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GPA 3.49 (maybe between 40%-50%), Asian. Some WE, but not great. Just came with a rough list, only 12 bids per day.
Would appreciate any suggestions/critics. Thanks~
Day1
1 Morrison Foerster
2 Davis Polk & Wardwell
3 Ropes & Gray LLP
4 White Case
5 Cadwalader
6 O'Melveny & Myers
7 Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP
8 Laham & Watkins (NY)
9 proskauer rose llp (NYC)
10 Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
11 Chadbourne and Parke
12 Stroock & Stroock

Day2
1. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
2. sidley austin llp
3. clifford chance
4. hogan lovells
5. Dechert LLP
6. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
7. Paul Hastings
8. Goodwin Procter
9. Cahill Gordon & Reindel
10. Willkie Farr & Gallagher
11. Alston & Bird
12. Allen & Overy

Day3.
1. Kirkland & Ellis LLP
2. Linklaters
3. freshfields bruckhaus deringer
4. Shearman & Sterling
5. Winston & Strawn
6. Kaye Scholer LLP
7. Bryan Cave LLP
8. Sutherland LLP
9. Perkins Coie 
10. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Wilmington, DE)
11.Reed Smith LLP
12. Greenberg Traurig LLP

K&E #1? DPW #2? I don't even know what to say. Don't bid on any V10 that high unless it's Weil.

You know the firms listed as "very" grade selective? You're probably wasting bids on them.

ajaxconstructions wrote:K&E #1? DPW #2? I don't even know what to say. Don't bid on any V10 that high unless it's Weil.

i agree. getting those firms will be extremely tough. what kind of WE do you have? is it relevant to the kind of law you want to practice?

Anonymous User wrote:

ajaxconstructions wrote:K&E #1? DPW #2? I don't even know what to say. Don't bid on any V10 that high unless it's Weil.

i agree. getting those firms will be extremely tough. what kind of WE do you have? is it relevant to the kind of law you want to practice?

the "low" you see for the very grade selective firms is an outlier. See how the career office pretty much tells you that you won't get a callback with a gpa below 3.6? It's kinda telling you you're wasting a bid. Don't mean to be a dick, but this is a prestige whore industry, having latin after your degree matters to those firms. I doubt WE will really save you and get you a callback at something like davis polk.

Wait... median at Cornell is 3.5?

bk187 wrote:Wait... median at Cornell is 3.5?

No one knows, but anywhere between a 3.45-3.5, realistically speaking.

ajaxconstructions wrote:

bk187 wrote:Wait... median at Cornell is 3.5?

No one knows, but anywhere between a 3.45-3.5, realistically speaking.

I still think a bit lower than that, but 3.4-3.5.

And OP is completely wasting bids at Kirkland, Ropes, and probably a whole slough of others. Not only would that be a waste of your bids OP (thereby screwing you out of firms you actually have a chance at landing), but you're screwing up other people's bidding as well in so doing.

My suggestion: no more than 1 firm with an average higher than .1 above your GPA in your top 5 bids.

ETA: This is why day 3 is such a shitshow- everyone is going to try and put Kirkland at 1, and it'll be completely random chance who gets a screener there, Shearman, and Linklaters. I don't even know if it's worth going to day 3 if this is indicative.

Also you should be bidding a lot more firms than 12 a day. You want at LEAST 15. Bear in mind a lot of the more selective firms will be easier to get further down the list, whereas the less elective firms will actually be more competitive to get slots.

OP here. Thanks for the advice.

Just want to give myself a shot. Maybe I was too optimistic.

Bid on every single firm you would consider working at. It won't give you a huge advantage but the lottery system is weird and sometimes you luck out. I got a screener and callback with a firm I bid 23 last year. Getting that 20 minute slot gives you much more of an advantage than dropping off your resume at a hospitality suite.

Anonymous User wrote:Bid on every single firm you would consider working at. It won't give you a huge advantage but the lottery system is weird and sometimes you luck out. I got a screener and callback with a firm I bid 23 last year. Getting that 20 minute slot gives you much more of an advantage than dropping off your resume at a hospitality suite.

Was that highly selective, moderately selective, or flexible firm?

Where does a 3.2 put me in terms of ranking here at Cornell?

Anonymous User wrote:Where does a 3.2 put me in terms of ranking here at Cornell?

Probably bottom third.

Arbiter213 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Where does a 3.2 put me in terms of ranking here at Cornell?

Probably bottom third.

That low, shit. I've been mass mailing firms and telling them I was somewhere below median but not the bottom third.

You should not be telling firms your perception of your rank in the class. Either your school ranks or it doesn't. I went to a school that similarly does not rank students.

They already know what 1L GPAs mean at Cornell. You are just speculating and it does not make you look good. Either you are correct and get no benefit because you are telling them what they already know. Or you are incorrect and you risk looking like you are either careless or trying to misrepresent a material fact.

attractive_NUisance wrote:You should not be telling firms your perception of your rank in the class. Either your school ranks or it doesn't. I went to a school that similarly does not rank students.

They already know what 1L GPAs mean at Cornell. You are just speculating and it does not make you look good. Either you are correct and get no benefit because you are telling them what they already know. Or you are incorrect and you risk looking like you are either careless or trying to misrepresent a material fact.

I only answered in response to their question. A couple of firms have e-mailed me back asking what my class rank was. I just told them it was somewhere between a 3.35 and a 3.5, a firm then asked what my ranking was based on that and I just told them below median but probably higher than the bottom third. It's not like I put it on my cover letter.

Anonymous User wrote:

attractive_NUisance wrote:You should not be telling firms your perception of your rank in the class. Either your school ranks or it doesn't. I went to a school that similarly does not rank students.

They already know what 1L GPAs mean at Cornell. You are just speculating and it does not make you look good. Either you are correct and get no benefit because you are telling them what they already know. Or you are incorrect and you risk looking like you are either careless or trying to misrepresent a material fact.

I only answered in response to their question. A couple of firms have e-mailed me back asking what my class rank was. I just told them it was somewhere between a 3.35 and a 3.5, a firm then asked what my ranking was based on that and I just told them below median but probably higher than the bottom third. It's not like I put it on my cover letter.

OK that's fine I guess - its weird they asked you that. No one asked me when I massmailed a few years ago.

you're already mass mailing? did you guys already find out what journal you'll be on?

Anonymous User wrote:you're already mass mailing? did you guys already find out what journal you'll be on?

No. Journal placement won't come out until mid July. But with a 3.2 GPA it's entirely reasonable to believe he won't get on a journal.

Rising Cornell 3L here. I generally think being agressive with bidding can certainly be justified--I was around your GPA and it worked out OK. But I have the following observations about your list:

(1) If you are going to bid on the magic circle firms you should have some sort of international profile: additional languages or int'l WE or whatever. (This doesn't really apply to clifford chance.) Their classes are small and the firms have a profile. It's also my impression that the CB-offer ratio at some firms is lower than average.

(2) If you are going to bid on V10s, you better have a reason to believe you'll outperform your GPA. Whether you have some amazing work experience, a technical degree, are a fantastic interviewer, have a recommender with some cache going to bat for you, it's gonna take something more than being median at Cornell.

(3) You need to include some safeties close to the top of your lists. Barring what I wrote in (2), above, I don't see you realistically getting offers from any of the firms you have rated top 3 on any of your days. That will leave you with about 2-3 interviews per day to get CBs and offers, meaning you are setting yourself up for failure. You need to play the numbers by maximizing your CBs to ensure getting an offer. Trust me, you don't want to end up with everything riding on one CB.

Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions.