Bottom 75th Percentile ... Now What? Forum

[Anonymous User]

What are my options? Most OCI firms won't consider me at this GPA. I'm bottom 75th percentile at IU Bloomington.

[bdubs]

Drop out

[Anonymous User]

Drop out

Really?

[Ruxin1]

Drop out

Really?

How much is your COA per year?

[Anonymous User]

Drop out

Really?

How much is your COA per year?

Full ride (in-state) no stips. ~15k a year.

[bdubs]

Drop out

Really?

How much is your COA per year?

Full ride (in-state) no stips. ~15k a year.

Even with a full tuition scholarship it's probably still a bad idea. School always costs money because you can't work and have to pay for your living expenses. The bottom 25% at IUB is not going to get you a job that will make up for 2 years of foregone income.

[Anonymous User]

Drop out

Even with a full tuition scholarship it's probably still a bad idea. School always costs money because you can't work and have to pay for your living expenses. The bottom 25% at IUB is not going to get them a job that will make up for 2 years of foregone income.

What if I can raise my GPA?

[pinkcamellia]

Drop out

Really?

How much is your COA per year?

Full ride (in-state) no stips. ~15k a year.

Unless this is your life dream and you can do nothing else but become a lawyer, and you have awesome connections that will get you a job to service your debt, and you have no undergraduate debt whatsoever, you should probably drop out.

[Anonymous User]

Drop out

Really?

How much is your COA per year?

Full ride (in-state) no stips. ~15k a year.

Unless this is your life dream and you can do nothing else but become a lawyer, and you have awesome connections that will get you a job to service your debt, and you have no undergraduate debt whatsoever, you should probably drop out.[/quote]

I want to stay instate and I think I can probably get to median by graduation.

[top30man]

Drop out

Really?

How much is your COA per year?

Full ride (in-state) no stips. ~15k a year.

If OP has a useless undergrad he may as well finish with such low COA. Also relevant, do you have ug debt?

[Anonymous User]

Also: Should I even bother to try at OCI? Was thinking of Frost Brown Todd and Dinsmore Shohl. I just won't list my GPA. I was in the play this year and did some other extracurricular.

[Anonymous User]

If OP has a useless undergrad he may as well finish with such low COA. Also relevant, do you have ug debt?

No UG debt.

[pinkcamellia]

If OP has a useless undergrad he may as well finish with such low COA. Also relevant, do you have ug debt?

No UG debt.

It's up to you, OP. No one can tell you what to do here. Even if you're at median by graduation, it's not a great spot to be in. Good jobs will be hiring this fall, and you don't have great, or even good grades (sorry). I think you should drop out and start paying your debt, but top30man's advice might also work if you REALLY want to be a lawyer. Get ready to hustle.

[guinness]

ff

[Ruxin1]

If OP has a useless undergrad he may as well finish with such low COA. Also relevant, do you have ug debt?

No UG debt.

It's up to you, OP. No one can tell you what to do here. Even if you're at median by graduation, it's not a great spot to be in. Good jobs will be hiring this fall, and you don't have great, or even good grades (sorry). I think you should drop out and start paying your debt, but top30man's advice might also work if you REALLY want to be a lawyer. Get ready to hustle.

Biglaw is really out no matter what?

Are you serious, you know like 10% of all law students get Biglaw right...

[pinkcamellia]

If OP has a useless undergrad he may as well finish with such low COA. Also relevant, do you have ug debt?

No UG debt.

It's up to you, OP. No one can tell you what to do here. Even if you're at median by graduation, it's not a great spot to be in. Good jobs will be hiring this fall, and you don't have great, or even good grades (sorry). I think you should drop out and start paying your debt, but top30man's advice might also work if you REALLY want to be a lawyer. Get ready to hustle.

Biglaw is really out no matter what?

I think at this point you're trolling, so I'm out.

[Aberzombie1892]

As long as you accept that you may not ever be "hired" by someone and are okay with that, then staying wouldn't be a bad choice.

[yuzu]

I'm a bit confused by "bottom 75th percentile." Are you in the bottom 25 percent of the class (e.g. "25th percentile") or are you just below the top 25 percent (e.g. the "bottom 75 percent" or the "75th percentile")? I will assume you're in the 25th percentile. (Otherwise you'd be in better shape!)

As to the question at hand, it seems like you can still reasonably be a lawyer if you want to: you won't have crushing debt, and you can probably find some kind of legal job, though probably not biglaw. If you want to keep going, you can. You've got two years to improve your grades.

