious. GL in your other markets.

[Anonymous User]

Baker & McKenzie Offer, same day as CB.

[20141023]

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[Anonymous User]

Sidley (Chi) ding via email just now.

+1

+1. Officially struck out in the city of Chicago.

What was your grade range? Did you have any ties to the city? You don't have to answer just curious. GL in your other markets.

180.3-180.5ish, no ties except law school

eta: if you're a 1L, GRADES AREN'T EVERYTHING. I know people with substantially lesser grades getting many more cb's than me

[20141023]

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[Anonymous User]

+1 to anon above

I hate to even post this, because I definitely don't want to seem like I'm bragging, and I think I've been pretty lucky, but I really wish I had seen a post like this in the previous UChicago OCI threads. I have roughly a 175.5 and am sitting on 9 CBs (I'll probably strike out but whatever).

But - point here is that there really is hope for pretty much all students at U of C. Outside of possibly SullCrom and a few other firms, great grades don't guarantee anything and poor grades don't end all hope. I'm sure there are plenty of firms that dinged me for grades, but there are obviously plenty that look at more than your transcript.

Another datapoint - I've had better luck with higher "ranked" firms, particularly in the V30, than with lower ranked firms, despite what OCS's callback data indicates we should expect, so whatever that means.

Good luck to everyone with CBs and congrats to everyone with offers already

[Anonymous User]

URM/work experience/interviewing skills real good or something?

[Anonymous User]

URM/work experience/interviewing skills real good or something?

Not URM, 3 years WE (good/interesting, but nothing that would directly get me hired, i.e. not an engineer or anything like that), journal

Interviewing probably made the biggest difference, I think it was really hit or miss for me. Clicked great with some interviewers, not so well with others - but I'm sure everywhere I got a callback from had at least something to do with a good review from the interviewer.

Honestly, I really can't explain most of my CBs/dings, I think I have some decent soft factors but I'm not super impressive and this whole process just seems pretty random to me

[Anonymous User]

+1 to anon above

I hate to even post this, because I definitely don't want to seem like I'm bragging, and I think I've been pretty lucky, but I really wish I had seen a post like this in the previous UChicago OCI threads. I have roughly a 175.5 and am sitting on 9 CBs (I'll probably strike out but whatever).

But - point here is that there really is hope for pretty much all students at U of C. Outside of possibly SullCrom and a few other firms, great grades don't guarantee anything and poor grades don't end all hope. I'm sure there are plenty of firms that dinged me for grades, but there are obviously plenty that look at more than your transcript.

Another datapoint - I've had better luck with higher "ranked" firms, particularly in the V30, than with lower ranked firms, despite what OCS's callback data indicates we should expect, so whatever that means.

Good luck to everyone with CBs and congrats to everyone with offers already

Second that comment. It's true. Some V10 firms look beyond grades because I know for at least one of the firms, I barely made the cutoff (aka, I would be the lowest they had ever given out a callback to) but managed to snatch a callback (and hopefully an offer soon). What helped me was that I went into the interview with no expectation whatsoever and so I was not nervous and just acted as I would normally act. For firms between V20-V60, I was actually more nervous because I thought I had more of a shot with these firms and so were more nervous during my interviews - which ended up hurting me. So guys, grades don't mean everything!

[Mal Reynolds]

Nice work anons.

[20141023]

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[Anonymous User]

I Don't Wanna Be The Guy to provide mildly disagreeing info, but here goes. This is going to be a mega-douchy post but the discussion here is going into a dangerous place, imo - I don't want some future kid with a 176.5 going into OCI thinking he's safe bidding straight DC because "grades don't matter if you're a good interviewer".

I'm basically a huge antisocial fuckwad and have 16 CBs because 181/K&E/LR. Still waiting to hear from 8 and have canceled a couple because I just don't have any days free to schedule them. You can see what interviewers have written on your resume, generally, and "K&E scholar" was circled pretty much every time. Some places would just turn to me and pitch me for ten minutes instead of asking questions. In other words: grades matter. I don't think I would've been that successful at OCI if they didn't.

That said, some firms are weird and some interviews go weird so nothing is guaranteed. Got a Wachtell CB an hour before getting an STB ding. Munger CB and a Paul Weiss ding. Shit happens. I like Reg's formulation of it being like YLS admissions: numbers get you in the door but aren't sufficient, but also there's a second, smaller door for Olympic-level softs (excellent conversationalists, great WE, good personal fit with interviewer/firm).

So I agree with the above posters insofar as the message is, grades don't guarantee or eliminate any one particular employer outside of a certain brand of picky white shoe firm. I just want to push back on what is starting to feel like a "grades don't matter" message. Grades matter. The right qualification is that, S&C/W&C/etc aside, you won't necessarily know ahead of time which firms will autoding you because of bad grades or auto-callback you because of good ones, even using the historical data.

My bigger worry in all of this and what made me post this douche-knob of a comment instead of keeping my damn mouth shut: when you talk too much about the "exceptional softs" kinds of candidates, everyone starts to think they are one and stops doing the work to get callbacks they wouldn't otherwise get. Like, hey, maybe research a firm ahead of time so you know if they mostly do cap markets work, and either cancel the interview or pitch your interest in their specialty based on your actual interest in the subject and __ experience on your resume.

Sorry I hate posts like this where some asshole 2L who had two weeks of interviews now thinks he knows everything there is to know about OCI, and now I'm making one. It just got too happy around here.