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I'm trying to get a feel for why people take 1L judicial externships over funded public interest jobs. Is it fear that you'll strike out in your summer job search otherwise? Is it prestige? Or maybe there is something else going on.

Right now, I can't get past the fact that I'd be working full time, for no pay, and even have to pay my own parking. My school offers a summer loan extension, but more debt really seems like the opposite of what I want right now...

Thoughts?

EDIT: I'm using anon because I want to be free to talk about my own school and interview experiences in this thread, want to be able to disclose my grades, and I preemptively do not want to give myself away.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm trying to get a feel for why people take 1L judicial externships over funded public interest jobs. Is it fear that you'll strike out in your summer job search otherwise? Is it prestige? Or maybe there is something else going on.

Right now, I can't get past the fact that I'd be working full time, for no pay, and even have to pay my own parking. My school offers a summer loan extension, but more debt really seems like the opposite of what I want right now...

Thoughts?

EDIT: I'm using anon because I want to be free to talk about my own school and interview experiences in this thread, want to be able to disclose my grades, and I preemptively do not want to give myself away.

I took a federal judicial internship for the summer. I know a lot about the judge, but didn't know him. The types of cases he has done in the past interest me and it seems he gets a lot of cases that get national attention. I also know he hires previous interns to clerk for him and I want to clerk for him after graduation. Being able to intern with him now (which is much easier to achieve than a cold clerkship) will possibly lead to a clerkship, so I am treating it as a 10 week interview. I believe you can get a school stipend depending on the school for judicial internships. Funding is more limited than the different PI programs though.