Top Law Schools

Out of curiosity, for all those somewhat semi-national, strong regional schools ranked between 20-26, what class rank and/or grades do you feel a student needs in order to get an interview for a 2L SA assuming through OCI?

I saw a 3L from GW posted the other day that about 50% or more were getting interviews when he went through OCI.

I understand that ITE it is much harder to get biglaw these days, even for those in T14, but I feel given the employment stats of these schools they are still doing quite well for themselves in OCI, especially compared to the rest of the T1/T2/T3/T4.

Does top 50% cut it these days? top 45% or is it top 33% or bust? Remember, I am only asking about interviews.

Anonymous User wrote:Out of curiosity, for all those somewhat semi-national, strong regional schools ranked between 20-26, what class rank and/or grades do you feel a student needs in order to get an interview for a 2L SA assuming through OCI?

I saw a 3L from GW posted the other day that about 50% or more were getting interviews when he went through OCI.

I understand that ITE it is much harder to get biglaw these days, even for those in T14, but I feel given the employment stats of these schools they are still doing quite well for themselves in OCI, especially compared to the rest of the T1/T2/T3/T4.

Does top 50% cut it these days? top 45% or is it top 33% or bust? Remember, I am only asking about interviews.

Everyone gets interviews. Its getting the job thats the problem. BU still had a large OCI and tons of interviews, but A LOT less turned into SA positions. There are still people at R+G/Wilmer etc. this year, but from what I hear, less than usual.

edit: never mind

In the boom time, you could get BigLaw from BU/BC/GW/ND at median. These days I'd say you want to be at least top 25%, but even top 10% is not a guarantee. If I had to guess which tier of schools has been most harmed, relative to others, by the crash, it's these schools.

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T20-26

I'm the only one bothered by this?

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I've seen it said that folks in the top 10% at ND got shut out at OCI this year. ITE things are really, really bad for getting BigLaw jobs. Some of those people may have found BigLaw jobs outside of OCI, but apparently it's been pretty bad.

vanwinkle wrote:I've seen it said that folks in the top 10% at ND got shut out at OCI this year. ITE things are really, really bad for getting BigLaw jobs. Some of those people may have found BigLaw jobs outside of OCI, but apparently it's been pretty bad.

This might be unique to the WUSTL/ND/BU/BC/GW tier. These are schools with super-competitive primary markets (in which they are 2nd tier at best), that had some national placement but not enough to survive the downturn. I wouldn't be surprised if these schools' BigLaw placement got hit comparatively harder than T14 and schools which are top dog in less desired markets.

JSUVA2012 wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:I've seen it said that folks in the top 10% at ND got shut out at OCI this year. ITE things are really, really bad for getting BigLaw jobs. Some of those people may have found BigLaw jobs outside of OCI, but apparently it's been pretty bad.

This might be unique to the WUSTL/ND/BU/BC/GW tier. These are schools with super-competitive primary markets (in which they are 2nd tier at best), that had some national placement but not enough to survive the downturn. I wouldn't be surprised if these schools' BigLaw placement got hit comparatively harder than T14 and schools which are top dog in less desired markets.

It's not untrue. My school suffered, and we have very loyal (and fairly gigantic) alumni base. The difficulty would be guessing at numbers, and trying to guess at when things will improve. Employers know these are all good schools, so this isn't a case of snobbery, as with T2/T3 hiring in NYC. It's a matter of demand for jobs far outstripping supply, even at T30 (is that less objectionable?) schools. At Fordham, top students are still getting good things. In 2008, the median student here probably got biglaw or a clerkship (biglaw alone took in 43.7% of the class). When demand picks up again, I know firms will hire my classmates, and a ton of them have very impressive work experience already. I think in the current economy, working and interning during the school year will prove crucial. This is easier to do at urban schools (the latter three above). It seems that schools outside major cities, such as UIUC, took an even larger hit, as employers pulled out of OCI altogether.

As Blindmelon said, interviewing is still taking place at his school and at mine. People say things will be better for our class than for the class of 2011, especially if the banking industry is profitable. It's hard to put a percentile on it, though. At this point, that would be little more than speculation. My advice is to hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and go to to the best school you can if biglaw is your goal.