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My impression, which may be wrong, is that office-jumping isn't common. You make your connection with the office you summer at.

Your chances are good... but what does it matter? I just don't get these threads. Do OCI, try hard. That would be true if you were #1 in the class or dead last, neh?

If I were you I'd bit NY and Philly. DC is a tough nut to crack.

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I was in exactly the same position as you last year, but at Temple (significantly higher than top 5% but didn't know my exact rank, on LR) and I got a bunch of callbacks at the big Philly firms but was rejected by all of them. I ended up getting a law clerk position at a smaller firm. You might be in a better position this year because Morgan Lewis and Ballard Spahr are (or at least claim to be) recruiting for next summer.

My advice is to start mass mailing ASAP. Try to hit all the well-respected firms in Philly and New Jersey that aren't coming to OCI. Don't discount Delaware because the firms there seem relatively unaffected by the economy and hire lots of people with credentials like yours. There's no harm in trying for NY and DC, either. NY used to be a possibility for people like us, so you might get lucky.

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MBskier wrote:Thanks. I really appreciate it. From what I can tell this year is likely going to be just as bad, but at least you were able to get callbacks. I have heard a lot of people who completely struck out.

If you don't mind, why do you think callbacks didn't go well? Do you not have connections to the area?

I have no idea why callbacks didn't go well. I'm not the most outgoing person in the world, but I am polite and friendly during interviews. I came prepared with questions. I sent thank-you emails that did not contain typos. I also grew up in Pennsylvania, so that wasn't the issue.

Honestly, I think I lost the numbers game. I don't have such a stellar personality that I was a shoo-in. Even though I'm top of my class, firms had their pick of good students from T14 schools who are arguably more prestigious on paper than I am. I do know that Fox Rothschild only hired SAs from T6 schools because they knew they could get away with it this year. Class sizes are miniscule and most big firms seemed to be reserving one spot per local school. It's easy to get unlucky with odds like that.