How will these things impact biglaw chances? Forum

[Drew2010]

1.) military service

2.) less than impressive (read TTT) undergrads

will be doing OCI this august.. pretty worried

[underdawg]

for #1, it probably depends on how you present it in interviews. with discipline, attention to detail, and various other buzzwords, that could be a pretty decent selling point. it surely requires more commitment than most of the softs people had in UG...like school newspaper or somethin'

for #2, i don't know. sometimes i hear that firms indeed do like HYP grads and ivy grads and whatnot. to me that makes no sense whatsover. if HYP dude and TTT dude both are going to the same law school, TTT dude is more impressive in my eyes. that said, people still probably have fondness for their alma maters or something, and at top firms, they are gonna be mostly good colleges. i don't think this will be a big deal though.

i think #1 has the potential to far outweigh #2.

[Renzo]

Military service will give you something to talk about in the screening interview, and that's important. TTT undergrad hurts in that it isn't Ivy, and there are some firms who care about Ivies. But no one will care that you went to a TTT instead of a T10 public school or a swank LAC, so basically it's not important at all.

[underdawg]

Military service will give you something to talk about in the screening interview, and that's important. TTT undergrad hurts in that it isn't Ivy, and there are some firms who care about Ivies. But no one will care that you went to a TTT instead of a T10 public school or a swank LAC, so basically it's not important at all.

iuno, my theories are "hey i went there too!" = small, irrational good feeling inside interviewer, and "wtf i never heard of that school" = small, irrational bad feeling inside interviewer

but small regardless

[Drew2010]

Thanks for the responses, they were reassuring. I think I'm just going to have to do my best to use the military service as a positive talking point in the interview, and hope it outweighs my UG.

[the pecan sandies]

I wouldn't worry too much. It probably won't come down to where you went to undergrad or military service. Rather, it is going to be about your grades. If you meet the cutoffs, that other stuff won't matter; if you don't meet them, aside from have a really great interview, you probably won't get the callback.

Not always so cut and dry, but often it is.

[NewHere]

It probably won't come down to where you went to undergrad or military service.

Yes, this. It's going to be about grades, whether the interviewer likes you, whether you can talk intelligently about your experiences in law school and before law school (i.e., about the military, in your case, but it could have been about anything), and so on.

[underdawg]

I wouldn't worry too much. It probably won't come down to where you went to undergrad or military service. Rather, it is going to be about your grades. If you meet the cutoffs, that other stuff won't matter; if you don't meet them, aside from have a really great interview, you probably won't get the callback.

Not always so cut and dry, but often it is.

imo, ITE the grade AND "personality/interview" cutoffs are higher

[rando]

I wouldn't worry too much. It probably won't come down to where you went to undergrad or military service. Rather, it is going to be about your grades. If you meet the cutoffs, that other stuff won't matter; if you don't meet them, aside from have a really great interview, you probably won't get the callback.

Not always so cut and dry, but often it is.

imo, ITE the grade AND "personality/interview" cutoffs are higher

Yes.

No longer are grades all but a guarantee of a job. And from some employers I have talked to, military service is a definite plus.