Fordham 2L OCI - time to panic? Forum

[Timothy Wreck]

I just learned that Dechert - historically not the most selective firm in town - is only looking at Fordhamites with 25% or higher. What does this bode for OCI generally for someone with top-third grades??? Am I going to be out of luck?

[270910]

I just learned that Dechert . . . is only looking at Fordhamites with 25% or higher.

PSA: When a firm lists its GPA preference and requirements, you should do the following: Ignore them entirely and mother fucking ask career services.

Firms lie through their god damned teeth on those things, and I want to keep harping on it, because it is VERY IMPORTANT TO YOUR CAREER PROSPECTS. The firms are lying or naive or outsourching their symplicity profiles to India or who knows what, but if you ask a 3 year old with a box of crayons to draw you the cut off for a firm you'll get a better answer than the firms published cutoff on your OCI software.

Firms aren't consistently high, or consistently low - they're just consistently full of shit. A firm that says "top third required" might hire to median, it might hire from the top 3% without exception, and there's even a remote chance it will hire from the top third. But those pieces of data simply cannot be relied upon at all. Not even in a cursory way. Not for comparison's sake, not when nothing else will do. You need to completely disregard them, and beg/borrow/steal data from career services. Your (and that's the royal 'your' for everyone out their reading in paranoid law student land) career depends on it.

[Blindmelon]

+1 to disco. BU's preselects came out and I got a lot that had a Top 10% requirement and I'm not top 10%. I also got no selected at ones that said B+ or higher, when its pretty clear that being who the firm is, they would never take a median BU student.

[jennylynn]

Just apply. What's the worst they can do? Toss out your resume?

[Anonymous User]

+1 to disco. BU's preselects came out and I got a lot that had a Top 10% requirement and I'm not top 10%. I also got no selected at ones that said B+ or higher, when its pretty clear that being who the firm is, they would never take a median BU student.

Blindmelon, do you know if BU's lottery has run yet? And if not, when do you find out which firms were assigned to you by lottery?

[rayiner]

I just learned that Dechert - historically not the most selective firm in town - is only looking at Fordhamites with 25% or higher. What does this bode for OCI generally for someone with top-third grades??? Am I going to be out of luck?

There are T14 people in the top 1/3 who struck out. You should definitely go through OCI and bid on the least selective firms in attendence, but also engage in a mass mailing campaign because honestly your shot at an OCI job isn't great.

[Blindmelon]

+1 to disco. BU's preselects came out and I got a lot that had a Top 10% requirement and I'm not top 10%. I also got no selected at ones that said B+ or higher, when its pretty clear that being who the firm is, they would never take a median BU student.

Blindmelon, do you know if BU's lottery has run yet? And if not, when do you find out which firms were assigned to you by lottery?

No idea. I think later on given that the lottery sign-up is a different time than pre-select sign up.

Also, I got alternate slaughtered. I guess that means I'm almost good enough for a 20 min oci interview? haha.

[Anonymous User]

+1 to disco. BU's preselects came out and I got a lot that had a Top 10% requirement and I'm not top 10%. I also got no selected at ones that said B+ or higher, when its pretty clear that being who the firm is, they would never take a median BU student.

Blindmelon, do you know if BU's lottery has run yet? And if not, when do you find out which firms were assigned to you by lottery?

No idea. I think later on given that the lottery sign-up is a different time than pre-select sign up.

Also, I got alternate slaughtered. I guess that means I'm almost good enough for a 20 min oci interview? haha.

Okay, it seems odd. Another BU student here. I also became an alternate at a few firms. Symplicity says that Lottery sign-up runs from noon today until the 6th, which is the same as pre-select sign-up. Maybe that means the lottery already ran?

[Blindmelon]

+1 to disco. BU's preselects came out and I got a lot that had a Top 10% requirement and I'm not top 10%. I also got no selected at ones that said B+ or higher, when its pretty clear that being who the firm is, they would never take a median BU student.

Blindmelon, do you know if BU's lottery has run yet? And if not, when do you find out which firms were assigned to you by lottery?

