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Aiming for a COA clerkship. I'm top of the class with significant writing WE at a T1, and I am likely to have one or two exogenous publications by the time I send out applications, though I'm on a secondary journal instead of LR here. I have a spring internship all but lined up with a senior federal district judge in the area. I would do it, but here's the rub: I'm a married evening student, work full time, and have a mortgage. Is the additional experience and line on my resume worth the pain of trying to convince the boss to let me go to three days a week, take a pay cut, and then have to take out additional loans to make up the difference (I'll be summering next year at a firm that pays market, and my current company has offered to take me back after the summer, if that makes any difference)? Would it really boost my chances for COA that much? What would you do if you were in my situation?

See if you can find out whether the judge writes rec letters for former interns. If not, it's probably not worth it.

+1. Good Grades >>> district ct. externship, at least if you're gunning for a COA clerkship. Sounds like with all you have going on, you'd be sacrificing the former for the latter.

Not worth it

Not worth it. Your COA odds are very low to begin with (unless by top of class, you mean top 2 or 3 people), and this internship will give a very infinitesimal boost.

leobowski wrote:Not worth it. Your COA odds are very low to begin with (unless by top of class, you mean top 2 or 3 people), and this internship will give a very infinitesimal boost.

Thanks all. OP here. By top of class, I mean number one. Also, it would actually only one day a week instead of two, I wouldn't even have to take out loans, and I could also potentially get 3 credits for it. Judge could write a rec or make a call. Still thinking about it, and think it could be an interesting experience, but leaning toward no as it's still a headache with relatively marginal return on investment.