prestige differences among secondary journals? Forum

[270910]

I'm curious then...how much of a boost is law review? I get the other journals are mostly crap, but can you expect a substantial boost with law review? Or is even that relatively minimal in the scheme of things (grades, WE, etc).

LR is an enormous boost. It's a bit hard to quantify, as LR types often also have strong grades, but employers and judges definitely like to see LR, and it definitely stands head and shoulders above secondary journals.

That might be an over-exaggeration. Grades trump everything (for biglaw at least). If you have an applicant below median and on law review vs. an applicant in the top 10% but no journal, the top 10% kid without the journal will get the job.

No shit. But if you have two candidates with ~top 25% grades, one with LR and one without, both will likely apply to similar firms and the kid with LR is going to get a lot more CBs/offers, based on my experience. LR, as I and others have said multiple times on this forum, tends not to dramatically change the firms at which you stand a chance - but it will make you do better at the firms you were already qualified for. Nobody gets CBs/Offers from all (or even a majority in most cases) of the firms for which their grades make them "qualified" - and LR, all else being equal, really helps in that regard.

[Anonymous User]

What about for transfers, though? I got the feeling from a couple interviewers during EIW that while my grades were great at my 1L school, interviewer had reservations about translating that rank to NYU for comparison. Will 'only' writing onto a secondary journal (which they will see on the updated resume during callbacks) further confirm that suspicion of being unable to hang with more rigorous competition?

[Anonymous User]

What about for transfers, though? I got the feeling from a couple interviewers during EIW that while my grades were great at my 1L school, interviewer had reservations about translating that rank to NYU for comparison. Will 'only' writing onto a secondary journal (which they will see on the updated resume during callbacks) further confirm that suspicion of being unable to hang with more rigorous competition?

Probably not if you had told them that NYU Law Review only takes, what, two transfers at most.

[reverendt]

its law review or nothing. no one cares about anything else.

very poor advice

[Anonymous User]

im going to flatly say this: I'm on callback #18 now as a transfer student at Boalt (16 @ v50), and I am on ZERO journals although the process here is a "walk on"

NOBODY has asked me about whether I'm going to do any of the many Boalt journals. Same w/ clinics, nobody really is curious about what I plan on doing for the remainder of my stay at Boalt. My resume includes ZERO lines in the "law school activities" area.

If there is any takeaway - I'm one data point for contending that grades >>>> journals.. frankly, grades take a lot more work than journals - you're talking a year long effort versus some 10 page contest.

Now maybe there is another data point with average grades, and law review - with a ton of callbacks, so maybe this goes both ways.

[Anonymous User]

im going to flatly say this: I'm on callback #18 now as a transfer student at Boalt (16 @ v50), and I am on ZERO journals although the process here is a "walk on"

NOBODY has asked me about whether I'm going to do any of the many Boalt journals. Same w/ clinics, nobody really is curious about what I plan on doing for the remainder of my stay at Boalt. My resume includes ZERO lines in the "law school activities" area

callback #18? Wow. Congrats. When did you do your first callback, and how many offers are you holding already?

[Anonymous User]

no use going off topic, no offers here - if there's an 0L reading this, don't really concern yourself with too many "activities" in law school if getting a gig is your sole concern, which I think it should be unless you're on a full ride or don't care about big law.

good grades >> anything else

[shmoo597]

im going to flatly say this: I'm on callback #18 now as a transfer student at Boalt (16 @ v50), and I am on ZERO journals although the process here is a "walk on"

NOBODY has asked me about whether I'm going to do any of the many Boalt journals. Same w/ clinics, nobody really is curious about what I plan on doing for the remainder of my stay at Boalt. My resume includes ZERO lines in the "law school activities" area.

If there is any takeaway - I'm one data point for contending that grades >>>> journals.. frankly, grades take a lot more work than journals - you're talking a year long effort versus some 10 page contest.

Now maybe there is another data point with average grades, and law review - with a ton of callbacks, so maybe this goes both ways.

Wow, 18?? As a transfer?? Do you have some insane IP background or WE? I dont know a single NYU student (including top 10% LR etc) with that many callbacks....