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NYU - 3.0X 1L gpa (bottom 1/3)
URM, lots of corporate work experience before law school, solid interviewing skills (practice interview feedback)

So our OCI system gives us 50 bids, it is a lottery system. My career services office was saying that if a firm has less than 100 interview slots, to put them in the first 25 bids to be safer. The thing I have noticed so far is that almost all of the firms that I am bidding on have less than 100 slots. If someone who understands the process better than I do would be willing to elaborate, can you help me out with the following:

Given my low gpa, I went to OCS and figured out the least grade-selective firms from what their data showed. For the firms that have more than 100 interview slots, is bidding them 25-50 too risky to ensure an interview, or is OCS' advice sound?

Also, for bids 25-50, does it makes more sense to bid on firms that might be considered outside of my gpa range, but with lots of interview slots? I am considering bidding on them because the other firms that I would bid 25-50 have low interview slots (either 41 or 21 for almost all). Do you guys have any idea if it makes more sense to bid on firms that are in my gpa range vs. high interview slots but higher gpa cutoffs?

I have read the usual logic to aim for large classes, however I already have the "less grade selective" big firms on my list, so my question is if I should be going for more "reaches."

Thanks everyone

Anonymous User wrote:NYU - 3.0X 1L gpa (bottom 1/3)
URM, lots of corporate work experience before law school, solid interviewing skills (practice interview feedback)

So our OCI system gives us 50 bids, it is a lottery system. My career services office was saying that if a firm has less than 100 interview slots, to put them in the first 25 bids to be safer. The thing I have noticed so far is that almost all of the firms that I am bidding on have less than 100 slots. If someone who understands the process better than I do would be willing to elaborate, can you help me out with the following:

Given my low gpa, I went to OCS and figured out the least grade-selective firms from what their data showed. For the firms that have more than 100 interview slots, is bidding them 25-50 too risky to ensure an interview, or is OCS' advice sound?

Also, for bids 25-50, does it makes more sense to bid on firms that might be considered outside of my gpa range, but with lots of interview slots? I am considering bidding on them because the other firms that I would bid 25-50 have low interview slots (either 41 or 21 for almost all). Do you guys have any idea if it makes more sense to bid on firms that are in my gpa range vs. high interview slots but higher gpa cutoffs?

I have read the usual logic to aim for large classes, however I already have the "less grade selective" big firms on my list, so my question is if I should be going for more "reaches."

Thanks everyone

I would focus mainly on firms that will potentially hire you. Firms that are less selective are going to be hard to get screeners with no matter what. I would make sure to have all of the firms that are less selective that you like in your top 20. Of course if they have more than 100 slots put them lower, but, for example, I wouldn't leave out a firm like Chadbourne & Parke or SRZ just because they have more than 100 slots. Don't put a firm that you could get that also has 100+ slots in the 25-50 range just because another firm you like a lot less has fewer slots.

Anonymous User wrote: Given my low gpa, I went to OCS and figured out the least grade-selective firms from what their data showed. For the firms that have more than 100 interview slots, is bidding them 25-50 too risky to ensure an interview, or is OCS' advice sound?

Shoot me a private message - I have a similar GPA so I think it'll help us both to share what OCS told us (hopefully they told us similar things?).