Big Law GPA gpa floors? Forum

[Anonymous User]

How do you find out the gpa floors for v100s? Assuming there's no exceptional factors at play - do firms publish a gpa floor? I'm median at T14 and don't want to waste bids on firms that will absolutely not consider me.

[thesealocust]

Firms definitely have "floors" that it's rare to hire beneath from certain schools, but (a) they don't publish it and (b) there are always exceptions.

Your best bet is to get data from your school.

[desertlaw]

How do you find out the gpa floors for v100s? Assuming there's no exceptional factors at play - do firms publish a gpa floor? I'm median at T14 and don't want to waste bids on firms that will absolutely not consider me.

Depends on what school you're at in terms of how low your grades can get. And also depends on how much info your Career Services office will give you. There are past TLS threads about which firms are grade-picky and which aren't. There's usually a summary thread of OCI results each year that you can get some idea from. A lot of it is word-of-mouth and lots of TLS digging. Finding out things like Skadden and Davis Polk aren't THAT grade sensitive compared to a place like Covington or SullCrom or Wachtell or Gibson Dunn. It will also depend on the market you're going to. Median in NYC is different than trying to go to DC with median.

EDIT: I apparently was wrong about GDC.

[Anonymous User]

GDC has a 3.4 GPA floor below which they will not hire from UVA. Not sure about other schools.

[Anonymous User]

GDC has a 3.4 GPA floor below which they will not hire from UVA. Not sure about other schools.

Sounds accurate for non-DC offices; the floor for DC is certainly higher.

[shock259]

Your school is the best/only resource for this. Assuming you have a decent OCI program (T14, plus a few others), then your school should have all of this data for you.

[kalvano]

Firms tend to have different floors for the schools they recruit from because of the different curves. For instance, at a T14 the curve is much higher than it is at SMU, but large firms still come to both. So while they may not hire below, say, a 3.5 at NW or UVA (I don't know curves there, so that's a totally random number), at SMU it would be very difference since the curve is 3.0 - 3.1.

So, as others have said, your school should have all of this information.

[Old Gregg]

Firms tend to have different floors for the schools they recruit from because of the different curves. For instance, at a T14 the curve is much higher than it is at SMU, but large firms still come to both. So while they may not hire below, say, a 3.5 at NW or UVA (I don't know curves there, so that's a totally random number), at SMU it would be very difference since the curve is 3.0 - 3.1.

So, as others have said, your school should have all of this information.

Also because some schools are ranked far below others...

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

Firms tend to have different floors for the schools they recruit from because of the different curves. For instance, at a T14 the curve is much higher than it is at SMU, but large firms still come to both. So while they may not hire below, say, a 3.5 at NW or UVA (I don't know curves there, so that's a totally random number), at SMU it would be very difference since the curve is 3.0 - 3.1.

So, as others have said, your school should have all of this information.

Also because some schools are ranked far below others...

Yeah no way he knew that. Super comment. Very useful.

[Anonymous User]

Some firms are also bizarrely practice group specific. One firm I was at had a cutoff for my T14 of 3.7 for one group, 3.2 for two others, and 3.0 for a fourth. It really mattered for them as to which group you mentioned in your cover letter/screener.