I think the usual TLS point is that $200k of costs + no biglaw = bad economics. Your situation is different: you don't have $200k of costs and you may be OK with a non-biglaw career. (Presumably, given IUB's placement statistics, you considered the possibility of not getting biglaw.)

That said, if you have other interests and don't want to do law anymore, then the next two years would be much better spent working towards other goals.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a bit confused by "bottom 75th percentile." Are you in the bottom 25 percent of the class (e.g. "25th percentile") or are you just below the top 25 percent (e.g. the "bottom 75 percent" or the "75th percentile")? I will assume you're in the 25th percentile. (Otherwise you'd be in better shape!)

As to the question at hand, it seems like you can still reasonably be a lawyer if you want to: you won't have crushing debt, and you can probably find some kind of legal job, though probably not biglaw. If you want to keep going, you can. You've got two years to improve your grades.

I think the usual TLS point is that $200k of costs + no biglaw = bad economics. Your situation is different: you don't have $200k of costs and you may be OK with a non-biglaw career. (Presumably, given IUB's placement statistics, you considered the possibility of not getting biglaw.)

That said, if you have other interests and don't want to do law anymore, then the next two years would be much better spent working towards other goals.

I'm in between 25-30 % bottom in the class.

I meant in the future no big law? Can't work to it? Not from out of LS.

[pinkcamellia]

I'm a bit confused by "bottom 75th percentile." Are you in the bottom 25 percent of the class (e.g. "25th percentile") or are you just below the top 25 percent (e.g. the "bottom 75 percent" or the "75th percentile")? I will assume you're in the 25th percentile. (Otherwise you'd be in better shape!)

As to the question at hand, it seems like you can still reasonably be a lawyer if you want to: you won't have crushing debt, and you can probably find some kind of legal job, though probably not biglaw. If you want to keep going, you can. You've got two years to improve your grades.

I think the usual TLS point is that $200k of costs + no biglaw = bad economics. Your situation is different: you don't have $200k of costs and you may be OK with a non-biglaw career. (Presumably, given IUB's placement statistics, you considered the possibility of not getting biglaw.)

That said, if you have other interests and don't want to do law anymore, then the next two years would be much better spent working towards other goals.

I'm in between 25-30 % bottom in the class.

I meant in the future no big law? Can't work to it? Not from out of LS.

You can't work to Biglaw. And you're top 25%? Jesus, I thought you were bottom 25%. Stay. You probably won't get Biglaw but you will likely get a job.

[Anonymous User]

I'm at the BOTTOM 25-30% hoping to get to MEDIAN.
I was asking if I should even bother with OCI or if I COULD work my way to biglaw in my career.

[Anonymous User]

If you are not trolling and are serious about wanting to stay in school, stop worrying about your grades. Hell, don't bother going to class. Do the bare minimum to get a law degree. In the next two years, find a local solo attorney who will let you intern/shadow them for free. Learn skills like how to collect debts from clients, how to handle small claims, etc. Nobody is going to hire you, so use these two years to learn how to actually be an attorney, because you're going to need to open up your own shop after you graduate and law school will teach you nothing about doing that. Make contacts in the local solo bar and, when you graduate, find someone who will rent you office space in exchange for handling a few matters and will refer you cases that are too small to be worth their time.

Forget the word biglaw exists. You will never see the inside of a biglaw office unless you're sweeping the floors or delivering the coffee.

[Myself]

.

[Anonymous User]

If you are not trolling and are serious about wanting to stay in school, stop worrying about your grades. Hell, don't bother going to class. Do the bare minimum to get a law degree. In the next two years, find a local solo attorney who will let you intern/shadow them for free. Learn skills like how to collect debts from clients, how to handle small claims, etc. Nobody is going to hire you, so use these two years to learn how to actually be an attorney, because you're going to need to open up your own shop after you graduate and law school will teach you nothing about doing that. Make contacts in the local solo bar and, when you graduate, find someone who will rent you office space in exchange for handling a few matters and will refer you cases that are too small to be worth their time.

Forget the word biglaw exists. You will never see the inside of a biglaw office unless you're sweeping the floors or delivering the coffee.

Harsh, but ok. I have some thinking to do. Now what to do with an English major and a year of crap law school...

[Anonymous User]

Hi:

Big law is not really an option at all so you should forget about. The only "big" firm that would take you would be a soul crushing insurance defense mill. Working your way into big law isn't really a thing. People already in big law just lateral to better or worse firms.

That being said, I think you should stick it out through OCI and target only mid & small firms in secondary markets. If it's Christmas and it looks like there is still no chance of getting a job, then drop out.

You're going for free right? If you don't care about missing a year of income then don't worry about it. If you have connections to firms like FBT, then use them.