No idea. I think later on given that the lottery sign-up is a different time than pre-select sign up.

Also, I got alternate slaughtered. I guess that means I'm almost good enough for a 20 min oci interview? haha.

Okay, it seems odd. Another BU student here. I also became an alternate at a few firms. Symplicity says that Lottery sign-up runs from noon today until the 6th, which is the same as pre-select sign-up. Maybe that means the lottery already ran?

Actually.. from talking to people it seems like the lottery is part of the pre-selects. Yea, I bid on 12 places and 6 of them are alts. hah.

[bwv812]

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[dresden doll]

What was historically competitive at that firm?

[bwv812]

.

[dresden doll]

What was historically competitive at that firm?

Dechert NYC historically hired right around top third at GULC, but not many went there. Maybe they were less selective at Fordham?

I doubt they'd cut Fordham more slack. Perhaps GULC kids weren't as interested in the firm?

[bwv812]

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[dresden doll]

Yeah, who knows. 7 people placed in 11 years (i.e., 7500 graduates) isn't very impressive. Maybe they hate us, maybe we hate them. I wouldn't have thought Fordhamites would have a step up on us at many/any firms, but I suppose it's possible.

Self-selection is so hard to account for. Nonetheless, I think it's plausible that Fordham kids have historically pursued Dechert NYC in greater numbers than your classmates.

[270910]

Yeah, who knows. 7 people placed in 11 years (i.e., 7500 graduates) isn't very impressive. Maybe they hate us, maybe we hate them. I wouldn't have thought Fordhamites would have a step up on us at many/any firms, but I suppose it's possible.

Self-selection is so hard to account for. Nonetheless, I think it's plausible that Fordham kids have historically pursued Dechert NYC in greater numbers than your classmates.

Yeah, and placement is a poor proxy. I've seen some Fordham data, there were years when Dechert made 6 offers but nobody went.

[bwv812]

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[dresden doll]

Yeah, but I figure that if people are self-selecting out of a firm, then those who placed there tend to be those with fewer options... and that their GPAs are on the low side of those they made offers to.

While I'm sure people sometimes opt for lower ranked firms for personal reasons - a friend of mine preferred Weiss over K and E - that appears a reasonable assumption.

This reminds me that I should probably try and find out how deep into our class Dechert digs.

[bwv812]

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[Anonymous User]

Yeah, but I figure that if people are self-selecting out of a firm, then those who placed there tend to be those with fewer options... and that their GPAs are on the low side of those they made offers to.

While I'm sure people sometimes opt for lower ranked firms for personal reasons - a friend of mine preferred Weiss over K and E - that appears a reasonable assumption.

Paulk Weiss NYC has historically been significantly more selective than Kirkland NYC at GULC; a lot of people apparently prefer it over K&E.

With respect to selectivity, this is no longer the case.

[bwv812]

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[dresden doll]

Another reason why a more full disclosure of stats would be helpful: OCS sure isn't telling people this (though maybe they would if asked point-blank).

Thanks for the tip.

I'm surprised that K and E was ever less selective than Weiss. Is this perhaps due to summer class sizes?

[MrKappus]

Why would a firm that's ranked 60th by Vault be considered "not selective," especially by someone outside the top quarter at a T30??

[dresden doll]

Why would a firm that's ranked 60th by Vault be considered "not selective," especially by someone outside the top quarter at a T30??

From what I understand, ranking doesn't always correlate with selectivity. I believe summer class size is a big factor to account for. Smaller SA class firms can be more picky.

[270910]

Why would a firm that's ranked 60th by Vault be considered "not selective," especially by someone outside the top quarter at a T30??

From what I understand, ranking doesn't always correlate with selectivity. I believe summer class size is a big factor to account for. Smaller SA class firms can be more picky.

More importantly, a lot of firms prefer to be quite unselective from certain schools and basically ignore others. There are tons of large firms that hire to median and below at T14 (ish) schools. If you attend such a school, the firm will feel profoundly 'unselective' even if it does prestigious works and pays wheelbarrows full of money.