Bottom quarter/third at DCNG or top quarter at TT or lower? Forum

[Anonymous User]

If you're at a T14 in the DCNG range and strike out and are unable to get a summer associate position for the summer and still want big or midlaw, and have to go with 3L OCI and the whole process of spending 3L year and possibly beyond searching for a decent paying job, does school name mean that much or is it worthless once you graduate? Who would be in a better position during that 3L job search, the bottom quarter/third DCNG student or a top quarter/third TT school or lower candidate. Same question for the post-graduation job search if nothing pans out 3L year.

[20130312]

Is this a 0L hypothetical?

[LegalEagle2014]

possible T14 1L bottom 1/4 transfer prospect

[LawIdiot86]

Name means more, but you're still screwed. I don't know of anyone at my T14 who didn't spend a 2L summer at a firm who got something from 3L OCI. It won't help now, but it will help down the road. I do also know several upper-end GPA students at the local TT who complained that no one would even recruit at their school as 3Ls, so at least people come to the T14s. And the T14s carry a better national name down the road when you want to lateral/move. I'm told that the big point for T14s is to have a GPA above 3.0 or 3.1. If you can't get that, then maybe transfer.

[Anonymous User]

OP here, not a 0L, this is coming from a DCNG 2L with nothing for the summer yet.

[IAFG]

Name means more, but you're still screwed. I don't know of anyone at my T14 who didn't spend a 2L summer at a firm who got something from 3L OCI. It won't help now, but it will help down the road. I do also know several upper-end GPA students at the local TT who complained that no one would even recruit at their school as 3Ls, so at least people come to the T14s. And the T14s carry a better national name down the road when you want to lateral/move. I'm told that the big point for T14s is to have a GPA above 3.0 or 3.1. If you can't get that, then maybe transfer.

I think a common misunderstanding is that 3L recruiting = 3L OCI. I know several 3Ls who got a firm or traded firms, but this is almost completely a massmailing/networking thing. There are actually quite a few 3L opportunities these days, but limiting yourself to OCI is even dumber as a 3L than it was as a 2L.

[Anonymous User]

OP here, never said I would be relying on 3L OCI, I know that it's generally a joke most of the time at least from what I've heard anecdotally from 3Ls from the past two years. I said 3L OCI and the 3L job search beyond that, i.e. networking and massmailing. It hasn't worked out so far 2L year in that regard, both with firms and with government positions, (have zero interest in public interest, not that that's a failsafe either as it's also very hard to get these days too). I'm just hoping the name has SOME cache 3L year/beyond graduation if I'm still trying to find a job because if the school's name is only valuable for the time one is in law school/going through OCI/mass-mailing, then upon graduation, I'm not sure that JD will be worth the paper it's printed on, even with the DCNG name.

[LawIdiot86]

OP here, never said I would be relying on 3L OCI, I know that it's generally a joke most of the time at least from what I've heard anecdotally from 3Ls from the past two years. I said 3L OCI and the 3L job search beyond that, i.e. networking and massmailing. It hasn't worked out so far 2L year in that regard, both with firms and with government positions, (have zero interest in public interest, not that that's a failsafe either as it's also very hard to get these days too). I'm just hoping the name has SOME cache 3L year/beyond graduation if I'm still trying to find a job because if the school's name is only valuable for the time one is in law school/going through OCI/mass-mailing, then upon graduation, I'm not sure that JD will be worth the paper it's printed on, even with the DCNG name.

It has some cache, but it becomes more limited as time goes on, people develop their career after law school and you begin competing with 3Ls getting ready to graduate who don't have unemployment issues. It won't have cache in the federal government though as they usually aren't allowed to consider school name.